Practical tips for being more present at work (and home)
How often are you driving while talking on a phone, or thinking about work problems, or your to-do list? How often do you eat without thinking about the food you’re eating? How often do you drift off while doing other things, thinking about something you messed up on, or worrying about something that’s coming up?
We are all guilty of it and most of us are elsewhere, much of the time, rather than in the here and now. This is where mindfulness comes into play. Mindfulness is about keeping your thoughts in the present - not thinking about what will happen next and not going over the past. It’s becoming aware of your current emotions and sensations, without reacting to them. Sounds easy right but the reality is most of us have a million things happening at once - emails, phone calls, meetings, presentations, work colleagues, the list is endless. All this can leave us feeling anxious, stressed and over-committed. Fortunately, there are a few simple things we can do to allow ourselves to become more present and as a result, have a calmer outlook on our workday.
Benefits of becoming more present within your day include:
1. Makes it easier for you to manage stress
Next time a stressful situation arises instead of distracting yourself from unwanted or unpleasant thoughts that will only bring you short-term relief. Instead, acknowledge what triggers are causing you to fear and stress and work to mindfully accept them. Little tip: grab a pen and paper and write it down! Your career counsellor can help you further with navigating ways to deal with work stressors.
2. Can help to relieve mental health symptoms
When you focus on the present moment, you’re paying attention to the things currently happening. Mindfulness helps you recognize anxious or depressed thoughts as just that: thoughts. Eventually, you can learn to recognize these thoughts as you notice them and interrupt their patterns before they trap you in a spiral of distress. Career counsellors can equip you with further tools to help with your mental health in the workplace. Find out more here.
3. Strengthen Your Relationships
How many times have you been in a conversation with someone (family member, friend or work colleague) who kept looking at their phone or saying, “Sorry, what?” Maybe you’ve been the one to lose the train of a conversation when you had something else on your mind. Yes everyone gets distracted from time to time, but when it happens often, it can negatively affect the relationship.
So next time you are in a conversation, instead of letting your mind wander off to something else, instead try focusing on the moment-to-moment experience of your relationship. Your careers coach Melbourne can help you build lasting work-related relationships. Find out how here.
To help you start your journey into becoming more present within your work and home life, here are a few helpful tips from Amelia, a qualified careers coach. Contact Amelia here, to book a consultation.
1. Be Consciously Present
When you are having a bad day or not interested in your work tasks, it can become easy for you to switch off and move through your day operating unconsciously. If you shift this and become consciously present at work, you will find that you become aware of two aspects of your moment to moment experience, one, what’s going on around you and two, what’s going on within you. Let’s work with an example. If you are writing a report, being mindful requires you to give your full attention to the report writing and each time your mind wanders onto things, such as what’s for dinner or the new person at work, simply acknowledge the thoughts and bring your attention back to the task in hand.
TIP: Make a clear decision at the start of your workday to be present as best you can. Pause for a few moments before you start your workday to set this intention in your mind. Working with a career coach can help you pinpoint why you keep getting distracting and how you can become more present in your job. Contact Amelia here.
2. Add Short mindful exercises into your workday
Mindfulness exercises are a super helpful and beneficial way to help train your brain to become more mindful. Yes, I am fully aware that finding time for a 30-minute mindful exercise can prove to be very difficult in a busy workplace but this doesn’t mean you can’t be mindful at all at work!
Mindful exercises can be as short as you wish. Even one minute of consciously connecting with one of your senses. You don’t need to close your eyes. You don’t even need to be sitting down. Be creative about finding slots in the day to practice mindfulness exercises, such as while you make your morning cup of tea or on a lunchtime stroll.
Little mindful moments help to rebalance your nervous system, toning down the fight-or-flight response and engaging the wise part of your brain so that you make reasoned decisions rather than automatically react to situations. As a qualified psychologist, career coach Amelia can help you with more mindful exercises that you can add to your day. Contact Amelia here.
3. Tackle One task at a time
I get it - we all love to multi-task and most of us have our fingers in multi pies every day! But when was the last time you stuck to one task and stuck at it until you completed it before moving on? Not often, I’m guessing.
In fact, nobody can actually multi-task. In reality, your brain is madly switching from one thing to the next, often losing data in the process. Most people know multitasking is ineffective nowadays. If multi-tasking is so inefficient, why do people still do it? The reason was uncovered in a study by Zheng Wang at Ohio State University. She tracked students and found that when they multi-tasked, it made them feel more productive, even though in reality they were being unproductive. Other studies found that the more you multitask, the more addicted you get to it.
TIP: Throughout your day keep note of what you achieve in a block of time. Work out when you’re single-tasking and when you’re multi-tasking. Note down what you achieved in that time block and how mindful you were.
Over time, you’ll find yourself being more present. It won’t happen overnight and it is something you will need to keep working on but it is worth it. If you want to get deeper with mindfulness at work, a career coach is a great first step. Contact Amelia at career coach Melbourne.
Amelia McDermott is a Career Coach and Coaching Psychologist, based on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne. With nearly 20 years of training and experience working as a psychologist, Amelia has a strong understanding of how to uncover what makes people tick, and how to help people find an authentic career that aligns with their unique talents and values. If you’re looking for Career Advice or Career Counselling, look no further than Uplift Coaching and enjoy a consultation with Amelia to see if a Career Coach is right for you. Book a consultation here.