Flow

Flow: the psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was mentioned in a previous lecture. I decided to have a look into it, as mentioned in my previous post, after the lecture as I thought it would be beneficial to my practice. At the time, I didn't think this was relevant to subversion of my practice, however, after readings White's (2019) blog post I thought it may be useful.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist so the book is coming from a psychologist point of view rather than a creative one. When I researched the book I came across some videos that could be useful, as I was unable to get my hands on a copy at the time of searching.

The first video I watched was called the 'The Four Fs of Flow' and is linked below.

Flow is described as the optimal state of mind between boredom and anxiety. This is the state of mind where you will perform your best. When you experience flow you will be so engaged with a task that you will lose track of time. I believe I have experienced this when I am close to deadlines and I am really into the project I am working on.

The four factors of flow described in the video are; focus, freedom, feedback and four %.

Focus requires pure concentration. This, as previously discussed, is something I definitely struggle with. In order to achieve this, all distractions need to be removed. I have attempted to achieve this over the past weeks by wearing noise-cancelling headphones and completing a breathing exercise to calm myself before starting work. I regularly keep my phone out of sight anyway so I didn't need to worry about distractions from there.

Freedom requires you to let go of self-criticism to allow you to work at your full potential without the worry of it being wrong. It suggests to give yourself a time frame to work within and then you can adjust the work afterwards. I have been using the Pomodoro technique when working. The Pomodoro technique is a time management technique created by Francesco Cirillo. You work time is broken into 25-minute intervals with a 5-minute break after each. This allows me to work solidly knowing I will get a break. I think this helps prevent me from getting bored. While the timer is running, for 'freedom' to work, don't be critical or worry about mistakes. After the timer is finished you can come back to it. An example is that when I am writing these blog posts I will write solidly for 25 minutes and then correct any grammatical errors, or anything that doesn't make sense afterwards. This allows me to keep the flow of writing.

Feedback is important. In order to achieve your goal, you need to reflect on your work. I already do this when I am creating work but I have been starting to reflect more often. This makes sure I am following the correct path to answer my question. They suggest every hour to check in but I probably reflect every 4 sets of 25 mins of work.

Four % Challenge. In order to sit in that optimal state of mind mentioned at the beginning, you need to give yourself a challenge of 4% more than you can easily achieve. This is to prevent you from getting bored, cause the work is too easy, or prevent you from giving up because the challenge is too difficult. I challenged myself to write a reflective short story on subversion, which I will post soon.

The other video I watched on Flow was an animated summary. Flow is described in this video as a psychological state of mind when you are highly productive. I wondered if an increase in productivity would increase my creativity as well?

This video, much like the other one, suggests regular feedback however it also mentions that long-term feedback is needed. This feedback would be more goal specific and allows you to measure your overall progress. I have been looking back on my work every few blog posts to allow me to assess where I am at. As I got myself behind on posts earlier in the project I am filling in the gaps. However, I am always adding new bits that I have thought of and coming up with new ideas to keep the project moving. In terms of feedback, I have also been consulting with a peer and we have been giving each other feedback throughout the project. This has really helped cause discussing my ideas out loud has helped me when I have hit a wall with my work.

I have chosen to include this in my blog as I think maybe these could something I could discuss as a potential subversion of my working practice.

Bibliography.

One Percent Better (2017, January 11). Flow: The Psycology of Optimal Experimence by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Animated Book Summary. [Video]. Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1yqvuRoufc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=OnePercentBetter

Productivity Game (2019, February 21). The 4 Fs of Flow. [Video]. Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXD8QjpQrFc&ab_channel=ProductivityGame