Csikszentmihalyi describes eight components of the flow experience. The first three can be described as necessary prerequisites for the occurence of such experiences, the further five relate to the level of subjective experience during acting in the flow.

1. Clarity of goals and immediate feedback
...best offer many sports as well as artistic activities. These are therefore part of the “classic” flow activities. A tennis player knows what it takes to win a match, the rules are clear, and success as well as failure of any action is immediately experienced.

2. High concentration on a limited field
...allows you to delve deep into an activity. In contrast, in everyday life attention is frequently scattered and demands can be chaotic and contradictory, which often gives rise to feelings of confusion and discontent.

3. The relationship between challenge and skills
The difficulty of a task must be in the right proportion to the skills of the person acting. Too much of a challenge leads to a feeling of tension, anxiety and frustration, a too small one generates routine and boredom. Flow experiences thus occur in an area marked by the poles under- and over-challenging.

4. The feeling of control
Characteristic of the flow state is an increased sense of control over one’s own actions. The term control is multi-layered and evokes associations such as “compulsive mastering” or “sharp attention”. However, nothing of the like is characteristic to the feeling of control in the flow. Rather, it is an integral part of the flow experience and refers to a state of ease and freedom of fear.

5. The ease of the course of action
The ease of the course of action gave the flow experience its name. Everything runs harmoniously and effortlessly, even if the activity, such as a tennis match or playing a solo concert, requires a considerable amount of energy if observed from the outside. Subjectively, however, the doer is not aware of any particular effort, the activity proceeds smoothly and as if out of an internal logic.

6. The change in time experience
In the deep flow, the normal sense of time is suspended. There are stretchings and contractions in time: one minute can feel like an hour, hours fly by like minutes. This is also referred to as the “time-free” flow mode.

7. The merging of action and consciousness
As a result of a complete concentration on an activity, in the flow activity and attention merge. This way of experience no longer leaves room for worries, fears and considerations that relate to one’s own person. Actors no longer experience themselves as a separate, isolated self, but are one with their actions. This sense of unity can extend to both the immediate environment (nature) and a group of people, when an activity is carried out jointly with others.

8. The autotelic quality of the flow-experience: IROI
From Greek autos - self and telos - objective. Not only the result of an action is satisfactory, but already the doing itself. In other words, the goal of the activity is to a large extent already in the action itself. So acting in the flow is “Immediate Return On Investment”: the invested energy results in a direct sense of reward, the action itself makes you happy.

References
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Beyond boredom and anxiety: Experiencing flow in work and play. Jossey-Bass (1975)
Flow. The Psychology of Happiness. Penguin
Good Business. Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. Penguin
Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Harper