The Covid-19 pandemic has brought with it several changes that has drastically shifted our schedules. The past several months have been a trial and error phase for many, to navigate how to optimally work from home.
Meanwhile, psychology researchers too, have discovered effective "work from home strategies" that can prove beneficial for everyone. If you would like to improve your productivity and concentration levels, Mindful Working is a special trick to incorporate into your work from home regime.
Watch our Video on Mindfulness Here!
What is mindful working?
Mindful working means to work with maximum awareness and concentration. Mindful working means to have improved attention with minimal distractions. Mindful working also helps with better emotional regulation and stress management. Research has proven that those who engage in mindful working have shown significant differences in efficiency.
Here are few steps you can take to work mindfully:
Step 1: Engage actively in Mindfulness
In order to engage in mindfulness, you need to sit in a comfortable position, listen to the silence and notice internal and external cues. Asking yourself questions such as,
“What am I thinking right now?”
“How do I feel right now?”
“What sensations do I have in my body, how is my posture and facial expressions?”
Then paying attention to the pace of your breathing and fill your chest with air like a balloon then exhale. Taking few minutes to notice the various sights, sounds, scents and textures around you. As you attune to the internal and external cues make sure you do so without any judgement. Even when you notice negative thoughts and emotions arise, avoid being critical or labeling them as “bad” instead simply accept them as they are and watch them, as if you were an objective bystander.
These simple tasks only take 5 to 10 minutes and significantly reduces stress-levels, improves emotional regulation and concentration for work. Incorporating mindfulness into your work breaks, can make a significant improvement in efficiency.
Step 2: Psychologically disengage from work
The reason why working from home leads to lethargy and decreased productivity is because we are unable to ‘switch off’ our brains from work mode even when our office hours are complete. We are psychologically engaged or ruminating about work throughout the day and it is mentally exhausting!
This is where we need to psychologically disengage.
We can do this by setting a fixed schedule when we commit to work with minimal distractions, once work is done, it’s vital to switch off your work gadgets and disengage not only physically but psychologically as well. The more rested you feel when off the clock, the better you can reconnect during work hours. When you are tempted to keep thinking about work obsessively, remember to do the mindfulness exercise to relax yourself.
Step 3: Create healthy Boundaries
What are a few healthy boundaries you can enforce when working from home?
Maybe it means you communicate certain expectations to family about your work hours, maybe it involves avoiding family related discussion or the removal of digital distractions.
Aim to create healthy boundaries with how much media you consume by asking yourself,
“Does this deserve my time and energy?”
Especially with the news headlines ringing incessantly with tragic loss of many lives from Covid, it would be advisable to limit covid-related news consumption time as soon as you notice yourself stressing about it excessively. Another healthy boundary to create is to set apart personal time from family time, in order to do something you enjoy, it could pertain to half an hour of reading, walking or a creative project. It takes discipline to care for yourself intentionally, however these simple steps can go a long way!
Want to read more about managing covid related stress? Click here!
Follow these three steps to make work from home a productive and successful experience. Did you find these steps helpful? Let us know if you would like specific resources on emotional wellness! Email us at info@meadowsofhope.com.
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