Mindfulness for Productivity
*I’m not a medical professional, just an individual sharing from my own experience.*
Corporate life is full of things that go against our innate, biological programming: sitting for long stretches, schedules completely disconnected from season, commuting, multi-tasking, being ‘on’ and reachable 24/7, and I’m sure a lot of other examples come to mind.
I’ve been practicing yoga and personal growth counselling for 10 years. I’ve found that a number of practices from these disciplines can significantly support productivity and clarity at work.
Mindfulness helps us to live in the moment and centre ourselves. It helps us calm down, helps us focus. It reenergizes.
Whether you work from home or in an office, I encourage you to incorporate these simple practices into your day. I guarantee that you will find yourself more present and productive when you do.
Deep breathing: Set a timer for 1 minute (or whatever length you want). Clear your mind of all thoughts, close your eyes, and breathe in and out slowly, deeply. Breathe in through the nose, pause, breathe out, pause. Repeat.
Fresh air: Every 2-3 hours, go outside for 5 minutes. Again, clear your mind of work-related thoughts. You may wish to use this time for a short walk. You may simply want to look up at the sky. Or stretch. Focus on being in the moment and breathing in the fresh air.
Disconnect from phone, computer, and others for 5 minutes: At some point in your day, find 5 minutes when you turn away from your phone, computer, TV, radio, and even other people. Take 5 minutes to exist in quiet. You may use this time to think about your goals for the day, or how to have quality time with your kids later that night, or prepare yourself for a difficult conversation coming up. This doesn’t have to be work-free time, it needs to be focused time. Choose something important to you, and allow yourself to consider it uninterrupted for those 5 precious minutes.
There are so many excellent mindfulness techniques, these are just three of my favorites. Their beauty is in their simplicity - you don’t need any props, and you don’t need much time. They take between 1-5 minutes, and you can access them wherever you are.
I’d love to hear about your favorite mindfulness techniques for productivity - please leave me a comment!
