In Flow - Explore Your Happiness

Yes, it’s possible and I’ll tell you how.

But let me start from from the beginning. I’m interesting in psychology, people behavior etc. There are two great books in my opinion. First is written by Robert Chialdini and called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”. Second - “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

I want to tell about the second one. One of the main ideas of this books is concept of Flow. Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. This theory has had a great effect on me. I started to understand my own Flow to be, let say, In FLow.

I tried to write down all things that happened with me, but it was very inconvenient (lot’s of paper or notes on my phone without any structure).

Well, thanks to some people, we have big Application markets. I tried many apps (iPhone) such as Mood Panda, Gratitude & Happiness, eMoods, Daily Tracker. Their price range is from “free” to $9.99.

But I want to highlight one app, called In Flow (“free”). I use this app for 1 month already and I have interesting results.

Firstly, there are several reasons, why I chose this app:
[list=1]
[]Content and statistics. Lots of different aspects of tracking your state (i’ll tell later).
[
]Social side of the app. There is a friend feed, so you can see mental state of your friends at some point of time
[*]Design. Very nice and intuitive interface (at least for me), but some screens are too overloaded (but it does not spoil the overall impression of the application)
[/list]
Well, lets start. Main idea is to make a check-in. At first screen you have to choose your emotion and energy level (there are cute smiles to help you identify your state). After that you may choose what are you doing now, with whom and where (all things are optional, but if you want statistics, you have to fill it). On the last step you can take picture and make your check-in private or share via Facebook or Twitter.

You can log in with your Facebook account. After that you will be able to invite your friends to In Flow and you after that you will see a friend feed of people who already use In Flow (only your friends on Facebook). There you can see their mood, give them High 5, hug them, comment their check-in or send a gift - music track.

But the most interesting part is “Best & Worst”. After some time you will get statistics about all places, people and activities that makes you happy or sad. That fantastic! I had some insights about my routine life…

Moreover, after each check-in you will get “Tips”. App suggests you some places to go or people to meet or start some activities - all based on your own statistics or, in case with “places”, statistics of other people. For example, if many people feel great their, this place probably quite nice.

So, after using this app for 1 month a can say - it’s great. But there are some issues.

Firstly, it has few bugs (problems with fast updating FriendFeed and friend’s check-in) and minor crashes. Nevertheless, I wrote to their support and they answered me next day, that was pretty impressive.
Secondly, there are second feature, called “Predictions”. This thing is awesome - it compares your thoughts about with whom you are feel great and the reality. Not at any case you are right :wink: But it took to looooong time to unlock (don’t take into account screenshot - I rebooted it and started again).
Thirdly, there is a “zero” problem, where “If I have no friends, it’s not so cool to be there”. Yeah, this is both problem and not. You can make statistics only “just for you”.

To sum up, I want to recommend this app for all people who want better understand themselves. In outcome you have statistics, which shows you people, activities or places that makes you happy… So its really close to Flow concept of mental state.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.inflow.mobi

P.S. Thank you for reading my slightly long topic, but I tried to share with you my knowledge about this quite useful app. I hope my message was helpful for all of you.

P.P.S. Sorry for, maybe at some points, not great English :wink:

Cheers.

1 Like

I’ve tried it recently.
Not so perfect as you said, but it is worth to try.
Moodology is also good. So I just can’t choose between them :slight_smile:

Nikita, thanks for sharing this app: seems like an interesting one. I know “Get Happy” app - similar concept, but totally different implementation. THey offer tips how to be happier based on famous methodology

Yeah, your are right. I tried this app for several weeks. This is very nice and cute app :slight_smile:

But the thing I don’t like is that they telling you pre-installed tips. On the other hand, “In Flow” shows you tips based on your own behavior. Thats quite great feature, because after that I can feel, that app very “flexible” or “adjusted for you”.

Best,
Nikita

Hello guys! Thanks for sharing these great apps, I’ll write my opinion about them later, but ‘in flow’ ui is realy great! and smiles are so cute!