Mindfulness at Work: Setting Intention to Maintain Calm

Medically reviewed by Vara Saripalli, Psy.D. — By Jenna Fletcher

Mindfulness is being present at the moment without judgment and acknowledging your emotions without feeling overwhelmed or critical. It allows you to focus on what you’re doing and block out obsessive thoughts or distractions.

But these descriptions are just scratching the surface of what mindfulness is and what goes into actually becoming mindful of your environment. Mindfulness often requires practice and meditation — among other techniques — to help retrain your mind to block out distractions and focus on the moment.

In practice, mindfulness allows you to be more purposeful in what you’re doing. By focusing on the present task, you can become more productive and potentially reduce stress, and feel more fulfilled in the workplace.

What is mindfulness in the workplace?

Mindfulness involves being present in the moment without worrying about either the past or the future. It involves not judging what is going on around you, but instead observing it and responding in a calm, rational way.

Mindfulness in the workplace may help you to:

see what is going on around you
avoid judgement
approach your work and relationship with others without bias

For example, when you’re mindful of what you’re doing, you may take a deep breath and then focus on completing a spreadsheet until you get it done.

It can allow you to move through it with fewer distractions and likely get it done faster, allowing you to focus on other tasks or alleviate stress.

When you don’t practice mindfulness the same spreadsheet may take longer to complete because instead of focusing on the task at hand, you may be:

thinking about your weekend plans
worried about all the other things you need to do
wondering why your boss or co-workers could not get the same work done

In other words, you get distracted by what might happen and what happened before you got the assignment. The distraction slows down your work, which could lead to falling behind, feeling stressed, or other possible consequences.

How to practice mindfulness in the workplace

Mindfulness takes practice to implement. You won’t be perfect at it, even when you have a lot of practice doing it.

For example, you may be able to focus really well on the spreadsheet before lunch and then let your mind wander to your weekend plans as you stare out the window around 3 o’clock.

But there are some things you can do to try to practice mindfulness in the office and possibly improve your mental health and overall job performance.

Some of the first mindfulness steps you can take include:

Slow down and pay attention to what is going on around you, taking note of as many senses as you can
Pay attention to what is going on around you at the moment
Accept yourself as a good friend or family member does
Take a few minutes to focus on your breathing in a relaxed state, such as:
- sitting at your desk with your eyes closed if you have a white-collar job
- sitting in your car, breakroom, or restroom if you have a blue-collar job

Practice being Present

Being present can be very difficult. A lot of things compete for our attention on a regular basis, like:

work demands
home life
community events

To help you rehearse, you can try practicing meditation in the office. There are some techniques that can help you become more present in the moment by allowing you to focus your thoughts and block out negative reflections and feelings.

Focus on a Single Task at a Time

Like other aspects of mindfulness, this can be difficult to implement, particularly without practice. However, when you can, try to focus on doing only one task at a time.

This may allow you to better optimize your time and get more done, which may improve your mood as you accomplish tasks and reduce your stress levels.

Let’s recap

Mindfulness at work may help you to focus on the present and react in a calm, controlled manner. It can have several health benefits, such as reducing stress and improving your overall sense of well-being.