Can Mindfulness Really Help You Do Your Job Better?

Let me know if this at all sounds familiar? You’re first thought upon waking is the assembly of today’s “To-Do” list and by the time you arrive at work you’re being to feel the twinge of overwhelm. You make an effort to participate in idle conversation with coworkers but other thoughts hold you back. So back to the grind you go – attempting to “multi-task” amidst distractions, juggling duties as the priorities sporadically change. Upon arriving back home you’re asked if anything interesting happened today and though tired, you struggle to recall anything of importance. If you aren’t fully invested in the moment it can feel next to impossible to remember and truly appreciate the day you had at work. An average full-time job is 40 hours…
During a recent keynote address, I asked the audience the following questions: How many of you would say that the demands and complexities of your workplace have been increasing? This is always greeted with a laugh – one of those “we’re nervous for you, Mr. Speaker, because if you think things are getting easier then you’re talking to the wrong group.” How many of you expect that these demands and complexities will continue to increase? Fewer laughs, but no hands go down. And how many of you feel like your capacity to meet this rising demand will increase at the same rate? Dilemma time. People fidget in their seats a little as the mood turns more uneasy. If your hand falls, you’re admitting that…
On the surface, professional sports looks like a completely different world than the one you inhabit in the office. If you look deeper, however, you’ll find the two share plenty of commonalities: a demanding schedule, fierce competition, and unrelenting pressure to excel. To thrive in their super-charged environment, elite athletes rely on a host of mind-training tricks, most of which work as well in business as they do on the playing field. If you want to win big in the boardroom, the three athlete-approved lessons below are the perfect place to start. Be Fearless Even when the odds are stacked against them, athletes are always in it to win it. It’s tougher to place first when you think of yourself as a solid third, so…
Every now and then, it is important to put your devices down. Point Above is celebrating this day with this awesome infographic!
Avoid Work Burnout There comes a time in everyone’s work life when they consider a career change. Perhaps they feel stuck in one industry, or feel burned out from the past decade of work. So what can you do today to relieve some of the stress felt when considering a career change? How to Know Knowing when you’re ready for a career change can be challenging decision to make. There are times when work can just going through a slump and your unhappiness can dissipate shortly. But there are also times when you are completely burned out and need to make a change for your sanity’s sake. When work life begins to interfere with your personal life and creates an unhappy mental state, it may…
Do you take pride in your ability to multitask? It turns out that it’s not that uncommon (I recently saw it included on a resume as a skill!). Stepping back, I suppose I can understand the desire to do several things at once. That’s like superpower stuff. Unfortunately, one look around the office or on the sidewalks outside tells a different story. It seems that everywhere you look these days you notice people texting and checking emails as they walk, barely avoiding walking into things or one another. Ever tried to have a conversation with someone at the same time they are texting or reading an email? It’s frustrating and inefficient. When you think you’re multitasking, you’re more accurately engaging in serial tasking: quickly shifting…
Slow Down – Often our lives are filled with event after event. Meeting after meeting. Errand after errand. We are running here and there, and doing this and that and often forget the little things which just makes our day just that much harder. Whether it’s a report at work, or a bag at the grocery, things always seem to slip through the cracks. One method to avoid letting these things slip through the cracks is to slow down. Spending an extra 15 minutes in the office to tidy up, or organize your notes, or even clean out the mini-fridge may seem frivolous, but it could be during that time that you realized you forgot to email a client back or you come up with…