How Can You Benefit From The Mindfulness If You Work In It?

No matter the career path you have chosen or the area of expertise you represent. Nowadays work-related stress tends to pursue almost every one of us. We work fast and we live fast. Sometimes losing grip on how to maintain our work-life balance. And definitely, IT is no different. A large number of responsibilities, duties, and information we have to receive daily can be overstimulating.

I have seen it not once, not twice during my experience working as an Office Manager. Especially working in my position one simply cannot complain about boredom, since there is always so much going on. I am all in all one of the few people who basically have to deal with every single person in the office in oneway or another. This made me think, are we doing our best to apply all the means possible to avoid mental overload? For the good of our own and the others around us.

Mental overload - how does it affect people?

Our minds have a limited capacity for attending to new information. When we overload our brain it can start stressing out causing anxiety and discomfort. Therefore, mental overload is no joke. And can have many unpleasant consequences, including a constant feeling of stress and fatigue.

For example, I have seen some software development engineers so focus on the code or try to figure out the errors to lose their focus and composure if their work wasn’t planned properly. On the other hand, sales representatives are constantly exposed to the people factor having to tend to the customers' questions and needs. It can also provoke a great amount of stress.  

Observing all of these situations made me start thinking about all the possible ways to maintain our minds clear and focused and simply regain peace. And this was the moment when the term “mindfulness”crossed my mind.

Mindfulness - what is it?

I always thought that mindfulness is reserved for the metaphysical world, and yoga-lovers, and definitely won’t have much to do with everyday office life. But during many discussions with my peers, I discovered that there are many other ways to apply it in basically all areas of our life and make it work for our good. Then I understood that it's really worth taking a look at the mindfulness technique to facilitate our daily tasks. 

Mindfulness training helps us to learn how to focus on what is happening here and now and therefore achieve harmony of mind and body.

Mindfulness is an ideal proposition for everyone who feels stressed, frustrated and dissatisfied, also at work. It will help you to focus, relax and finally reach better productivity on whatever it is you are doing.

Mindfulness can be earned through meditation and can be practiced even during the simplest activities. The key to mindfulness is to control your breathing, observe your body and its reactions, learn how to avoid distractions, and fully focus only on the activity you are dedicating your self to.

Especially today, when many people work from home and have to somehow manage to operate in an environment where a few of the different areas of their lives connect (work, family life, their relationships). There are people who often tend to multitask: working, playing with their children, or talking to their clients while cooking dinner. In this case, by no means they won’t be able to fully focus on any of these activities.Mindfulness in this case is closely related to the rejection of multitasking.Even if we perform simple activities such as brushing our teeth, taking a break from work, or walking the dog, we should try to focus fully on this activity and this activity alone, for our own good. 

Mindfulness - what are the benefits?

So the question which comes next is: but what will it give me? What are the benefits? The mindfulness process helps rebalance your nervous system by relieving the urge to respond with fight or flight syndrome and by engaging the brain to make informed decisions rather than automatically and impulsively responding to the situations.

Observing the mindfulness practice of many of my colleagues and including my own experience I can assure you that mindfulness will help you with:

●     significant reduction of your stress levels,

●     increasing the sense of purpose,

●      augmenting your focus levels,

●     achieving greater autonomy and awareness of decisions made,

●     increase your overall happiness level,

●     strengthening, growing, and developing empathy,

●     decrease the feeling of isolation and alienation,

●      increase your mental endurance,

●     arousing positive emotions in your life,

●     improving physical and mental health,

●     great strengthening of the immune system,

●     lowering the risk of developing depression.

Mindfulness in action - how to apply it in your office?

There is no one easy receipt on how to incorporate mindfulness into your life. But I have prepared some advice on how you can start. Try to incorporate at least some of them into your daily routine and you will see how they will benefit you with time.

My mindfulness practice tricks:

1. Try to focus entirely on the activity you are currently doing.

2. Do one task only instead of several at once.

3. Pay attention to your sensory impressions instead of getting lost and losing your attention, while completing tasks.

4. Prioritize the execution of your tasks.

5. Try to work more consciously, even if it means you have to work a little slower at first - it will pay you off in the long run.

6. Use short mindfulness exercises at work. In times of excessive pressure at work, practicing a brief mindfulness exercise can be a salvation.

7. Be a single-tasker. Multitasking does not increase your productivity in the long run.

8. Group tasks into categories. For example, create emails, phone calls, errands, and meetings. Then you can get them all together in a one-time frame, instead of switching from email to phone calls to get the job done.

9. Turn off as many distractions as you can. Mute your phone or log out of your email account when you don’t need it.

10. Use alarms and notifications to remember to do your mindfulness training.

11. Practice mindfulness between tasks. Stretch, take a deep breath, or take a careful walk.

12. Feel grateful - for whatever gives you pleasure at work: interesting projects, nice people to work with, an understanding boss, public recognition, or even a cup of tasty coffee can be worth celebrating!

We hope that this portion of knowledge at least has sharpened your appetite for more. If you have some thoughts about the mindfulness training at work, please do not hesitate to contact us, by clicking the link below.