How Mindfulness May Increase Productivity for Your Small Business
Stress is a silent killer. Almost all of us are aware of the health and other implications of consistently thriving in a high-pressure environment. And yet, how many of us actually take a step to protect ourselves against the adversities of stress and anxiety? If you look around you, your personal and professional life is engulfed with excessive stress. Perhaps it is a side effect of extreme competition. It helps us grow and improve ourselves consistently, but on the other hand, jeopardizes our inner peace and comfort. Whatever the reason may be, stress is, nonetheless, a reality for all of us.
Owing to the excessive pressures of our lives, the debate on meditation and mindfulness is slowly starting to become mainstream. It is highly likely that you have had a discussion about such traditional practices and their claimed benefits with one of your colleagues as well. The human mind was surely created to adapt to the complexities of life. But with over-reliance on the technology, the inherent ability of the mind to multitask is slowly starting to fade away. This translates directly into reduced productivity; an imperative component for business success.
It won’t be wrong to state the multitasking is not an additional skill in this time and age. It has now become a necessity. Having the capacity to handle scenarios where you are answering a few emails while switching through multiple tabs on your laptop and responding timely to a group chat on Whatsapp, is a requirement for each one of us. Considering the importance of multitasking in the 21st century, meditation and mindfulness seem like a stunning idea as it has been known for years to maximize productivity and stimulate the parts of the brain which are crucial for creativity.
Mindfulness is a fail-proof strategy if you are in search of experiencing moment to moment awareness, a concept that Japanese call the “Zanshin”. If you are wondering if it’ll be a good idea to invite your employees for a group session of meditation and mindfulness for a few minutes every day at work, then you have landed on the right page. Below are the top 5 reasons why mindfulness is effective for any small business in increasing the overall productivity and consequently, the profits.
- Prioritize Like Never Before
The first and foremost benefit of meditation and mindfulness is a laser-sharp focus. The official timings for work at your office may be from 9 in the morning to 5 in the evening, but how do you monitor the time that your employees are actually productively putting into work with all of their focus? If they are distracted by their surroundings or the thoughts that run through their minds, half the productivity is lost right there. With a few minutes of meditation and mindfulness, you can ensure that they regain their focus and prioritize their tasks effectively which essentially pushes the distractions to the background. A conspicuous element of multi-tasking is having the ability to shift or switch between tasks. With a scattered focus, it is much likely for the human mind to have improper prioritization of the tasks where irrelevant distractions are brought to the front leading to unnecessary procrastination in accomplishing the task at hand. By setting the priorities right, meditation helps your employees to focus on what matters and maximize their productivity. Having a meditation program for your employees, therefore, provides you the peace of mind, knowing that your employees are sharply focused at their work.
- Experience Eidetic Memory
We are surely living in an era of technology. We do have our smartphones with us at all times that can take notes for us and present them to us on the queue. However, regardless of how advanced the technology may be, fortunately, it has failed to replace the human brain so far. Skills like a fine memory are still applicable to a great extent in pretty much all workplaces. Sparing a few minutes of your employees to meditate in a peaceful environment can have a tremendous impact on boosting their memory which will eventually help a great deal in maximizing their performance. For instance, with better memory, it is more convenient for your employees to memorize what they are taught in the training. This information is readily available for them at all times making their jobs more efficient and impeccable. Similarly, storing the safety protocols in their minds instead of a smartphone can have a remarkable impact in reducing the probability of injuries or accidents. With mindfulness, therefore, you are not only promoting productivity but occupational safety as well. In other words, it is a simple, time-efficient practice that diligently supports your business goals.
- Minimize Stress And Anxiety
As mentioned before, if there’s a natural cure for everyday stress and anxiety, it is meditation and mindfulness. Not to mention that there are multiple health implications of excessive stress. There are various diseases which have now been linked with stress and anxiety. Once your employee acquires the disease, your business will have to cover the expense for its treatment as part of the insurance plan. But with a few minutes of investment into meditation and mindfulness every day, you can take this financial burden off your business. American Psychological Association claims as much as 60% of the working class to be under extreme pressure at work. With an opportunity to meditate, you can help your employees cope with the work stress and protect themselves against its health implications. Mindfulness practices reduce stress, remove the unnecessary thoughts from your mind, restore your mood, make you more calm and peaceful, and refreshes your mind for optimal productivity and creativity. With benefits which span over all of these domains, you can take it for granted that meditation will work wonders for improving the profitability for your business. This right here is a profit that you are not making a monetary investment for, in the first place.
- Get A Sense Of Being A Team
For small businesses, meditation for a few minutes can be a fine team-building activity. For the better part of the day, your team works in isolation. By letting them have a few minutes in which they can practice mindfulness together, you enable them to experience a sense of being a team. It is a window of opportunity to promote coordination between your teams and giving them a chance to connect. Remember, running a business is not a one-man show. You can hire the most skilled and experienced professionals to work for you, but your effort will be rendered futile if you fail to provide an environment where they can work as a team. The individual performance of an employee is only effective for an organization if it is in synergy with the rest of his colleagues. It is easier to overcome the challenges and maximize productivity at work if there is a team to support you at all times. The human kind is called social animals for a reason. We can’t thrive for long in isolation.
- An Ability To See The Good
Last but not the least, mindfulness is effective in increasing the productivity of your small business because it enables your employees to stay positive. Let’s face it; you don’t want someone who can’t handle despair at work. If it takes a week for your employees to get out of the shock after one bad meeting, your business is doomed to failure. There’s a lot of competition in the market and your business certainly doesn’t have the time to wait for your employees to get out of the hopelessness after a single defeat. Meditation and mindfulness, if practiced consistently, can enlighten the minds of your employees and sensitize them to see the good in all scenarios. Failures, defeats, surprises, come what may, and they’d be capable of learning from their experience and be committed to improving for the next time, rather than sitting behind their computer screen and whining to unknown people on the social networks. Simply put, positivity inspires motivation, and motivation is the fuel for optimum productivity.
Conclusion
The benefits of meditation and mindfulness are numerous as far as maximizing the productivity of your small business is concerned. Realization of such advantages might be the reason why you find a good number of businesses now hiring yoga instructors, qigong coaches, or masters of tai chi for their employees. You can start from anywhere, even without an instructor if you opt to go for the simpler practices like square breathing, or mindful listening with the help of a guided meditation track that you can easily find on the internet. All you need is to have a peaceful environment and spare a few minutes of your employees time. Rest assured, what you’ll get in return, will truly be game-changing for your business. Your rivals may already have implemented a meditation program for their employees. It is time for you to do the same and regain your edge and dominate the market again.
