Activity Analysis as a Tool for Creative Flow
After training as an occupational therapist, I worked in neuro-rehabilitation, helping people regain skills needed for independence after they’d had a bad accident or neurologic event. And now I’m borrowing a page from the OT textbook, using the concept of “Activity Analysis” as a tool for getting into creative flow.
It’s time to create! You, the artist, have set the stage, filled your inspirational well, built your skills, and now it's actually time to make something. This is the fun part—you start with raw materials, and end up with a unique physical creation that didn't exist before this moment.
It is true that part of making good art is hard work, effort, and ruthless editing of our creations. But the part that comes to mind when we romanticize the life of an artist is that magic state of creative flow; we’re in the zone, paint (or clay) flying.
In the state of cretive flow, you're not thinking about anything else, you're not stressing, judging or analyzing…but you're also challenged enough to keep going, to solve the problem you've set forth for yourself. I liken it to that feeling when you've had just the right amount of coffee—not tired, and not overly hyped. You're just buzzing with that perfect caffeine lift of energy and inspiration.
The rest of the world melts away…
…and something beautiful starts to take shape.
Finding Your Flow Formula
There's no one set of perfect conditions that creates flow for everyone. It's individual, and it changes. I think a lot of it has to do with being in tune with yourself. Thankfully there are specific steps we can take to get better at understanding our own process.
In occupational therapy (OT) school, we learned about activity analysis. If you don't know what occupational therapy is, it's kind of a cousin of physical therapy, and the original idea underneath it is that occupation IS therapy—being occupied with an activity. Basically, doing things helps you recover and improve your health. In the healthcare world, this can include anything from upper body strengthening to cognitive retraining, whatever is needed to retrain lost skills and complete the desired activity.
In activity analysis, we break down a specific activity into components; assessing the physical, cognitive, sensory, psychosocial, environmental and even the temporal aspects of the activity we are analyzing. When we understand what each aspect requires, we can see what the person needs to bring to the equation to engage successfully. We can also change something about the time constraints or environment to facilitate success.
Thinking in Terms of Activity Analysis
Some of my favorite decorating advice says that the very first thing you do when redesigning a room—before you pick out paint colors and furniture—is make a list of all the activities that you do in that space. Then think about what furniture you need to carry those tasks out, and how you'll move between activities. This sets you up for success with how you actually live in the space.
This is on my mind lately as I redesign my small studio space at GoggleWorks. I noticed that I have too much real estate taken up by tasks I rarely do, like collage or jewelry making. Since my current artistic process is much more clay-centric, I added a small wheel to complete finishing and sanding tasks, reducing the friction and wasted time of running up and down the stairs to use the community studio for these tasks.
Activity Analysis considerations:
What space is required for the activity?
What posture and hand position is needed, and what chair height suits this task best?
Lessons from Analysis of Throwing on the Wheel
When I first got back into throwing, I knew that I loved porcelain. It's soft, plastic, smooth and provides a light surface to bring out bright glaze colors. It’s also difficult and high-maintenance, easily bent out of shape…so I figured we had a lot in common.
I bought a bag and got to work. It did not go as planned. This particular bag of clay was harder than I remembered, but I stubbornly ignored that fact and put 6 pounds of it on the wheel, determined to make something amazing.
Centering this clay took all my strength. I was sweating, straining, and getting frustrated. The piece got pretty close, but eventually collapsed as I forced the clay instead of responding to it. And, I was sore for at least a week after!
Of course, I should have known that going from 0 to 60 was setting myself up for failure. And I certainly wasn't having fun in the process. Cut to a few months later, when I easily centered 6 pounds of clay four times in a row.
How did this happen?
Over the course of weeks, I started by throwing no more than 1.25 pounds, over and over again. And no more. Even when it got easy. I focused on my technique, rather than summoning strength and skill I did not yet have, and I got better and better at that small amount. The pieces were nothing spectacular, but I felt that ease and fun coming back into my practice. I could exhale, my mind became clear. I began to increase the amount of clay I was using, surprising myself at how small adjustments each time allowed me to successfully throw larger and larger pieces.
Breaking Down the Task
So how can activity analysis help us get into the flow state? Let's break down the task. What does throwing 6 pounds of clay require? A certain amount of strength, specific hand positions and technique, adequate range of motion in my hands, correct body alignment and posture, mental strength and breathing, visual focus, and tactile awareness and sensitivity to the clay.
Finally, repeating this sequence to the point of automaticity, where you can move through the motions without overthinking it, allows for the freedom of creation to really take off.
If you change too many of these variables, or are lacking too many of them, frustration results and flow evaporates. I'm a very determined person, but you can't will a flow state into being. You have to adjust, breathe, adjust and try again until you find that balance of just-right challenge, meaningful activity, and the physical abilities that the activity requires. Part of that is grading the activity, another OT principle; making it easier or harder based on the current level of challenge and skill.
Your Turn:
Try the principles of Activity Analysis to guide your next creative session.
Design Your Ideal Creative Session
Now, let's apply the same principles to YOUR creative practice. Before you worry about having the perfect studio or the most expensive supplies, start by mapping out how you actually create. This applies to any task where you are producing something, from writing to cooking, to painting or dance.
Grab a piece of paper (and a cup of coffee!) and jot down notes about your last few creative sessions—the good ones and the frustrating ones.
Create a column for “Activity”, and a column for “Components”. If you really want to nerd out like a true OT, you could add columns for physical, cognitive, sensory, psychosocial, environmental, and temporal requirements of each activity. Or just note down the relevant areas.
What activities do you cycle through? Maybe your process looks something like this: gathering inspiration, sketching ideas, preparing materials, the actual making, stepping back to evaluate, refining or adding details, and finally cleaning up.
Now think through the flow between these activities. Draw arrows where you move around your physical space. Where do you lose momentum? Where do you get stuck? Which parts are your favorite?
Make notes, sketches, or talk it through out loud. I talk to myself about things like this when walking or driving - it just helps clarify things to have to put it into a conversational flow of words.
Now, grab a fresh sheet of paper to pull out any insights you’ve gleaned. Remember, your creative flow isn't just about what happens when your hands are moving—it's about the entire ecosystem of activities that support the making process.
Maybe you need a dedicated space for messy work and another for detailed finishing. Maybe you need to prep materials for three sessions at once so you're not always starting from scratch. Maybe you need a "closing ritual" that makes cleanup feel like part of the creative process rather than a chore.
I've started doing this, and the last step is wedging up and preparing the clay that I'll use next time, as well as a list of what I'm going to make next time. It helps my brain let go of today, and to hit the ground running tomorrow.
The goal isn't to optimize every minute, but to notice where your energy flows naturally and where it gets stuck. Then you can design your sessions to work with your patterns, not against them.
Finding Your Creative Flow: Summary
Understanding your own creative process through this lens can transform your practice. Instead of forcing yourself through frustration or wondering why some sessions feel magical while others feel like pulling teeth, you can start to design conditions that support your natural rhythm.
What would change if you mapped out your creative workflow and redesigned it to support how you actually work? Start paying attention to when flow happens naturally in your practice, and you might be surprised at what patterns you discover.
With Enthusiasm for Life & Art,