What do you know about Flow?

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I'm sure most of you have heard, if not experienced the state of "flow"?

Being challenged enough to reach peak interest and skilled enough to work consistently without correcting yourself.

I've managed to do this a few times, but never consistently enough to break my ATROCIOUS procrastination habits.

Is this because flow alone is not enough, or is there a trick to using it regularly?

I know that different people need different things to achieve this state, but I read a lot of stories about this, and they all seem to come from NTs. I need Aspie Data.

To reiterate: flow, how do I do it regularly, and is it enough to get things done?

Flow alone isn't enough, because flow is external, not internal. Confidence is internal, and is necessary to follow the flow. To flow consistently, it depends on what you are getting done. As for correction, that's a very important part of flow, to correct mistakes quickly without needing to stop and analyze it. If I'm playing a familiar video game, I can breeze through it because I know the moves, when to use them, and what my goal is. That's flow. In life, things aren't under control like that, but that's not necessary. As long as you have an idea what will happen next and what you can do about it, you don't need to be in control. You can just flow along and move to the next thing.

From Wikipedia:

"Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, this positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields."

It's something that just happens, when your mind and your special interest coalesce and you lose sense of self. It's like you are watching the elements come together. It is more an internal disposition. One must get over the procrastination "barrier" and simply begin to work and then flow will kick in.

I recently read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book "Finding Flow" and found it very interesting. In the book, he discusses different types of activities that we all do throughout the day and discusses people's actual level of happiness during those activities compared to their perceived level of happiness. People think that they are happier in their leisure or with their family, but people tend to be happier doing something that uses the right amount of concentration while providing the right amount of challenge. Is there something you do where time seems to go by faster when you are doing it because of your "involvement"? This is something where you are experiencing "flow".

I am a graphic artist. I feel flow when I'm really involved in drawing or designing something. (Unfortunately, I like that feeling of flow sometimes that I don't necessarily care if I charge people for my work and I have to track my time and that is something that I have to continually work on.)