AE Files

JOSSEY-BASS PUBLISHERSSAN FRANCISCOBeyondBoredom andAnxietyMIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI1975
Named:
1975, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, University of Chicago
Source:
Beyond Boredom and Anxiety
Condition:
Challenge matched to skill

Flow is full absorption in a task. Action and awareness merge, the sense of time changes and the activity becomes its own reward. Csikszentmihalyi heard the same description from rock climbers, chess players, dancers and surgeons. They used the word flow for the feeling of being carried by the work.

The state has entry conditions. The goal is clear. Feedback is immediate. The challenge sits at the edge of the person’s skill. Below that edge the task is boring. Above it the task produces anxiety. In flow, attention is fully spent on one target and none is left over for the self or the clock.

FIG. 1 THE CHANNELFLOWANXIETYBOREDOMA1A2A3SKILLCHALLENGE

The Channel (1975)

Challenge runs up one axis and skill along the other. Flow sits on the diagonal where the two match. Skill grows with practice, so the task has to get harder for the person to stay in the channel.

The Pager (1977)

Csikszentmihalyi gave people electronic pagers that signaled at random moments through the day for a week. At each signal they wrote down what they were doing and how they felt. The method caught experience while it was happening.

FIG. 2 ONE DAY, ABOUT EIGHT SIGNALS0810121416182022AT THE SIGNALSAMPLE ENTRYACTIVITYRewriting a chapter.CHALLENGE7 of 9SKILL7 of 9RANDOM TIMES, ONE WEEK
FIG. 3 HIGH CHALLENGE, HIGH SKILL25507554%WORKING18%AT LEISURESHARE OF SIGNALS, 78 WORKERS

Work and Leisure (1989)

Workers carried pagers for a week. High challenge met high skill in 54 percent of the signals that caught them working and 18 percent of those that caught them at leisure. While working, they more often wished to be doing something else.

Deep Work

Next file · Practice
Deep WorkPractice NextScroll on for the next file