10 WAYS TO BE MORE MINDFUL AT WORK

by: Remie Longbrake | published: July 16, 2023

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness at work is all about developing awareness of thoughts, emotions, and physiology and how they interact with one another. Mindfulness is also about being aware of your surroundings, helping you better understand the needs of those around you.

Research concludes that mindfulness at work can do the following:

• Help employees develop positive strategies for dealing with stressful environments and work pressure
• Enable employees to deal better with complex issues
• Enhance employee self-regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and make them more resilient when facing obstacles.
• Improve task performance

Here’s to ten ways to be more mindful…

1. Be Consciously Present

In other words, stay awake and be aware of two aspects of your experiences.

• What’s going on around you
• What going on within the workplace

Some ideas to help you stop being mindless and more present.

Decide at the start of your workday to be present as best you can. Pause for a few moments before you turn on your computer to set this intention in your mind.

Make an effort to WORK more consciously, even if that means you work slowly at wost. Doing so will pay off in the long run.

Connect with your senses rather than getting lost in trains of thought when performing a task.

2. Use Short Mindful Exercises at Work

Mindful exercises train your brain to be more mindful. The more mindful exercises you do, the easier your brain can drop into a mindful state, thus optimizing your brain function. Close your office door or plug in your earphones and play short calming sounds or music to ease your mind.

3. Be a Single-Tasker

It’s too easy to try to take on too much at one time. Multi-tasking is simply not effective when it comes to productivity. In reality, multi-tasking is trying to do two or more tasks at the same time or switching back and forth between tasks. Nobody can actually multi-task. In reality, your brain is switching from one thing to the next, often losing data in the process and adding time. To get more done, try to take on one-task-at-a-time.

4. Use Mindful Reminders

Ever try to remember to do something but need a reminder to remember?

The reason you forget to be mindful is because your brain’s default mode is to be habitually lost in your own thoughts – running a sort of internal narrative, almost dream-like. By using some form of reminder, you can be mindful again. The reminder shakes you out of autopilot.

Try these reminders:

• Setting an alarm on the phone – even a vibrating alarm that doesn’t disturb others works well.

• Jotting mindfulness in your calendar – setting an appointment with yourself!

• Placing a small note or picture on your desk to remind you to be mindful.

All these things are opportunities to come back into the present moment, to see yourself and your surroundings afresh.

5. Slow Down to Speed Up

Effective leaders, workers and entrepreneurs slow down and reflect to make the best decisions and actions – they slow down to speed up. That’s a mindful way of working.

Clearly, rest can increase efficiency. If you do manage to get about seven hours of sleep and achieve a certain amount of work, imagine what would happen if you also did a few mini-mindfulness exercises during the day? Your brain would become even more efficient, focused, effective at communicating with others and better at learning new skills.

6. Make Stress Your Friend

Yes! Your beliefs about stress, scientific research has shown, affect how they impact your health and wellbeing. If you want to make stress your friend, you need to change the way you think about it and, in turn, your body’s response to it. How? Through effective mindfulness.

Try this!

• Choose creativity over negativity
• Be grateful and stay calm
• Relax, take a breather

7. Have Gratitude

Did you know the human brain has a natural negativity bias? Yes, it’s true!

We are designed for survival mode, so it does take effort to be happy, but you can do it. However, it’s not about faking it, actually be grateful for the work, the opportunity to have purpose, to help others, and help your family and yourself. It is a mindset shift. If nothing else, if you are truly unhappy then maybe it could be time to try and find a different work environment or different work. But be happy doing what you do, given the best you CAN do.

8. Cultivate Humility

How is humility linked to mindfulness? Mindfulness is about accepting yourself just as you are and being open to listening to and learning from others. Mindfulness is also synonymous with gratitude – you appreciate how others have helped you. And someone who is grateful for the contribution of others is naturally humble.

To develop more humility, try these steps.

• Undertake mindful exercises
• Make a list of the people who have help you
• Show appreciation
• Value others and their opinions
• Get helpful and be helpful

9. Accept Things You Can’t Change

The starting point of self-improvement and personal development, in the workplace and home, is self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is embracing all facets of yourself – your weaknesses, shortcomings, aspects you don’t like and those you admire. This doesn’t mean you should give up on aspirations, but it’s good to be realistic and stay content with what you have and your current position.

Things you can help.

• Cut down on enery-draining self-criticism
• Enjoy successes and wins no matter how small
• Smile and learn from shortcomings
• Love yourself and keep trying

10. Adopt a Growth Mindset

Mindfulness is about giving attention to the present moment and not judging your innate talent and being open to new opportunities.

When you adopt a growth mindset.

• You don’t mind getting negative feedback as you view it as a change to discover something new
• You don’t mind taking on new responsibilities because you’re curious about how you’ll cope
• You expect and move toward challenges, seeing them as opportunities for inner growth

That’s the essence of mindfulness at work, believing that you can improve and grow with experience, moving towards challenges, living in the moment and discovering new things about yourself and others.

In closing

When you use mindfulness and really believe, you CAN achieve more. You’ll also find you’ll be more at peace and might feel better too. So remember to stay mindful and over time you’ll be more suited for success!