The ‘Hemingway Bridge’
“Flow is always there. You’re just in the way.”
The feeling of getting into a creative groove is immensely satisfying.
For a creative person, it's the ultimate rush.
It's a state you wish you could remain in permanently, the ultimate creative high.
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote an excellent book on the topic, Flow: The Psychology Of Happiness, which looks at this mental state in more detail.
It's the feeling of being so immersed in an activity that you barely seem to process time.
You are at one with the task at hand and feel like you have unlimited energy.
Csikszentmihalyi described this mental state as:
"Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."
Alas, these periods don't seem to last as long as you'd like.
You experience an intense moment of creation, but then it quickly disappears.
This can leave you deflated and feeling like you’ve reached the top of a mountain, only to roll back down the hill again.
But what if there was a way to extend them?
Ernest Hemingway was one of the most famous authors of the 20th century.
Like all writers, Hemingway struggled to stay ‘in the zone’ as long as he would like.
Over time, he developed a system to start the following day off on the right foot.
What was this technique?
Like all great ideas, it was very simple.
Hemingway would call it a day at the point when he knew what came next.
That way, he could eke out his flow state by creating a metaphorical bridge between one day and the next.
He had a place ready to pick up from in the morning, and the terror of the blank page did not greet him.
Try it next time you want to make your creative groove last.
