eConsultant Book Reviews

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Summary

A book that's based on scientific study of people when they are in "flow" or in the "the zone". Read it; evaluate your own experiences (at work or play) - when you are in flow - and then, use that information to make more of your life in the flow. All work and play - even the most mundane tasks - can be turned into flow. The trick is to make it a game with most of the components of flow.

Notes on Flow - Eight Components of Flow Experience

1. A Clear Goal - Knowing what you want to do in any given moment is a key element of the flow experience.
2. Feedback - You need to be able to tell if you are getting closer to your goal or not.
3. Challenges Match Skills - It is important that what you do matches your ability to do it.
4. Concentration - Total attention onto one task.
5. Focus- Focus on only one task.
6. Control - When you are in flow you feel that you can be in control of your actions and experience.
7. Loss of Self-Consciousness - There is no room for relentless self-monitoring.
8. Transformation of Time - Time seems to adapt itself to your individual experience.

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Book Reviews Index :

100 Simple Secrets of Happy People by David Niven | 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People by David Niven | 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler | Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy | Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi | Focal Point by Brian Tracy | Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen | Gig by John Bowe | It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden | It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Michael Abrashoff | Keep Your Brain Alive by by Lawrence C Katz & Manning Rubin | Learned Optimism by Dr Martin E P Seligman | Life Strategies by Phil McGraw | Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard | Never Wrestle with a Pig by Mark H McCormack | Please Don't Just Do What I Tell You by Bob Nelson | Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki | The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum Smith | The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success by Brian Tracy | The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters | The Power of Optimism by Alan Loy McGinnis | The Professional Service Firm 50 by Tom Peters | The Project 50 by Tom Peters | The War of Art by Steven Pressfield | The Wisdom of Teams by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith | Thriving in 24/7 by Sally Helgesen | Time Tactics of Very Successful People by B. Eugene Griessman | Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation by Robert I. Sutton