Matt from 37Signals has a definitive post on “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The comments are as good as the post.

I went so far as getting “Flow” from the library a few months ago when Kathy Sierra recommended it, but I couldn’t get past the first chapter. It reminded me too much of the Celestine Prophecy, and that’s never a good thing. But writing style aside, it’s the information that matters.

Flow is that state all programmers love where we’re head deep in the code and things are progressing beautifully. It’s when we’re at our most productive, and the best way to increase your work performance is to learn how to enter and remain in flow as much as possible. It’s also one of the reasons why interrupts are so disruptive; once you’ve lost that state you cannot easily regain it.

>> All About Flow @ 37signals
>> Life 2.0: The Little Book of Flow (online e-book)
>> Reviews of “Flow” at Amazon
>> Video game based on flow