Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Are you in flow?



Artists, athletes, researchers, and others with a passion for their work or hobby know what it's like to be in a "flow" state. They lose track of time, and feel at one with with what they're doing. The flow state arises under certain conditions - just the right amount of challenge relative to the person's skill level - pushing it, but not too much. This graph shows the flow state in the upper right, and the feelings associated with other combinations of challenge and skill.

This graph is from this Wikipedia page, which I found in this note in this blog post by Merlin Mann on how to get past the obstacles that stop you from starting a creative or challenging project.