I have heard of this concept of flow but very loosely in definition. I used to call it being “in the zone” when I was in undergrad. Being in the zone for me felt like I had narrowed my focus and I was just accomplishing my goals and getting work done.

I experienced flow often during my thesis class in undergrad. I was in a computer lab by myself with no windows, no sense of time just me and my computer and music. Other times I find the flow is when I am consumed with a project at work where I just lose sight of time and all I can focus on is my creativity. I usually forget to eat and just plug away until something distracts me enough to realize I haven’t had a break.

It’s not always that easy, sometime I have to plan it. Plan it? How do you plan having flow? Well, I wouldn’t plan the flow as much as I would plan giving myself the time to mentally allow myself to get to it. I still do this today, when I work on a painting I usually try to plan three hours for my me to paint. This usually allows for me to have enough time to organize, relax and let the zone/flow come to me. I can see this as a training mechanism, giving myself an allotted amount of time frees my mind of worries of things I think I should be doing and allows me to focus on creativity,

With that in mind, I have been using these techniques during my first two SCAD classes. I haven’t giving myself three hours but I have set aside time to allow myself to find the flow of my assignments.