by Susan A Jackson, performance psychologist, Psyche.co

That moment of sweet immersion in the task at hand: that’s flow. With some strategy, you can experience it more often

Have you ever been so completely absorbed in what you were doing that nothing else seemed to matter? Where your total focus on your task or activity led you to perform effortlessly, without self-consciousness?

These moments of complete absorption – when you’re so immersed in what you’re doing that everything else (including your ‘inner critic’) falls away – are among the most rewarding experiences we can have. Psychologists call it ‘flow’, and it is more accessible than you might realise. In this Guide, I’m going to share with you some practical strategies for experiencing more flow in your life.

The idea of flow as a universal human experience was put forward by the Hungarian American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. As a researcher of intrinsic motivation, Csikszentmihalyi had studied artists to understand how they spent hours, days and weeks on developing their paintings, only to put them aside once finished and move on to the next one. After this initial study, Csikszentmihalyi turned to people engaged in diverse activities – from basketball to chess, from dancing to surgery – and found they described their experiences of total task-engagement in very similar ways, often using the word ‘flow’.

Flow is an optimal state of consciousness. In flow, we feel at one with the activity. In flow terms, this is known as action-awareness merging. For an actor, there ceases to be a separation between the character being played and the self. For a musician, this oneness can be experienced as a sense that the instrument being played is an extension of their body.

This sense of action and awareness merging comes about from the total focus we bring to the activity. Total concentration on the task at hand is probably the clearest sign of being in flow, and is often what lifts the quality of performance to the next level.

When in flow, we have a sense of control over our actions and lose any fear of failure that might otherwise be present when engaging in an important performance. We also let go of any concern for how others may be perceiving us. This loss of self-consciousness is one of the most liberating aspects of flow. For example, in giving a presentation, we let go of thoughts about how well we are doing, and what the audience may be thinking of us up on stage, and instead we become absorbed by the task in front of us – a sure-fire way to let go of the common fear of public speaking.

Sometimes, during a flow experience, we lose track of time. Reading an enthralling book, you may finally put it down and be surprised that hours have passed. The way time passes in flow is perceptibly different to the actual passage of time. Sometimes, a captivating hour-long event seems to be over in a matter of minutes. At other times, such as when performing complex movements in a small space of time, you might feel that you have all the time in the world to complete the action. Standing at bat to a fast-pitch softball, as we take swing, we are so attuned to the ball that we can see the seams on it as it rotates straight towards the sweet spot on our bat.

Flow is highly rewarding and motivates us to keep engaging in an activity. This characteristic of flow is known as an autotelic, or self-rewarding, experience. Over time, if you can find flow in your work, hobby or creative endeavours, you will create for yourself a rich and meaningful life. And, ultimately, it is the quality of experience we have as we go through life that matters, as so eloquently put by Csikszentmihalyi in his paper ‘Toward a Psychology of Optimal Experience’ (1982): ‘It is useful to remember occasionally that life unfolds as a chain of subjective experiences Ö The quality of these experiences determines whether and to what extent life was worth living.’

Find more flow in your life

While flow may seem elusive, it follows from aspects of your experience that you can control to some degree (and that you can develop skills for, to improve your level of control over time). The following strategies can help you create flow-conducive conditions in your life.

Choose the right activity

To access flow, you will need to devote considerable time to a particular activity to develop the skill level required to become fully absorbed in it. If you choose an activity that you feel you ‘ought’ to do, you will find it much more difficult to take part in it on a regular basis. So, to make it more likely that you will succeed, a great starting point is to find an activity (or activities) that you already love or enjoy, or that you think you will probably enjoy once you get started.

Find the sweet spot of difficulty

Flow relies on a dynamic balance of skill and difficulty. For flow to occur, ideally the task is challenging and the skills you bring to bear on it are high, extending you beyond your usual, or average, level. To keep experiencing flow, the challenge resides just a little bit beyond your current skill level, keeping you engaged and lifting your performance. In everyday life, it is tempting to sit in a comfort zone – for instance, to play tunes on the piano that are well within your abilities, or to play opponents at tennis who are at your same level. However, achieving flow requires being prepared to constantly stretch yourself – to have a go at a difficult piece or to challenge a superior player – so that you find that immersive sweet spot of difficulty.

Have clear ‘process’ goals

When you are about to embark on another session of your chosen activity, flow is more likely if you set yourself specific goals. Doing so will give your mind specific points of focus that will keep you on task. Avoid vague ‘outcome goals’ (such as ‘finish playing the piece’ or ‘win the match’) and instead set yourself ‘process goals’ – that is, the specific actions you will take while taking part. For example, in playing a piece of music, rather than aiming for a perfect rendition from start to finish, you could focus on improving the transitions at important moments. In a game of tennis, you could focus on your grip on the racket, your stroke, footwork or positioning. The idea is to set process goals that keep you focused on your performance moment to moment, instead of jumping ahead and being distracted by arbitrary achievements.

