Book review - Finding Flow

Many other books I have read this year have quoted Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his research carried out over many years into how individuals experience the world around them and how to get the most from their lives. So I decided it would make sense to experience the original text for myself.

Finding flow has for me been a fascinating book with many thought provoking ideas and many interesting quotes but in many ways it is similar to The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin in that I have found it interesting but not really found much that I can put into action.

The concept of flow is very powerful and worth discussing. It can be described in many ways but I like this:

When a task is captivating, challenging but achievable resulting in you losing track of everything else in the world, that is flow.


Flow allows you to really delve deep into an idea or task and is really essential for many creative people or if you want to push a concept to its limits therefore allowing you to make a real difference in the world. Some people are fortunate to find flow on a regular basis. Some people say they never experience it. This book is supposedly meant to help you find flow on a more regular basis and therefore lead a more fulfilling and meaningful life. However although I have found it fascinating, personally I think the title of this book is slightly misleading. If it was called "Discussing Flow" that would be more accurate. A lot of time is spent talking about the importance of flow but not a lot about how to actually find it.


To make the most of the insights in this book I would strongly recommend you follow it up by reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. That very nicely takes this concept further and explains how to put many of the ideas into practice. My review of that can be found here:
http://www.drchrisharper.co.uk/blog/book-review-deep-work
Or to purchase your own copy of Finding Flow see here: amzn.to/2qXushE