Can you imagine the boss popping off down to the factory floor to help with line work? Or the creative manager spontaneously cleaning their office? How about the CEO suddenly stopping by to join in a collating project in the conference room? These are some tasks that mindful people do to stay productive.
Mindful Tasks
Mindful tasks require our full attention, calling on our creativity, our ingenuity, our intelligence, and our focus. We need to be fully present when performing mindful tasks and maintain a concentrated attention span, being totally engaged in the performance of the task at hand.
Mindless Tasks
On the other hand, a mindless task takes little or no brain power. These tasks are repetitive and boring, allowing the mind to wander, giving it a break from the higher thinking required for mindful tasks.
Relaxing the Brain
When performing a mindless task, the brain relaxes, and takes time and opportunity to process the complex problems from the mindful tasks. Some mindless tasks are exercise, cleaning, photocopying, sorting and collating, etc.
Maintaining Productivity
Mindless tasks are needed to maintain our productivity and our sanity. By taking a break and giving our brains time to problem solve, we increase our productivity and our ability to answer the questions set before us.
Mindful vs. Mindless
Many people will tell you to be constantly mindful of your environment, that you should be vigilant in your focus on the here and now. There’s truth in that, but when it comes to work, it’s as important to be mindless as it is to be mindful.
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