From Mind-is-Full to Mindful at Work

In my leadership classes on mindful focus, I ask participants how many emails they receive each day. Most state an average of 300. I then ask how long it takes to process each message (reading, replying, filing). The average is around 5 minutes. I then ask them to multiply 300 by 5, totaling 1,500 minutes. Divide by 60 to see that it would take 25 hours to process the emails that a typical professional worker receives each day.

TMI – Too Much Information

On top of these, we’re bombarded throughout the day with texts, chats, and collaboration tool messages. And during personal time, we’re consuming social-media, news-sites and video-streaming, which bombard our brains with more information than we can handle.

The term “information-overload” was first used in 1964. It was then popularized in the 1970 book, Future Shock, by futurist Alvin Toffler, which examined a future where people experienced too much technological and social change too quickly, causing a shock to the system.

Focus on One Thing at a Time

Focusing on one thing at time is a core precept of mindfulness. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn (considered the founding father of western mindfulness) states, “Mindfulness is awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”

Try to imagine a day in your work life where you could be fully present, paying attention, on purpose, to an important task for the entire day.

Overcoming our Brain’s Natural Operating System

Nobel Laureate Psychologist/Economist Dr. Daniel Kahneman theorizes that we experience 20,000 thoughts per day, coming in three second increments that he calls Psychological Present Moments. Our mind is constantly racing in thought due to a process called the Default Mode Network (DMN), which is like our brain’s natural operating system and consists of the random thoughts that pop into our head. And when we’re ruminating on randomness, our mind is constantly spinning in circles, wandering without purpose or direction.

Stopping the Blender

When the mind is full with rumination it’s like a blender, spinning the ingredients around in a flurry and mixing them into mush. In this blender it’s hard to distinguish singular thoughts and focus on them. We must learn ways to stop the blender, or better yet, leave it unplugged, so our individual ingredients remain intact.

Tips for Increasing Focus

• Lessen screen time to decrease the amount of visual information input
• Limit social networking activity to just certain time blocks during the dayUse Block Time methods to create chunks of time for dedicated though
• Take a silent walk (no earbuds) to clear the mind, focusing on the surrounding
• Turn off email, collaboration, chat and other tools when needing to fully concentrate
• Limit the intake of news and opinion-based media that can fill the mind with worry
• Seek periods of silence where there is no auditory sensory input (ear plugs may help)
  

The biggest tip of all, is to do mindfulness focused attention meditations that slow the mind and invite singular focus for a period of time. This allows for a reset of the mind to lessen the rumination and regain focus and clarity.

When our mind-is-full at work, we can’t be mindful. By intentionally creating space, we can bring a centered state of calm into our work day, our home life and our communities too.

Read more about How Meditation Stops Overthinking.