Are you in a State of Flow?

I’ve discussed the concept of my ‘flow’ before, but recently I discovered that there is an actual state of mind or being known as ‘The Flow’ that has been psychologically researched multiple times. And I figured it would be good to provide some of the information around it, because this concept of the flow is actually incredibly beneficial not just to writers, but really anyone trying to do anything in their life. Seriously. It’s that important.

At any point in time, every single person is in a certain state of being, or state of mind. These can include: worry, apathy, boredom, anxiety, arousal, relaxation, and the Flow.

The flow and this idea that you are always in a state of mind comes from a psychology professor by the name of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (don’t ask me to pronounce that). He had a particular focus on the things like happiness, and improving the creative process. He even made a chart, which is below.

I, by no means, know everything or very much about this process, chart or the person who created it. This is all research done in my spare time on the subject, because I’ve talked about the Flow before and only just discovered it was a psychological word too.

The Flow as you can see above, intersects with a high level of skill and a high level of challenge. Making it both the most challenging and requiring a level of skill to achieve. I don’t fully agree with this table, but the way of achieving a state of flow is pretty accurate. Achieving a state of flow is when you are able to do the most work at maximum time management, and be glad to see that work. You have probably been in a state of flow without realizing it.

So, let’s start with what Flow is.

Have you ever just been so involved with a particular task that you are no longer paying attention to time? Or you just have to finish that task because you’ve set yourself on the path toward it. Or if you play video games, chances are you’ve been in a state of flow.

Flow as in the state of being is when you are so fully immersed into an activity that the only information you are processing in your mind is related to that task (Your mind can only process so much information at once).

There’s a lot of information I’m leaving out around this because otherwise this would be twenty pages long, but if you want more information you can pick up the book Finding Flow, which will discuss all the stuff I’m talking about (well most of it).

Now, as for achieving a state of flow, it can be done when performing any single task actively. This means things you do without really thinking about them, like brushing your teeth or taking a shower or eating breakfast often won’t work for a state of flow, you’ll be in some other state of mind (for that task, thinking about something specific while in the shower can be a state of flow).

Now, it wasn’t good enough to just say, oh some activities work and others don’t. There’s actually most recently been a set of conditions proposed that must be met to achieve your state of flow.

Those conditions are:

1. Knowing what you want to do

2. Knowing where you want to go (not necessarily physically)

3. Knowing how to do what you want to do

4. Knowing how well you are doing in the task

5. Perceiving that the Task is a high level of challenge

6. Perceiving that your skill level is high enough for the task

7. The Elimination of Distractions

When you take all these components into consideration for writing, there’s a few easy tips that can be provided to every writer to help them achieve a state of flow. All of these tips are things you should do before you actually begin writing, every time you go to write.

1. Decide on a writing goal for that day. Specifically for the amount of time you know you will have to sit there and write.

2. Map out the ideas you want to touch on writing. This could be as simple as you’ll write this story idea, or as complicated as devising an outline to work with, so you know exactly what you’ll be writing (at the very least on a generic level like this character will go here and discover this).

3. If you discover while mapping all this out, that you might need to research a name, or a certain topic, do it ahead of time so you have the knowledge in your head before you begin writing. But only research for what you are covering for that particular writing goal that day, no more.

4. When deciding on your writing goal, make sure you create a way to check how you are doing with it. Did you say you want to write 1,000 words that day? Checking words gives you a check on your goal. Maybe you went with ‘write the second chapter’ so use your map of how you wanted that chapter to go to determine how far along you are.

5. Make sure to always challenge yourself with your writing. But make sure the challenge is within what YOU consider your writing skill. If you aim for a goal of 7,000 words that day, but KNOW you only ever get to 2,000 words at max. Then you are setting yourself up for failure. Make the goal challenging but only just out of what you might think your reach is. If you can do 2,000 words, place your goal at 2,500 and you are more likely to see that challenge met than 7,000.

6. Believe in your skill. The only person who can ever completely destroy your push to write, is YOU. If you are constantly setting goals you can’t achieve, you start to think your writing skill is worse. You should know that writing takes practice. Even if you write your first novel, it will never be as good as your second, or third novel, because you’ve learned and grown since that first one. If you don’t believe in your writing skill, you’ll never get anywhere in writing. Confidence can do a lot for people.

7. REMOVE EVERY DISTRACTION. If you try to write on your computer and constantly keep stopping your writing to look at something online, you are not eliminating distractions, you are creating them. This is largely why I choose to still write with pencil and paper, away from a computer, because I will most certainly stop my writing to do something else when I’m on a computer unless I have something to follow like the things I already wrote on paper.

If you follow these particular tips, you are more likely to achieve a state of flow when it comes to your writing, and you’ll actually get more done and be happier with the quality of work you produce. I am not guaranteeing that you will suddenly start turning out tons of novels every couple of months, it’s largely up to you, what your perceived level of challenge is, and your perceived level of skill in writing is.

But these will definitely assist you. You can not go wrong with following these tips. Especially the removal of distractions and setting your writing goal each day. If you don’t at least do those things you’ll slack. It will happen, because you aren’t in a state of flow. And Flow is the best place to be when it comes to writing.

So get out there, and find your flow.