What do you think peak hours of creative "flow" are caused by?

[John Newton]

Are peak hours of creative "flow" caused by:
-Biological clock (physiological constraints regardless of timezone)
-The sun being present/not present (night owls, early birds)
-Mental fatigue (in the case of early morning or late night peak hours)
-The fact that the entity of the day has been spent and work NEEDS to be done (forced panic and/or adrenaline)
-Other (please explain)

In my case, I tend to be musically creative at 11:00 AM but mentally work best from 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM and have no idea why! I had thought of going abroad to see if I can go somewhere that includes 11-2AM PST in the usual 9-5 work day just to test my first theory, but that would be a pretty extreme experiment...

Any thoughts?

 

[tfg345i4u5lw]

My best writing used to come from the moments where I truly had something to say and felt entitled to say it. My creative energy seems to peak at night time when I can get into my own zone. Also weed used to bring out some creative energy...

The cause is authenticity. Authenticity is simply self awareness multiplied by courage. If either of them equal zero then there is no authenticity. But when self awareness and courage grow, the authenticity grows in multiples. My most creative moments were moments where both self awareness and courage were peaking. A rare but beautiful thing.

 

[floatingbridge]

Basically, I understand that "flow" is when one is completely absorbed in their occupation.

Speaking from an occupational therapists' point of view, "flow" is achieved with the "just right" challenge (a task neither too difficult or easy, but... guess what.... just right!!!). So perhaps, optimal creativity comes with the careful selection of what to do rather than when you do it. Say, writing an entire musical score over a month versus one long night - both is doable - but the former is more likely to be done with "flow" because perhaps it realistically matches your current skill set more. That said, "just right" challenge depends on the person as well. If you are not a morning person, it would be kinda pointless to work on your musical score in the morning (unless you made a simpler sub-task to achieve in the morning, to compensate). Same for the environment (if you are not the kind of person to work with noise, silence, etc.)

Thus, my biased advice to achieve "flow" - is to - look at three things: person, environment, occupation. And adjust accordingly to suit.

 

[DonTaushMe]

My absolute most creative peak is in the morning, about 30 minutes after I wash the sleep out of my eyes. I get hyper lol and it's not necessarily good when you're hyper and everyone around you is wanting to go back to bed. It goes from there till about 2 is when I'm done with everything I've assigned myself to do and then I take a shower and feel good about accomplishing things. Though with various illnesses I also have good days and bad, the bad where I just want to lay back in bed too cause it's so damn comfy and fuck ambition, lol. But definitely, definitely the mornings *nods* creative peak

 

[Solongo]

My peak hours of flow occurs randomly and at times when I am not enveloped in any form of stress, emotions or heavy mental work. Relaxation, alertness and being at ease helps me get into it. Repetitive work that gets the conscious mind to quiet down and not interfere with intuitive urge to create also helps. I am also the most creative when I am inspired but during this phase I only get intuitive quick hits on what I wish to design or create. I usually have a pen and paper to write them down as they occur because they go as fast as they come. So I am always prepared. Than I will find a quiet time and place to do the actual work on the ideas and make it into a reality which involves some perseverance and discipline and not necessarily a flow.

Peak performance and being in the zone was researched among elite athletes and on average they were able to access their peak moments about 10 to 15% of the time. This defines how elusive this peak can be and even hours of training and preparing does not guarantee that we can access these moments on the regular. Those who have mastered an art or activity for more than ten years were noted to be able to access the peak states much easier. Mastery takes about ten years or more like 10,000 hours of consistent practice and training in any area. The training is pretty much rewiring of the brain to create nerve connections that the person can access at will. But one thing that is a common denominator is that you cannot access these peak moments from doing nothing; there has to be an engrossing activity that takes over your being and it has to be something you find bliss in.