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This is the seventh in a series of articles about Flow. In each of the articles I’ll look more closely at Flow, each of the individual characteristics, and how we can use Flow in our leadership practice.
In the first article of the series, I talked about the idea of Flow as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 
We’ve all had the experience of feeling as though time wasn’t quite moving at it’s normal 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour pace. Remember being in grade school and waiting for the clock to strike 3:00 so that we could be free for the day? Those last 10 minutes seems to last an eternity. On the opposite end, how many times have we come back from lunch and started working only to find that it was after 5:00 and the day just “flew right by”?
So we understand what it feels like when our sense of time is altered. An altered sense of time is a key characteristic of Flow and the experience we are having will dictate our awareness of time.
Where did the time go?
Many times when we are having a Flow experience, our concentration and focus on the task at hand is so complete and we are so absorbed in the activity we fail to recognize that time has passed. This has a lot to do with being focused in the present moment. It’s because we are staying focused on the present that the passage of time actually becomes irrelevant.
When we are experiencing Flow we really don’t mind spending the “extra” time on an activity. When we do what we enjoy we want to keep doing it.
This happens to me often when I am writing. I’ll sit down to spend a half hour writing and find that three hours have passed because I was on a roll and the word just kept coming.
Time Expands
Some activities that create Flow have the opposite effect on our sense of time. Sometimes the experience is so intense that it feels as though we have lived a lifetime in a single moment. In times like this time actually feels as though it is expanding.
Race car drivers are famous for this experience because their reaction times are so amazingly fast. They are able to see a space in between other cars, decide to move into that space and make the move, all within a fraction of a fraction of a second. They experience that brief moment fully, in an expanded sort of way.
My greatest example of this expanding time experience was when my daughter as born. As the doctor started to raise her up, her head sort of flopped back and our eyes met for the briefest of seconds.
To this day, years later, I still remember this connection lasting much longer than second or two that it lasted. Probably because it was the moment that my life changed forever.
Leader’s Reflection: When we are able to experience Flow on a regular basis we are able to live a happy and satisfying life. When we are able to experience Flow in our everyday work we find the work more satisfying. When experiencing Flow we will have an altered sense of time. Sometimes this means that time will pass faster than we thought because we are so engaged in our activity. Other times it means that time will feel like it expands and our experience is greater than the short time we have actually been engaged in the activity.
