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Mindfulness At Work: How To Increase Productivity

Businesses are beginning to see principles of mindfulness as useful in promoting productivity and well-being amongst employees.  

Mindfulness practices can be used to teach us to maintain calmness and prevent an over-reactive response to what’s going on around us.  

Findings have found adopting mindful practices sharpen focus, dampen stress, raise clarity and contribute to better decision-making processes.  

So, how can companies incorporate mindful practices to promote productivity within their employees? 

What is ‘Mindful Productivity’? 

Mindful productivity is a concept based on incorporating your present thoughts and feelings into what you are currently doing as a way of managing your mental states. 

It involves maintaining a sound state of mind in your day-to-day work by adhering to the compassionate self-care of bodily sensations.  

Research found that mindful workers had lower burnout rates, were less disconnected from their inner-selves and had more self-insight than other workers, leading to a higher level of focus towards their work. 

Ditch The Pattern Of Multi-tasking 

Multi-tasking is not the solution to productivity. The belief that multitasking is an efficient way of completing tasks is wrong. Research shows that our brain is not that coherent in taking on a lot of things at once and can reduce productivity by as much as 40%.

Focusing on a specific task at a time through mindful principles has been shown to increase performance and productivity. 

Minimising context switching of the brain and being more thoughtful in what one does correlates with an increase in the completion of higher utility tasks and allows one to dive deeper in the notion of ‘quality over quantity’. 

Ways To Adopt Mindful Productivity  

  • Plan your tasks for the next day. Organise tasks by priority-level, so that the most important tasks take precedence and can be completed at a high utility level. 
  • Focus on one task at a time. Minimise the negative effects of multitasking by devoting your attention to one task before you proceed onto the next. 
  • Limit distractions – our brain gets excited by distractions and notifications that can deter our focus. Remain completely aware and present in your work by maintaining your thoughts to a calm equilibrium that increases utility. 
  • Establish reviews on progress. Installing weekly or monthly reviews to reflect on the busy work life can help ensure you focus on what matters most. Highs and lows of the work week can be contemplated to ensure that improvements are made in the future.  

Productivity is not a linear process. Ceed’s coaching expertise incorporates mindful practices that can navigate sustainable and thoughtful productivity by unlocking a deeper level of consciousness.

Take a look at Ceed’s services here.


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