Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Wednesday 3rd November 2010 | 6 comments
I lost track of time. I was planning to attend the Melbourne Cup drinks at my office. I had plenty of time beforehand to finish off a presentation I'm preparing for December called Fearlessly Creating, for the Athena Network. In fact, I love putting slides and ideas together, so I got caught up in the activity and...
I just made it to drinks in time to grab a champagne and then the race was on.
I'm sure you've felt the same - getting so caught up in an activity that you lose track of time. The ancient Greeks clearly also knew about this, because they coined a name for these activities, autotelic from the Greek auto (self) and telos (goal/purpose). (In short, the activity is its own reward.)
A rather fabulous psychologist, with the equally fabulous name of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says that autotelic experiences are a key part of the state called flow, which I've blogged about here already.
What's interesting about this flow concept right now is that people are starting to connect the idea of flow with the current buzz about employee engagement. As writers like Dan Pink, in his recent book Drive says, encouraging flow activities in a workplace is a key indicator of engagement - it's about allowing people to work at the right level (challenging but achievable) and finding ways to make the work more enjoyable. Not rocket science, really.
And if all this sounds a bit airy fairy, with too much focus on process and not enough on results, a 2008 study showed that the urge to master new activities, the urge to find autotelic activities, is an excellent predictor of workplace productivity, too.
So what are your flow activities? How can you use them to increase satisfaction, attain mastery and generally conquer your universe?
Hi, Joanna. I think Penelope Trunk would like this post very much!
Editing documents to a set of clear guidelines makes the hours fly for me. So does making photo lenses on Squidoo.
The first activity earns me $120 per hour. The second, $6.23 per annum. So I have to watch myself.
Another point I'd make is that the advent of social media is interrupting my flow quite a bit these days.
I was unable to resist reading your post, but I should have kept trucking with the website I'm writing.
Seth Godin limits himself to set times for 'busywork'. It's a good idea, but jolly hard to implement.
Especially with content of your calibre! Best regards, P. :)
Thanks Paul, I have just filed a story for the Financial Review about 21C digital productivity tools. The last paragraph is about how the 'off' switch os still the most important productivity tool of all...but I am glad you did interrupt yourself long enough to share these comments with us :)
I had exactly the same experience as Paul... started one thing, thought, now I must read Joanna's latest words of wisdom, so broke the flow of one task to get in the flow with your words! Still, enjoyable, as ever... I can even feel the flow resonating through your words As a writer, the flow is always what we seek. But it's an illusive quality. I've found that if a flow is happening, I just have to listen to that and stop and get the words down, before the stream dries up. Thanks Joanna.
Claire, what a lovely comment, especially coming from such a great writer...I love how you say you have to listen to the flow, too. In my writing, I find if I actually read it aloud I get a good sense of flow and rhythm. Thanks!
A few weekends ago I sat down at my computer to catch up on some reading (I get way too many newsletters to my inbox). Some 5 1/2 hours later I got up and wondered where the time had gone! You see, I just love learning and expanding my mind and my understanding of the world we live in. So what many would have classed as a chore (especially on a weekend) was in fact a labour of love for me.
This state of flow is a significant part of what it means to "live a higher purpose life". I talk about building a "higher purpose business" but part of what this means is ensuring that your business activities serve your personal higher purpose.
So the challenge for us all is to find out "what floats our boat" - where we just love to spend time because it fulfils us. That's one of the best ways I know to live a life of flow.
David, that's so true. Thank you! I love my time checking on all the blogs and websites I follow (so long as I choose the time, and don't mindlessly click every time something lands in my inbox...)