What is flow? - Deepstash

What is flow?

The term “flow” was coined by Dr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1960s. In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, he describes it as a highly focused mental state which facilitates productivity. In his research, Dr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that there was no correlation between money and happiness. Instead, the human brain is at its happiest when engaged in the meaningful pursuit of a goal.

32

193 reads

CURATED FROM

IDEAS CURATED BY

nesslabs

Ness Labs provides content, coaching, courses and community to help makers put their minds at work. Apply evidence-based strategies to your daily life, discover the latest in neuroscience research, and connect with fellow curious minds.

Have you ever felt like you were in a zen-like meditative state while working, mentally free to execute and apply your skills with no distracting thought whatsoever inside your mind? Feeling entirely absorbed in an activity? This is called being in the zone or getting in the flow.Those expressions are often used about athletes performing at their peak, with all their attention focused on the task at hand. No concern, no conscience of time—just pure, invigorating work driven by heightened awareness.

The idea is part of this collection:

Managing Email Effectively

Learn more about productivity with this collection

How to avoid email overload

How to organize your inbox

How to write effective emails

Related collections

Similar ideas to What is flow?

What Flow is

What Flow is

Flow is an optimal state of consciousness, when you feel and perform your best. It’s the moment of total absorption.

Time speeds up or slows down like a freeze-frame effect. Mental and physical ability go through the roof, and the brain takes in more information per second, processin...

Improvisation and flow

Improvised art forms, such as music, acting, or comedy is an example of a flow state. Improvisation is a highly complex form of creative behaviour. The ability to improvise requires cognitive flexibility, divergent thinking and discipline-specific skills.

During music...

Placebo's as pleasing treatments: History of the concept

Placebo's as pleasing treatments: History of the concept

  • Plato's cure for headaches involved a leaf coupled with a charm. Without uttering the charm at the moment of application, the remedy was not effective. We would call Plato's "charm" a placebo.
  • In the 18th century, the term "placebo" was used to describe a d...

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Personalized microlearning

100+ Learning Journeys

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates