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When a task stretches your skills without overwhelming you, you can become so absorbed that time seems to disappear. Psychologists call this flow.

Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990

MindPhilosophy

The story behind the card

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist, developed the idea after interviewing painters, chess players, rock climbers and surgeons who described a strikingly similar state of total absorption. To study it beyond the interview room, he pioneered the experience sampling method: participants carried pagers that beeped at random points during the day, prompting them to note what they were doing and how absorbed they felt. He set out the full model in his 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Flow is more likely when the challenge matches your skills, the goal is clear, and you can tell how you are doing. Too little challenge tends toward boredom, and too much toward anxiety.

Türkçe oku
Bir iş seni tam kaldırabileceğin kadar zorladığında, kendini ona öyle kaptırırsın ki zaman adeta kaybolur. Psikolojide buna akış denir.
Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990

Macar asıllı Amerikalı psikolog Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi bu fikri ressamlarla, satranç oyuncularıyla, kaya tırmanıcılarıyla ve cerrahlarla yaptığı görüşmelerden geliştirdi; hepsi şaşırtıcı ölçüde benzer bir kendini işe bütünüyle verme hâli anlatıyordu. Bunu gündelik hayatta da incelemek için deneyim örneklemesi adlı bir yönteme öncülük etti: Katılımcılar yanlarında, gün içinde rastgele anlarda öten çağrı cihazları taşıdı ve cihaz her öttüğünde o an ne yaptıklarını, kendilerini işe ne kadar kaptırdıklarını not etti. Modelin tamamını 1990'da yayımlanan Flow (Akış) kitabında anlattı. Akış, işin zorluğu becerine denk düştüğünde, hedefin açık olduğunda ve nasıl gittiğini anında görebildiğinde daha kolay gelir. Zorluk çok azsa sıkılırsın, çok fazlaysa kaygılanırsın.

Sources and further reading

Image details

Illustration of a potter at work.

Background reading: Flow (psychology)
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