3 ms·
> The "flow" that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that prevents you from pausing to savor life amid the daily slurry of errands and alarms.
by alexchantavy 4y ago
> The "flow" that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that prevents you from pausing to savor life amid the daily slurry of errands and alarms.
This is a great sentence and I want to see it expanded on. I crave being in that flow state and enjoy what I do but it makes me very irritable to be interrupted and I realize needing this level of focus potentially takes me away from other aspects of life like spending time with my family. I’m wondering if others have dealt with these sorts of feelings. I love what I work on, sometimes to the detriment of other things and difficult for me to zoom out in the way described in the essay.
- conqueso 4y agoI enjoyed the piece and this is one part that I disagree with. As I understand it, being in a flow state simply means being totally absorbed by what you are doing during that time frame - it doesn't necessitate taking any more time away from other activities/priorities that you otherwise would if not in a flow state. I also enjoy working like this, and can relate to the feeling of frustration when being interrupted when the going's good. The most effective way I've found to avoid it is communicating that I'm "head down" and turn off all (non-emergency) notifications. Being able to shift away from work when you're not on the clock is a certain kind of discipline that is necessary to living a healthy and (IMO) worthwhile life - working in a flow state does not have to impede this.