Living in present boosts productivity everywhere

Living in the moment not only improves your overall health and mood but also enhances productivity at the workplace, new research has revealed, suggesting that firms the world over must look into conducting mindfulness sessions for employees.

Mindfulness is often viewed as a valuable management tool that can lift an entire workplace. Injecting a corporate culture of mindfulness not only improves focus but also boosts the ability to manage stress and how employees work together, the team noted. The approach can improve a range of workplace functions and appears to positively impact overall human functioning.

“Historically, companies have been reticent to offer mindfulness training because it was seen as something fluffy, esoteric and spiritual but that’s changing,” said Christopher Lyddy from the School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in the US. “When you are mindful, you can have a greater consciousness in the present that’s vital for any executive or manager, who, at any given moment, may be barraged with various problems that call for decisions under stress,” Lyddy added.

Organisations such as search engine giant Google, global health care companies like Aetna and Mayo Clinic and the United States Marine Corps. are already using mindfulness training to improve workplace functioning, said the study published in the Journal of Management. 

A small but growing body of work in the management area suggests mindfulness is linked to better workplace functioning. The study provides an evidence that mindfulness improves attention, cognition, emotions, behaviour and physiology. 

Mindfulness or being in present has been shown to improve three qualities of attention — stability, control and efficiency.

Individuals who completed mindfulness training remained vigilant longer on both visual and listening tasks. 

Although mindfulness is an individual quality, initial evidence suggests that it affects interpersonal behaviour and work-group relationships, the researchers noted.