flowww
January 1, 2019 9:10 PM Subscribe
What do you feel is the optimal amount of flow-time at work? And what can I expect when switching to more time in this flow-intensive headspace?
I would say that I have two work "flow" modes that I know about.
The first is when I'm working one-on-one with somebody - this flow involves having my active listening and problem-solving turned way up, being very attentive to social cues, etc. This is a more accessible and less exhausting flow mode. I usually leave this mode feeling happy and connected on an emotional level, and hopefully satisfied at helping somebody better understand a problem.
The second is working on something technical, especially coding/data science projects, and sometimes technical writing. This locks me into a whole additional level of "must keep working at this until it's done" that can lead to missing meals/forgetting to take breaks/etc. if I'm not careful. This gives me a different sort of satisfaction - I think most strongly, I love the feeling of deciding that a task ahead of me is impossible, and then finding a way to surmount it anyways given x hours of plugging away. I wouldn't necessarily describe the moment-to-moment as relaxed or happy, and at the end I'm left much more exhausted, and sometimes more disoriented. It feels good though on a deep level -- it's doing my best work and being fully in it. It's similar to the way that running around a basketball court for hours feels profoundly good and leaves me a bit of an exhausted heap afterwards.
Unfortunately, I haven't experienced much of either lately (at work anyways). I've been spending the majority of my time attending committee/subgroup/planning meetings and attending to other parts of my position. That means I get maybe 5 hours/week of that one-on-one flow, and much less, maybe 2-3 hours, of that coding flow (and that's not even enough time to get all the way into it, really). The group meeting work is pretty much the exact opposite of flow for me - it's faltering and frustrating.
I may have the opportunity to drastically increase one or both types of flow activities, which is exciting! But this makes me realize I've always had a worry, especially with that more intensive technical flow type, of what it will actually feel like to do that for more of my work weeks or the majority of time. I have an association with going into those intense concentration stretches in a way that, as I said, leads to totally forgetting my surroundings and my obligations. The idea of really, really working to my fullest when I work and spending a greater proportion of time in this kind of heightened productivity is extremely appealing. But I'm apprehensive too.
FWIW, I struggle with anxiety and have a "sticky"/ruminating mental flow, so that's another aspect of going deeper into this energy that's intimidating. (I can tell that technical problem solving and anxious rumination share at least some mental pathways.)
I would love to hear from folks who have a similar relationship to flow/intensive/surroundings-forgetting work tasks. What has drastically increasing your time in this headspace been like? Would you recommend any other changes to support/mediate these effects? What would you consider the optimal amount of time in this sort of flow-intensive space a week?
Thank you!
I would say that I have two work "flow" modes that I know about.
The first is when I'm working one-on-one with somebody - this flow involves having my active listening and problem-solving turned way up, being very attentive to social cues, etc. This is a more accessible and less exhausting flow mode. I usually leave this mode feeling happy and connected on an emotional level, and hopefully satisfied at helping somebody better understand a problem.
The second is working on something technical, especially coding/data science projects, and sometimes technical writing. This locks me into a whole additional level of "must keep working at this until it's done" that can lead to missing meals/forgetting to take breaks/etc. if I'm not careful. This gives me a different sort of satisfaction - I think most strongly, I love the feeling of deciding that a task ahead of me is impossible, and then finding a way to surmount it anyways given x hours of plugging away. I wouldn't necessarily describe the moment-to-moment as relaxed or happy, and at the end I'm left much more exhausted, and sometimes more disoriented. It feels good though on a deep level -- it's doing my best work and being fully in it. It's similar to the way that running around a basketball court for hours feels profoundly good and leaves me a bit of an exhausted heap afterwards.
Unfortunately, I haven't experienced much of either lately (at work anyways). I've been spending the majority of my time attending committee/subgroup/planning meetings and attending to other parts of my position. That means I get maybe 5 hours/week of that one-on-one flow, and much less, maybe 2-3 hours, of that coding flow (and that's not even enough time to get all the way into it, really). The group meeting work is pretty much the exact opposite of flow for me - it's faltering and frustrating.
I may have the opportunity to drastically increase one or both types of flow activities, which is exciting! But this makes me realize I've always had a worry, especially with that more intensive technical flow type, of what it will actually feel like to do that for more of my work weeks or the majority of time. I have an association with going into those intense concentration stretches in a way that, as I said, leads to totally forgetting my surroundings and my obligations. The idea of really, really working to my fullest when I work and spending a greater proportion of time in this kind of heightened productivity is extremely appealing. But I'm apprehensive too.
FWIW, I struggle with anxiety and have a "sticky"/ruminating mental flow, so that's another aspect of going deeper into this energy that's intimidating. (I can tell that technical problem solving and anxious rumination share at least some mental pathways.)
I would love to hear from folks who have a similar relationship to flow/intensive/surroundings-forgetting work tasks. What has drastically increasing your time in this headspace been like? Would you recommend any other changes to support/mediate these effects? What would you consider the optimal amount of time in this sort of flow-intensive space a week?
Thank you!
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For the first, more social, type, I find that if I’m spending more than an hour or two a day in that state, I will still really enjoy the feeling in the moment but will end up increasingly drained and anxious instead of refreshed and satisfied. I’m pretty extroverted in general, but maybe someone more extroverted could do more without it turning into a drain.
For the second, more technical, type, in my experience the key is recovery time. Real recovery, not time where you’re stuck in subcommittee meetings or something. If I get in this state and work that way all day, I basically need a solid day off to recuperate - for me, that means a day including exercise, fresh air, cooking from scratch, and maybe some Netflix. If I don’t get that deep recovery after the deep work, I will be miserable until I do. For me it is *possible* to do 2-3 days in a row in this state, but any longer and I’m headed for a major burnout crash.
Right now I’m in a groove where I do 3-4 hours in this flow state in the morning, make myself stop, do another couple hours of less focused work (like emails or organizational tasks), then take the rest of the afternoon off for recovery. I’m finding it pretty much ideal: both productive and sustainable. But it relies on two things that it sounds like you might not have: the (learned!) ability to make myself stop when I’m in the technical flow, and the freedom to be done working for the day whenever I want.
posted by somedaycatlady at 5:40 AM on January 2, 2019