Mindfulness meditation has grown in popularity, particularly with the rise of scientific research endorsing the benefits of a regular meditation practice. Even corporate settings are recognising daily meditation as an effective contributor to employee happiness, productivity, and creativity. It makes sense that people do better work when they feel their well-being is prioritised.
Meditation has also been linked to effective time management, a win for both individuals and the businesses they work for. Below we’ll go over how a daily practice of meditation can improve your modern day career by enhancing time management, boosting attention, creating more focus, better workflow, and helping with procrastination.
Boost attention
The problem with attention is that it naturally likes to jump around. It is common to feel like your attention won’t settle. Especially try today as we are overwhelmed if a huge amount of distractions that are accessible to us 24/7. Meditation can help with obtaining better attention, meditation affects the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain involved in monitoring your focus and self-control. Researchers from Harvard Medical School found that a meditation program led to changes in brain regions involving learning and memory. Practicing mindfulness and meditation has been shown frequently to improve your ability to obtain better attention. Those who worked in high-stress work environments and practiced meditation were able to stay on a task longer and received positive feedback after a task performance.
More focus
Focus is the ability to pay attention to one thing at the expense of all others, which can be very difficult in a society that emphasizes multitasking. Increasing your ability to focus can foster creativity, promote problem-solving skills and decrease the stress associated with handling more than one task at a time. Daily meditation practice can increase self-discipline and sharpen focus at work. When you’re meditating, the point is to focus on one thing and allow your other thoughts to pass by. For someone who has difficulties paying attention to just one thing (most of us) that can be a bit daunting. An easy way to get started is to simply listen to your breathing. Mindfulness encourages more persistence to complete a task. Meditation that brings self-awareness to your emotional and mental state can allow you to approach situations with a clearer and more focused mindset.
Better workflow
We all need a little help in time management and creating a great workflow, when our work seems to flow effortlessly we feel more content and happy. As well as less distracted and able to be present during time outside of work. Mindfulness meditation has been reported to get people into a greater state of concentrated productivity. Renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term "flow" to be synonymous with "being in the zone." Meditation can help one achieve this state by understanding and establishing goals, prioritizing tasks, and overcoming challenge.
Less Procrastination
Having a mindful state is key to keeping accountable to yourself and decreasing procrastination tendencies. Meditation can be used as a tool to promote acceptance and move past negative self-talk that can get in our own way when trying to achieve a task or what we truly want out of life. A daily practice can reduce frustration, self-depreciation, and giving up on tasks. Meditation encourages you to be actively engaged in your current feelings, thoughts, and behavior in a non-judgmental manner.
The next time you're feeling like you need to cram, stay up late, or just push through, remember how even just a few minutes of meditating can be more productive. Making space for a few minutes of no stimulation is often the most productive thing a busy body can do as opposed to pushing through and struggling against that wall.
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