When I am doing either:

- repetitive, but challenging tasks

- writing.

For work, for instance, I have to perform interest calculations, which involve plugging a whole lot of numbers into an Excel calculator and making sure everything comes out OK in the end. Intellectually, this is not challenging, but it is engrossing: I will turn on music or podcast and tune out the entire morning as I happily input numbers into little boxes. There are usually challenges along the way which keeps it interesting, and the task is challenging enough that I can't zone out. Recently there have been many times I haven't been able to get the calculations to align, which can either be frustrating and pull me out of the "zone," or keep me engrossed and interested - depending on how hard it is to figure out where everything went wrong. (Since I'm manually typing numbers into Excel, it is just as likely that an issue occurred on my end as that there is a problem with the actual interest calculation.) It is challenging enough that I am engaged but I am capable of doing the work and the time will just pass by. In a weird way, I enjoy it.

As for writing, usually I hit "flow" when I am writing often. I think it is more likely to hit a flow state when I am writing longer pieces, which puts my poetry at a disadvantage, but I also find that when I am writing prose pieces in addition to poetry, I am much more likely to become poetically "inspired" and, as thenewgreen put it, feel more like a "vessel" through which something is created than the actual creator of the work.

In general, the more involved I am with words, the more likely I am to hit a "flow state" when writing.

I also quite like to drive, do so for long periods of time, and derive similar value from it as I imagine others do from meditation. When I am drafting blog posts or chewing over thoughts/ideas, I go for a drive and think as I go. There is enough going on to keep me involved when I am driving, but I still have plenty of room and time to think.