Mindful Productivity Principles: Working Mindfully
I was listening to a talk the other day on the concept of mindful productivity. The concept of mindful productivity is around the notion that one should be more mindful on their daily activities. The basis for being more mindful is to encourage you to think about why you do the things that you do. A concept which I feel strongly relates to helping you find your ikigai. This article will show you some of the neuroscience basics of achieving mindful productivity in your life.
A reason for thinking about mindfulness is that humans are generally bad at multitasking. Many studies have shown this. It is also unfortunately something we get worse at as we age. The part of our brain responsible for helping us achieve goals and ignore distraction is known as the executive system. Part of the frontal lobe of the brain, the region helps us decide on which tasks to focus on and when to suppress irrelevant information. It is also a widely regarded that when one is focused on a task, they will perform better than when they are simultaneously trying to do multiple tasks at the same time.
In fact the concept of multi tasking was invented by IBM in 1965 and is used to describe what a computer is doing rather than a psychological or neuroscience one for humans. So unless one is about to have a Brain Computer Interface or an Android — the human brain isn’t really ideal for multitasking. Indeed, the whole concept of computer operating systems is around how to manage processes and schedule them. To do multi processing very well, one generally has to have more than one CPU. As a human, we don’t naturally have more than 1 brain.
Humans are very much designed for distraction. Our brains are constantly zooming in and out, scanning the environment around us. In more tribal days, we were on the alert for dangerous animals and hostile threats. Today, that primitive us is hit by dopamine and gets excited when the phone buzzes. When something moves — our eyes look at it because it is a potential danger. Our brains are designed this way. Scientists from Princeton and Berkeley have found that in between bursts of attention, we are distracted. Not so difference to Computer Input/Output bursts!
So some neuroscience basics is that:
- There is no such thing as a “great multitasker” — we are bad at judging
- Our brain is designed for distraction
Being a bit more mindful can help us address these distractions. So here are some tips on how to be mindfully productive:
1. Awareness
Watching your thoughts and emotions at work. It is very easy to open your laptop and feel productive. However as we know, checking our emails isn’t necessarily being productive, we are just in a system of ‘mindless work’. Dr Barbara Oakley calls this our zombie self. Being more self-aware allows us to manage our emotional and mental states which is really important to helping us determine how good our work will be.
Mindful productivity is about doing a good job not just how much stuff you get done.
To be in the right mental state, you don’t need to just push yourself. By gaging the right mental state and mental space you are, you can harness your mental energy and curiosity to your productivity benefit. When you’re in not the right mode or space, you can do some admin or other stuff before coming back later to be much more productively focused. You’ll be happier too. Taking into account how you work and trying to be present as much as possible. In this way, you’ll be cultivating happiness too!
Being here, right now. Not thinking about the past or any future anxieties.
2. Flow
Flow is a concept from positive psychology, also known as being in the zone. It is about being completely absorbed in what one does, and a transformation of how one perceives time when in this state. To achieve flow state, you need to find the right balance between feeling challenged and good enough at what you are doing. There’s a few tips out there on possible suggestions of how to get into flow. But flow is kinda personal and will vary from individual to individual on what it is that gets you into the state.
The main thing to think about when trying to get into flow is finding the equilibrium being the level of challenge and level of skill you need to tackle the task.
Too easy you will be bored.
Too hard you will be anxious.
You need to plan the right challenge.
To think about how to plan the right challenge think about the tasks that you do and whether it is hard but also very interesting. If it is something that challenges you right now, but you know you could solve it.
Aside from planning the level of challenge difficulty, think about ways to also reduce and cut out distractions. Turn off slack notifications, stay on 1 or 2 tabs that are relevant to what you are doing. If you’d like a good tool to help with digital hygiene and keep tab accountability, check out a tool we made for the Chrome browser. Stay focused for a specific amount of time.
3. Environment
Having a good environment is very important to being in a positive state of mind. It’s not necessarily about how clean or tidy you are. Research has shown that messiness can actually be quite useful for creative people and it doesn’t have a bad impact as most people would think. Some creatives can benefit from the mess of post it notes, cups — it is about how you feel. If you feel annoyed by the mess, clean it. If you feel inspired, why not leave it? Mindful productivity is being aware of how you work, by figuring out what works for you.
