Flow

When working as a developer (or any other occupation) motivation, productivity, creativity, and happiness is largely controlled by our state of mind. Because these values are so important - both to the individual, and the team - it should be every developers quest, to find way's, in which to improve our minds, in order for it to become more attuned to these values. This is where flow comes in.

The state of flow is defined as: when the mind is so deeply involved in an activity, that one's thoughts, emotions, and intentions are so focused on the same activity, that it leaves you with a feeling of being one with the activity.

Why is flow important?
According to research: people who experience flow on a daily basis, live happier lives, are more motivated, more creative, and surprisingly enough more productive :0)

Parameters of flow:

Goals: In order to achieve flow, we need clear goals.

Feedback: In the absence of feedback, the mind starts to "wander"

Skill vs. challenge: To optimize flow, skill and challenge must complement each other.

Flow and coding:

Rapid feedback - hot deploy
Experience - optimize flow
Working environment?

State of mind:
The more control we have over our mind, the more likely it is that we will achieve flow. Therefore it's important to explore, which parameters controls our minds state.

Emotions (The elephant)
The most powerful force - on our state of mind, as well as focus - is emotions. So in our journey to achieve flow, we must learn how to control our emotions, and use them to our advantage.

The self (The donkey - the rider)
It's our goals (what to do in life), that defines our "self", and defines us as unique individuals - is this really true, or isn't the "self" defined by biology, experience, society - culture and randomly generated unconscious intentions - believes?

Donkey - the rider vs. elephant

Society - culture:
Society plays an significant role, when it comes to shaping the thoughts, that lives in our conscious mind.
Especially:

• Rules and norms
• Society specific morales
  

Analogy:

Filters - aspects!!

Notes:
In order to achieve flow, it is very important to learn how to control focus - motivation. How does this correlate to NLP?

Intrinsic goals?

How do money affect flow?

Have to vs want to.

• How does choice over assignments affect flow?