Get feedback

Seek out and be open to feedback on your performance while you are engaged in an activity. This feedback will support you in your goals, providing relevant input as to how you are making progress towards them. Feedback can come in many forms. If you have a supportive teacher or peers, that’s ideal. But you can also create your own feedback. For instance, to take the example of learning a new musical piece, you can tune into the level of ease (vs tension) in your spine, shoulders and hands; listen intently to what you hear as you play; and notice and learn from any mistakes you make along the way. Similarly, during tennis, you can pay attention to how subtle shifts in your grip affect the spin in your shots; notice how changes to your positioning improve your return accuracy; and watch how alterations to your strokes affect your opponent’s reactions.

Maintain focus

Being able to direct your attention to what you’re doing – and hold it there – is foundational to the experience of flow. When I and other researchers have asked people to recount their flow experiences, the aspect they cite most often is being totally focused.

The sense of action-awareness merging that I mentioned earlier is a direct result of becoming so in tune with what you are doing that you cease to see yourself as separate from it. Other key aspects of the flow experience also stem from how you pay attention to the task. Staying focused on aspects of it that reside within your control can fuel a sense of control; and when you have no attention left to put into anything but the task at hand, including concerns about yourself or time, this can contribute to a loss of self-consciousness and a sense of time passing differently. Finally, in a society that reinforces constant shifting of attention and distractibility, the satisfaction of sustaining your attention on one thing can contribute to the experience being autotelic – that is, highly enjoyable and intrinsically motivating.

Trust yourself

The final ingredient that is often important for experiencing more flow is the ability to trust yourself, not least because it will help you perform consistently at that optimal difficulty level that is just beyond your baseline capabilities.

In my work with high-performing individuals, I’ve seen how fragile this trust can be, even for people who have reached an elite level. Unfortunately, when trust in your abilities falters, then your focus breaks down. Worry takes up the space that would otherwise be occupied by attention to the task. Then, instead of experiencing a merging of action and awareness, you will encounter the unwelcome presence of self-consciousness.

Whenever you feel your trust is lacking, one way to bring yourself back from the precipice of self-doubt is to choose a relevant and reliable skill in your possession and focus on executing it. For instance, if doubt grips you while playing a challenging piece on the piano, consider taking a break to rehearse a piece you have mastered previously. If you begin to question yourself at the tennis court, return to some tried and tested serves or defensive shots to rebuild your confidence.

Longer term, if you don’t already practise mindfulness, then developing this skill will be highly beneficial to experiencing more flow, especially in high-pressure situations. Mindfulness is all about bringing the wandering mind back to the present moment. It will help you to build trust by shifting your focus from unhelpful thoughts back to the task at hand. A previous Psyche Guide by Gill Johnson and Willem Kuyken offers advice on how to get started.

Final notes

Csikszentmihalyi’s first book on flow was titled Beyond Boredom and Anxiety (1975), reflecting that this optimal experience lies between two often unwanted subjective experiences. The challenge-skill balance model that defines flow can help us to move from either of these experiences and towards flow. For example, if you feel anxious, it suggests you perceive the challenge as too high for your skills. Conversely, if you feel bored, it suggests the challenge is too easy, causing your attention to wander, and the experience is unsatisfying.

As you embark on your activity or performance, it can be helpful to assess the challenge of the task in front of you, and the skill set you bring to the challenge. Where it is possible to modify the environment, challenging yourself can prevent boredom. Conversely, lowering the challenge can allow you to sidestep anxiety. In situations where the challenge is not easy to alter (eg, a compulsory exam), identifying the skills you need to succeed, preparing well, and then trusting in these skills at the time of performance, will make it more likely that you access flow.

Remember, to experience flow involves a willingness to step outside your comfort zone, into a place where a bit of uncertainty resides. Playing it safe may work for you, but over time it is a limiting perspective that shrinks your potential to find flow. By being OK with a level of uncertainty as you embrace challenges, you are more likely to find not only flow but a deeper sense of engagement with your life.

Susan A Jackson is a researcher, author and performance psychology consultant, who has worked in the field of flow since the mid-1980s. She is the author of Experiencing Flow: Life Beyond Boredom and Anxiety (2024), and co-author, with flow founder Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, of Flow in Sports (1999)

Keywords; meditation, mindfulness