Psychological flow
Preface
Do you often feel that you have been studying for a whole day, but you just feel that you haven't gained much. At this time, in addition to your learning direction and other issues, it may also be that your learning method is too inefficient. The author himself often has this kind of situation, but fortunately, he accidentally brushed up the psychology methodology of a big man at station b. I personally feel that this methodology has greatly improved my learning efficiency. It is the state of "flow" in psychology.
1. What is "flow"?
The father of theory of mind and the founder of positive psychology, Mihari Chiksenmihalai, 30 years ago, based on a large number of case studies, pioneered the concept of "flow". "Flow" refers to the state of engrossed concentration and selflessness when we are doing certain things-in this state, you can't even feel the existence of time. After this thing is completed, we will be full of energy. And a very satisfying feeling. In fact, many times when we are doing things that we really like, challenge and are good at, it is easy to experience flow, such as climbing, swimming, playing ball, playing games, reading, playing musical instruments, and working.
Second, the benefits of flow
Have you ever done something and felt that time jumped from noon to night, and you even forgot to eat. This is what people often say about being insane, oh bah, it's the state of flow when it's wrong. For example, the author himself often enters this state when playing hacked games with his friends, or reading cool texts in novels, and he has also entered this state in a very small number of studies. Have you written an 800-word essay in just 30 minutes in the language test, but usually it may take you 1.5 hours to complete it. This is because you have entered a state of flow unconsciously during the exam, and efficient work efficiency allows you to get twice the result with half the effort. In this process, one second of yours can be broken into several pieces to make it possible to work efficiently without feeling tired. This is why some Internet cafes masters and mahjong madmen can entertain to death.
2. How to enter the flow
Those who only talk about theory but not methods are all hooligans. Next, let me talk about how I got into the state of flow through some techniques.
The four stages of flow
The flow state is mainly divided into four stages:
The first stage: struggle
At this stage, you will feel very irritable, and your heart will not calm down a bit. Of course, if what you are doing is playing games or other entertainment activities, there may not be this stage. . . For us programmers, this stage is usually when you open the coding environment. Your boredom with study or work causes you to be very restless. At this time, you must use willpower to overcome it. This stage is usually 10 to 20 minutes.
The second stage: relax
At this stage, you will gradually adapt to the state of study or work. At this time, you can choose to wear headphones to listen to some more relaxing songs. The author prefers light music and electronic music. I personally don't recommend songs with lyrics, because the lyrics may cause you to be distracted (I personally have this situation).
The third stage: flow
At this stage, you have already entered the state of flow. At this time, you basically don't care about the passage of time and some changes in the surrounding environment. It feels like I have taken a blue buffer, and I can lose skills crazy, without worrying about blue consumption. The efficiency of the flow state is usually about four times that of the normal state.
The fourth stage: consolidation
You will enter this state when you complete the set goal or get interrupted, but the former will make you feel very happy physically and mentally, especially when you run the code without any errors. Of course, if the latter is the case, you may be a little disappointed, leading to a CD that has to wait a long time to enter the next flow.
Techniques to enter the flow
- The first one is undoubtedly to eliminate interference. Only a quiet and comfortable environment can enter the state of flow faster.
- Choose what you love, and say that the best teacher is when you are interested. If you hate doing mode, it is basically impossible to enter the flow.
- Choosing the right difficulty, we often say that we have to get out of our comfort zone, but we can't go too far. When you go too far and choose to do things that are too much beyond your ability, you will often feel restless because of difficulties. The choice is too simple, because there is no challenge at all, which also makes it difficult to enter the state of flow.
- If you want to spare too much time, I personally feel that it is best to be more than 90 minutes. If you only have 30 minutes, you may have just entered the relaxation phase, and you have to be forced to stop.
to sum up
- Create a comfortable environment without interference
- Make room for a longer period of time (above 90 minutes)
- Choose what you love
- Set suitable goals for yourself (challenging but not too difficult)
- Five enemies: noisy environment, multitasking, excessive pressure, lack of enthusiasm, lack of challenge
Digression
The author himself is a person who is susceptible to external interference, so I usually try to clear the surrounding interference as much as possible when preparing to enter the flow. To make a small suggestion, you can turn off all the message reminders on your phone, don’t even vibrate, or just throw your phone far away. Then all the social software on the computer was withdrawn to avoid interrupting the flow state. Because it takes a long CD time to re-enter after an interruption, I often look back at my code after being interrupted, and my thoughts are broken. It may take 1.20 minutes to read the code written before to get back on track.