Hello, it is Cloudy Again, getting to the “Finding Flow” section of the course. Hopefully I am doing this right.
Whenever I get into the flow, it’s usually after I’ve spent a long time building up to it. Music definitely helps, but if it is music it needs to hit a couple criteria:
- It needs to be upbeat/high energy
- It can’t have lyrics, or can’t have lyrics that I can understand (because then I’ll get distracted in the meaning of the song and not the FEELING of it). Plus it helps if I need to write or code, the lyrics would slip into the document if I am not careful.
- It’s cacophonous. I grew up in a loud chaotic environment, so when things are too still or too mellow I tend to feel uneasy or queasy. If the music I have changes and shifts, it’s easier for me to get lost in it and just let it sink into white noise. However if the music is too slow, it feels like somebody had slammed on the brake. It’s like cruising down the highway in a car.
To contrast with the chaotic music, it also helps me if I have all my tasks lined up in a row. Usually the night before I set up my project or in that moment I spend as much brainpower as possible into getting all my smaller menial tasks done, so the big task that needs my flow will be done smoothly.
In my experience, when the entire world feels chaotic, but I have one singular line of order, I can slip into the flow and go straight ahead ignoring everything else.
This is the process I went with during college when learning C++ or when I made animations on a tight deadline for a collaboration video.