5 Easy Tips to Achieve Mindful Productivity

Photo by: Hayashi Huann Chin

Whether you’re working from home, running your own business, or aiming to be more productive around the house, mindfulness is the key to achieving productivity on a whole new scale. 

Many people follow the old paradigms of using packed schedules and multi-tasking approaches to improve their productivity forcibly. But, unfortunately, multi-tasking and mindfulness don’t always work together harmoniously. Multi-tasking tends to steer you away from a mindful state of consciousness. Instead, it encourages your mind to fixate on a seemingly endless string of tasks, projects, errands, and demands.

Mindfulness is a far more powerful productivity-boosting strategy. When practiced every day, mindfulness and meditation can significantly aid your productiveness and your sense of wellbeing across many facets of your life. These practices can train your mind to resist the urge to procrastinate and encourage you to set and adhere to meaningful intentions and goals daily. 

Being mindful will allow you to keep your sights set on your more prominent career, financial, and personal goals and achieve them in good time without unconscious hindrances.

Mindfulness is essentially a simple but powerful habit that encourages your mind to remain in the present moment. It might seem straightforward on paper, but mindfulness takes a significant amount of conscious mental effort to achieve—at least at first.

It’s all too easy to let your mind slip away from the present during your workday, while you’re at your desk, collecting your children from school, or working on a demanding project. Unfortunately, if this happens enough, your days may end up feeling blurred and disorientating, and your productivity levels will suffer as a result.

If you’re mindful and able to remain in the present moment, you’re much less likely to forget important tasks, suffer from overwhelming, and submit to persistent distractions.

Multi-tasking is an inefficient and limited approach to maintaining productivity—and there’s evidence that proves this sentiment. When we multi-task, we’re prevented from getting into the flow of the task at hand and are less productive and accurate as a result. 

Constantly switching between tasks demands our brains to adjust repeatedly to new tasks. This uses up valuable energy and time that we can use to help us get ahead.

It’s challenging to remain in the present when every facet of your life is distracting you from it. Some of the worst culprits in this regard are smartphones, tablets, and social media platforms. All these devices and platforms keep your brain in a state of unrest, eager for the next notification or update.

If you’re currently working on a project or task that needs your total concentration, consciously limiting distractions can help you remain productive and sharp. 

Switch your phone to silent, log out of Facebook and Instagram, and even close your email client for a while if necessary.

Doing so will allow you to reach the deeper levels of reasoning and attention required to engage in a task fully and achieve a flow state. If you don’t limit your distractions, they’ll divert your attention accordingly, distract you repeatedly, and prevent you from performing at your best.

Although smart devices and social media platforms are designed to distract you, you can train your brain to remain on track using mindfulness practices. These practices will empower you to overcome creative blocks and planning-related challenges while minimizing procrastination. 

If you battle with procrastination, ask yourself why you’re distracted and what you’re avoiding. Then, ask yourself when you think you’ll feel capable of giving the task at hand your full attention. 

When you phrase it this way, chances are, you’ll be able to sit down and get to work sooner than you thought possible.

Many people find getting into their flow tricky, even if they have been practicing mindfulness for years. 

The key is to be aware of what makes you happy and what you love to do, as these things will automatically induce a flow state for you. When you’re in the flow, time seems to slow down exponentially, allowing you to use your sharp, mindful focus to achieve a new level of productivity.

Of course, there will be “have-to’s” to take care of in your daily schedule, and not all these tasks will appeal to you. However, there’s nothing wrong with asking yourself what you’d genuinely like to do on any given day and then doing it! 

This can be an enlightening and empowering practice, especially considering how our use of language can impact our consciousness and leave us more eager, positive, and productive.

This tip may seem too simple to be true, but in actuality, lists can be a beneficial tool in the quest for mindfulness. 

Lists allow you to clear space in your mind without forgetting important tasks and commitments, allowing you to focus your full attention calmly on the present moment. Mental clarity promotes mindfulness, and mindfulness promotes renewed productivity—regardless of the task at hand.

Pushing yourself to maintain a packed schedule until you’re exhausted is not a realistic way to remain productive. When you’re tired, stressed, and burned out, you’re significantly less effective, and your reserves may take weeks or even months to replenish.

The time demands of meditation and mindfulness practices might seem overly demanding to people with hectic schedules at first. You might think you don’t have 10 minutes to spare to meditate or sit in nature, as there’s too much to get done.

However, periods of pressure are when mindfulness can help the most. Sitting in meditation, taking a relaxing walk, or just taking a few minutes out of your day to center yourself and refocus on your goals can boost your productivity, leaving you feeling more than capable of addressing life’s demands.

If you struggle with taking a break, set an alarm that reminds you it’s time to regroup. After a few weeks, you won’t need the alarm anymore, as this period of mindfulness will be a habit. Alternatively, you can use a hemp-based CBD oil to get into a meditational mindset. CBD will impact your body’s endocannabinoid receptor activity, helping you relax and experience better mental clarity. 

Mindfulness, connection, and productivity are all intimately linked. A mindful person can remain in the present moment, and thus, more equipped to handle any task while remaining productive and motivated. 

You can consciously train your mind and focus on tasks that need your attention while minimizing distractions to promote a state of flow in all areas of your life.