Copyright forbes
If you're like most workers, your mind wanders 47% of the time in a workday, but there are tips to steer your stray mind back into the present and boost job performance. You’re the captain of your ship. You and only you can make day-to-day decisions about your well-being and mental health. You’re the only person on the planet who can make big life decisions about your career or who you want to spend the rest of your life with. But you have passengers on board like doubt, worry, control, judgment and rumination that hijack the ship, causing your stray mind to interfere with job performance. When Your Stray Mind Hijacks You At Work How often is your mind on autopilot in fast-forward motion, skipping over what’s happening now, stuck in the past or future? You know what I mean. You have to get through the traffic jam to your appointment instead of being in the traffic jam. You have to hop in and out of the shower to get to work instead of being in the shower. You require yourself to rush through lunch so you can complete the project on your desk instead of being present with each bite. Do you frantically work on projects focused on the next item on the agenda without regard to what it’s doing to you mentally and physically? Are you worried the boss won’t like the finished product or thinking about what you’ll be doing this weekend? These out-of-the-moment episodes create lots of stress and disconnect you from yourself and your surroundings. Amid the strains and stressors in today’s uncertain job market, your brain is the part of your body that decides whether you will “crash out” or remain calm in the face of constant digital disruptions, quiet layoffs, economic uncertainty and 9-9-6 work schedules that threaten our very survival. MORE FOR YOU When you’re stressed, the brain becomes myopic, focusing on the threat or the anxious thoughts for survival. The threatening thoughts circle in your head like a school of sharks, and the anxiety hijacks your nervous system, throwing your prefrontal cortex (or rational part of the brain) offline, eclipsing the bigger picture that you would ordinarily see when anchored in the present moment. Your mind could be wandering right now. You could be thinking about what you ate for lunch and what you “should” have eaten. You could be worried about unpaid bills or an unfinished project wondering how you’ll meet the deadline. Or you might be replaying in your head an argument you had with your main squeeze. Harvard researchers reveal that your mind wanders 47% of the time and that when you stray, you pay. When your mind wanders, you’re more stressed out and unhappy than when you stay in the here and now. The Harvard scientists report that people are happier—no matter what they’re doing even working overtime, vacuuming the house or sitting in traffic—when they focus on the activity in the present moment instead of think about the past or future. Scientists say the way you use your mind can keep career pressures or job woes from hijacking you from the present moment. Mindfulness holds your awareness in the present and prevents you from ruminating about what happened (in the past) or what might happen (in the future). It keeps stress levels down, makes you more effective at your job and enables you to enjoy a happier life. A Mindfulness Tool To Rescue Your Stray Mind Right now your mind could be miles away from your body. Thought streams of future worries or past regrets compromise your ability to engage and focus on tasks in the present. When you can stay in the moment, your presence of mind keeps you fully immersed in whatever you’re doing. And you’re able to work mindfully and productively in an alert, active and calm manner. Mindfulness is a powerful tool to harness the social circuitry of your brain, reduce mind wandering and bring your attention back into the present moment when stressful situations take us out of the here and now. There are many ways to practice mindfulness meditation that you can find here. But one of the easiest and simplest tools to bring you back into the present, lower your stress and calm your mind is a mindfulness tool called the 3-3-3 exercise. When you notice moment-to-moment body sensations, mental processes and feelings that arise, it grounds you and helps you focus and concentrate. As you practice the three steps, take one minute for each one and do it slowly. You can repeat the exercise as often as you need to reach that present-moment calm state. Listen for one minute. Pay attention to three sounds you hear around you. With eyes closed, you might hear ambient noise such as a rumble of thunder, whoosh of traffic or giggling voices off in the distance or the immediate sound of a humming air conditioner or your own gurgling stomach. Observe for one minute. Name three objects you can see around you. Take the time to notice their shapes, colors and any other details as vividly as you can in your mind’s eye. Touch for one minute. Notice three objects you can touch and take in how the each one feels. You can brush your hand over the chair at your workstation, objects on top of your desk or the screen you’ve been looking at. Notice if the texture of each object is smooth or rough, warm or cold or heavy or light. The 3-3-3 tool harnesses the social circuitry of your brain and resets and recharges your mind during the workday. It breaks the cycle of anxious thoughts, rumination or obsessive worry. It snatches you out of your sympathetic nervous system’s story (the fight-or-flight or stress response), activating your parasympathetic nervous system (the rest-and-digest or calming response) anchoring you in the present moment and enabling you to be more efficient and productive. If you practice this three-step, three-minute exercise once or twice a day on a regular basis, it has lasting effects over the long term. It widens your resilient zone, and over time, it prevents stress from hijacking you when you’re faced with job challenges. But the best part of regular moment-to-moment mindfulness practices is how you feel inside your skin. You start to internalize the realization that the past is over and gone, the future never arrives and the present is right here and now where life is really happening. Calming and centering your stray mind there enables you to thrive and experience life as it happens, enjoying yourself, your work and loved ones to the fullest. 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