How Often Do You Get Into Flow?
Losing track of time at work, over the washing-up and in your free hours
Flow is the state in which you are so absorbed in something difficult but manageable that you forget yourself and the clock. Csikszentmihalyi, who named it, found it in climbers and surgeons, but also in factory workers and people cooking dinner. Some people slip into it often and others rarely, and the tendency turns out to be linked to personality rather than to intelligence. Where you find it - at work, in chores, in free time - is as revealing as how often.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about a typical recent month. For the chores questions, think of cooking, cleaning, repairs and errands - the unglamorous work of keeping life running.
What it measures
How often you experience flow in three areas of daily life, as in the Swedish Flow Proneness Questionnaire: work or study, maintenance activities such as chores and errands, and leisure. Each bar combines the ingredients Csikszentmihalyi described - a challenge that matches your skill, clear goals, full concentration, a sense of control and enjoyment. It differs from mindfulness, which is calm awareness of the present rather than absorption in a task, and from motivation tests, which ask why you do things rather than how doing them feels.
Based on: Swedish Flow Proneness Questionnaire (Ullén et al., 2012), based on Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory
Possible results
Work and study
Absorption in your job, your studies or your main occupation.
Chores and everyday tasks
Absorption in cooking, cleaning, repairs and errands.
Leisure
Absorption in hobbies, sport, music, games and free time.
Common questions
What is flow, exactly?
Flow is a state of complete absorption in an activity, described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Its classic ingredients are a challenge that matches your skill, clear goals, immediate feedback, deep concentration, a sense of control, loss of self-consciousness and an altered sense of time. The activity becomes rewarding in itself, which is why people describe these moments among the best of their lives.
Is flow the same as mindfulness?
No - in one respect they are almost opposites. Mindfulness involves stepping back and noticing your experience, including your own thoughts; flow involves being so involved in a task that self-awareness drops away. Both can be pleasant and useful, and Quinthea measures mindfulness in a separate test.
Why do I get flow in hobbies but not at work?
Usually because hobbies are chosen, have clear goals and let you set the difficulty, while many jobs have vague goals, constant interruptions and tasks that are either trivial or overwhelming. Csikszentmihalyi's own studies found people reported flow at work surprisingly often, so the gap is not inevitable - it depends heavily on how the work is organised.
Can too much flow be a bad thing?
It can. Flow feels good whether or not the activity is good for you, so it can be found in endless games or in work that crowds out rest and relationships. Csikszentmihalyi himself stressed that flow is not good in itself. The useful question is not only how often you are absorbed, but in what, and at the expense of what.
Sources
- Ullén, F., de Manzano, Ö., Almeida, R., Magnusson, P. K. E., Pedersen, N. L., Nakamura, J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Madison, G. (2012). Proneness for psychological flow in everyday life: Associations with personality and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.003
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row.
An honest note The statements are Quinthea's own wording, adapted from the three domains of the Swedish Flow Proneness Questionnaire, so your scores cannot be compared with published norms. Flow proneness has been linked to emotional stability and conscientiousness, but not to intelligence. Most of the evidence comes from Swedish and other Western samples, and recalling past absorption is imperfect. A low score often reflects your circumstances - a fragmented job, a busy period at home - more than a fixed trait.
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