If you figure out what works for you, then build an environment which enables you to do your best work.
For examples on how important the environment is, check out Google’s foray into interior design with their neuroaesthetic showcase at Milan Design Week back in 2018.
4. Metacognition
Metacognition is about “cognition about cognition” i.e. thinking about thinking. To be mindfully productive, you should learn about learning. Take a step back and evaluate your work strategies. How you work, how you think, how you feel and journalling is a great way to do this. Other ways to do is also through talking with a friend, grabbing them and brainstorming. Consider having a thinking buddy. At Happyness By Design we are very much about creating a community to think together. It is important to have more diffuse modes of working and thinking. Being mindful about your productivity requires you to sometimes step back and think a little.
Indeed, in Walter Isaacson’s biography on Leonardo Da Vinci, he theorises the genius of Da Vinci coming from his constant curiosity and wonderment on how things are — on metacognition.
5. Take Breaks — call them mindful breaks
Research shows that we need to take breaks and that we perhaps have about 4 hours of creative work (deep real creative work) per day. Don’t push yourself to do 8 hours straight — you might be staring at your laptop but not doing deep work. Our brain requires refuel and a recharge. There’s no definitive research on it, but a good rule of thumb is about 5 minutes of break per hour. And a longer one — a nice siesta every 3–4 hours. There’s still ongoing research and more perhaps needs to be done on mindful productivity — but scientists generally agree that one should take breaks.
So how to maintain mindful productivity?
Popularly attributed to a NAVY seal, quoted by Tim Ferris and probably originating from Archilochus, a Greek poet lyricist, there’s a saying that “we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”. In this thinking, the habits, routines and rituals define us. They are also what helps us maintain mindful productivity.
The three are similar but the main difference is the level of intentionality.
Habits are the lowest intentionality and are generally automatic. They can be good habits such as brushing your teeth or bad ones such as smoking. They are things we don’t really need to think about them. Very deeply ingrained that they require very little effort.
Routines are done consciously, such as us going to the gym or cooking a healthy meal. They require a bit of intent and conscious effort to do. Routines can also become habits but need to be done many times before it becomes ingrained.
Rituals are more meaningful practices that require bringing the highest sense of consciousness to do. They can be rituals like meditating, journalling etc but a lot of activities are — you are bringing your highest sense of consciousness to do something. People think of rituals like meditating, journalling. But lots of activities can become rituals if you make them. 4 Star U.S. Admiral William H. McRaven stresses the importance of gaining small daily wins, such as on making your bed. Highly recommend his commencement speech on this at the University of Austin. A ritual is something which you give importance to and make it important to you.
The three activities require a different interaction. Habits are what you need to manage, routines are what you need to maintain and rituals are what you make.
Since habits can be good or bad, they need to be managed. You should question the habit — is it a good one or is it a bad one. For example if you have a habit of snacking quite often, you could ask yourself if you really need those snacks. Could you make the snacks more healthier? Managing habits is not about judging what they are but making sure it is beneficial to them.
Routines are to be maintained. They are not so ingrained as habits, that with rituals you need to consciously put an effort into keeping it consistent. Routines should not be maintained as if they are chores. Instead, the focus should be on maintaining it if it is good and useful to you. By focusing on what matters to you, the keeping of routines become like an anchor to your mental health.
Rituals require creating. A bit more intentionality than routines, rituals are a little more sacred. They are activities which akin to joy triggers are conscious efforts on what you know can really boost you. From time to time, you should stop, reflect and review.
Every so often, you might not feel motivated. When struggling, ask yourself whether the activity you are doing should motivate you. Run a motivation clinic to consider whether the habits, routines and rituals are important for you to do. Ask yourself:
- Is it something is important and relevant to me?
- Do I enjoy this?
- Am I good at this?
If it is important to you, consider how you may reframe the task, provide incentives or get help to become more motivated.
Originally published at https://blog.happyness.design with thanks to Anne Laure.
