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WO RLD-CHANGING IDEAS >>
Alex Honnold , the mountain-climbing star of Free Solo , ascends cliff faces like Yosemite ’ s El Capitan — 3,000 feet of vertical granite — without safety equipment . No ropes , no helmet ; only his hands , feet , and brain . What helps Honnold defy gravity ( and death )?
Legend has it that flow ( and amphetamines !) also aided Jack Kerouac in writing his final draft of On the Road , typing the entire novel on a 120-foot roll of paper in just three weeks . In his
advice to writers , Kerouac recommends that they “ struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind .” Fortunately , flow is not just for artists or athletes . We regular folk don ’ t have to climb a mountain or write a novel to experience flow ; it can be found while reading a good book , enjoying a deep conversation , playing video games — or even working at the office .
Flow is the experience of being “ completely engaged in a challenging activity ,” says Gary Gute , associate professor of applied human sciences at the University of Northern Iowa . When that engagement happens , he says , time is distorted , self-consciousness disappears , and you enjoy the experience so much you want to repeat it again and again .
Researchers at McKinsey & Company surveyed more than 5,000 business leaders on whether they and their teams have experienced a state of flow . The
executives reported that “ they and their employees are in the zone at work less than 10 percent of the time ,” but when they are , they estimate they ’ re five times more productive .
So how can you tap into flow , both at home and in the office , not only to get more work done but to get more enjoyment from it , too ?
The science of flow Flow has come to be known as a state of peak performance , but its origins lie not in optimization and productivity but in the study of happiness . The concept was first introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — the godfather of flow — while conducting research in the 1960s and ’ 70s on what makes people happy .
As part of his work , he spoke with hobbyists — painters , chess players , dancers , rock climbers — who were passionate about their activity without the promise of fame or fortune . During Csikszentmihalyi ’ s interviews , a common theme kept emerging : When they were in the right state of mind , the work would just flow out of them as if it were carried by a current . Painters and climbers didn ’ t have to force anything ; their tasks became effortless . Dancers and musicians talked of an almost out-of-body experience where they were unaware of themselves , their surroundings , or the passage of time . They performed the action not for any external validation but because it was rewarding in and of itself .
When people are in a state of flow , they appear to be in the “ sweet spot ” physio- logically .
Heart rate is higher in flow than when a task is too easy , but lower than when it ’ s deemed too hard . Similarly , cortisol levels are moderately elevated — high enough so that you ’ re alert and engaged but not so high that you feel overwhelmed . Generally , heart rate variability is low during flow , indicating a higher cognitive load , and breathing rate is elevated , with more deep breaths .
Though it ’ s tough to study a brain in flow , psychologists have been able to induce the experience in the lab using video games like Tetris and even by having people solve math problems .
The key , says Johannes Keller , head of the social psychology department at the University of Ulm in Germany , is to match the difficulty of the task to the person ’ s skill level . “ When participants worked on a mental arithmetic task and the difficulty level was continuously adapted to their performance level , you can actually see it in their brains ,” he says .