Flow state in the world of AI

We don't lose focus. We give it away, two seconds at a time.

Working on something. Music on Spotify. A Slack ping. A quick reply. Back to the work. The focus is gone. Then again, ten minutes later. And again.

That stayed with me. I picked up Ikigai this week, and the book describes the same scene. We don't multitask. We switch fast and lose context each time. The "saving time" feeling is the cost being charged somewhere we can't see.

Flow has one prerequisite, and it's not motivation. A clear objective. Not vague, not obsessive. Defined enough to know what done looks like, loose enough to leave room for the process.

AI changes the shape of the day, not the rules of flow. Used well, it carries the parallel work you'd otherwise switch between. A second brain holding a thread while you stay on yours. Used badly, it's the new Slack notification. Busy, producing tokens, not the one working.

The recipe: decide what done looks like, pick the next move yourself, hand the parallel work to the model, check the output, and adjust the direction. Never outsource the direction.

Ikigai says it plainly: no future, no past, only the present. The future is the goal. The present is the process.

My bet: AI doesn't break focus. Unclear objectives do.