Me likes The Flow. The Flow is Good. The Flow is Wiiiiiise. Yes, you must go with The Flow(, dude).

For those of you (all two!) who haven’t been paying attention to the wonderful and mundane that I typically write about here at This is Daniel! (.com), you probably might have missed my occassional references to, and applauding of, the site 43 Folders. The site is ooooooglity good, and if you like feeling productive, reading the site is another good way to feel like you’re productive without actually doing something productive. Bonus points if you’re reading the site on a Mac, because Merlin Mann (the site’s author; like me) loves Macs, and is on a constant search for making the most of his. I recently started using the Kinkless GTD method because of Merlin’s great impression of it, and am loving it.

The latest tidbit over there now is on the subject of Flow: the mental state of concentration that occurs when action and awareness combine to “get things done.” Go ahead, click on over there. It’s a fascinating read. I love the eight enumerated elements articulated by Csikszentmihalyi, as quoted by Merlin.

As Csikszentmihalyi sees it, there are components of an experience of flow that can be specifically enumerated; he presents eight:

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernable).
2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time - our subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is not too easy or too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.

Not all of these components are needed for flow to be experienced.

I love the feeling of Flow – it’s surely something you’ve experienced. I just felt all eight components about half an hour ago, as I skipped into that trance-like state of mind I love to find myself in when I need to write. In this case, I basically wrote out a several-page television pitch for an unscripted kid’s TV show that I want to explore the possibility of selling. I felt completely absorbed by it as I was writing; it’s like you don’t exist, but only the thing your mind is swimming in does. My mind is usually high in the sky, but it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for me to concentrate on a topic (chalk that up to adult ADD) and truly enter a state of Flow.

I can’t say I understand how Flow works that much – though I love T.E. Lawrence’s sound words when he wrote “happiness is absorption” – but I do know I like it. Reminds me of sea turtles.

Yes, very good.