Meditation is growing in popularity because of its beneficial effects on the mental, emotional and physical health of individuals. Regular meditation is akin to eating an apple a day to keep the doctor away. However, besides all the personal benefits that one derives from meditation, did you know that meditation can help you to work smarter? So how does meditation help people to work smarter? And how does meditation benefit remote workers in particular?

Meditation creates internal changes at the brain level. In turn these changes lead to  healthy, active and engaging minds. The benefits of mediation become obvious with time and practice. Just one or two 15 minute meditation sessions a day are enough to harness the personal and professional benefits of meditation.

Meditation can help remote workers work smarter in specific ways. Some of the special ways in which meditation can help remote workers work smarter will be discussed below:

Increases Focus/Concentration

One of the first and foremost benefits of meditation is that it pushes one to be present in the moment. When one is present in the moment, then focusing and concentrating on the activity at hand becomes easier. Remote workers are facing competing distractions while working from home. Countless millions are trying to balance domestic/family responsibilities while trying to work at the same time. Being pulled in many directions can make it difficult for most people to focus long and hard enough on any one activity. However, regular practice of meditation helps one to be able to mindfully focus on the task at hand.

Reduces Stress/Anxiety

According to some researchers at Stanford University, regular mindful meditation creates changes in the brain to the effect that it reduces the level of social anxiety and stress levels. Remote workers become isolated for so long that they sometimes suffer from stress and anxiety when interacting with their fellow remote workers or bosses. Therefore, a strong habit of meditation will help them to feel more comfortable when interacting with others at work. This benefit will extend to remote workers when they interact with others in person regardless of whether these interactions are personal or professional exchanges.

Increases Productivity

When remote workers meditate, they improve their focus and concentration. They also reduce their anxiety levels. These factors lead to the improvement in the productivity of remote workers. When workers are focused, they spend less time on any given task than unfocused workers. Spending less time on any one task while not compromising productivity frees up time to complete other pending activities. Improved productivity at work translates to better time management. Good time management leads to work/life balance for workers. Increased productivity is seen in both personal and professional areas of life. Since employers are always interested in boosting the productivity of their employees, it will behoove them to teach their employees to meditate.

Improves Mood

Focusing on the moment that you are living in helps you to not stress out over difficult issues that you may or may not be dealing with in the future. When the mind is not overburdened with extra thoughts, one is able to calm down and relax. For some reason, meditation makes the brain favor happy and positive thoughts over negative thoughts. Happier thoughts translate into a person being in a better mood most of the time. Since remote work can make one feel sad, stressed, and isolated, meditation will work wonders in stabilizing the mood of remote workers. Happier and improved moods boost the productivity and engagement of employees.

Creates A Sense of Purpose

A quiet, clear, focused, and happy mind helps a person understand their sense of purpose. A person who meditates regularly becomes aware of his/her place in the family, workplace, and community at large. This spells wonders for remote workers. Feeling invisible, unheard, lonely, and disengaged with regard to work are the emotions that remote workers go through regularly. Therefore, meditation creating a sense of purpose regarding work helps remote workers be more devoted to their work. They start to understand the purpose of their work and how their work fits into the big picture. This sense of purpose can help someone appreciate the job that they have and not incessantly complain about the challenges of their work.

Improves Creativity

It is thought that meditation can open or enhance the creative areas of the brain. A brain without chatter can think and focus deeply on specific ideas. This sense of creativity extends to the workplace. It can make a person innovative and a creative problem solver at work.

Creates Environmental Breaks

Remote workers have no real boundaries between work and home life. Work blends into home life and home life blends into work-life. Work seems continuous and endless. Sometimes remote workers don’t even know whether they are putting too much or not enough time into the tasks that they are performing. In a non-remote job, there is a separation between home and work life. There is a time to be home and a time to be at work. Meditation helps to create this sense of separation between home and work-related tasks. Meditation pushes remote workers to focus on the task at hand to the extent that it creates an invisible type of environmental separation.

Mental Decluttering

Just like physical clutter creates stress and hinders productivity, mental clutter creates issues with productivity too. Mental clutter causes confusion, indecisiveness, and an inability to focus on what is important to do at the moment. Meditation declutters the mind so that remote workers can work in a focused and dedicated way. Mental decluttering is all about having fewer and focused thoughts at any given moment. It is about dealing with quality over quantity. What is the purpose of trying to juggle a hundred thoughts and tasks ineffectively? Remote workers might as well be dealing with fewer thoughts and tasks and handling all of them effectively. When workers are able to handle their tasks efficiently, they will feel more confident about the quality of their work. Better quality of work means a better relationship between the employee and the employer.

Improves Self Awareness

Regular meditation makes individuals more calm and introspective. This leads to self-awareness. Self-awareness makes a person aware of the effects of their words and actions. Self-awareness also ties into having a sense of purpose. Therefore, when remote workers are aware of what they are doing and saying and how their words and actions affect others, they behave responsibly. Behaving responsibly at work means that remote workers are going to be able to accomplish what they want at work without upsetting fellow team members or bosses.

Improves Multitasking

Regardless of how meditation helps employees in focusing on the task at hand, remote employees still have to multitask. Usually, this multitasking involves executing both domestic and work-related tasks in real-time. However, meditation helps remote workers in multitasking by helping them to remain calm and not stress out as the pace of work becomes hectic. The ability to remain calm under pressure and still be able to finish all assigned tasks in a limited time is a gift that only comes with regular meditation.

Increases Adaptability

Meditation helps people to live in the moment and focus on the task on hand. This means that whatever task is in front of you is the one that you will focus on. Therefore, when bosses suddenly assign new and different tasks for you to work on, you accept the change and go with the flow. Meditation allows remote employees to cope with the changing demands of work in these uncertain times. Meditation helps people to understand that they may not always have control over the circumstances that they are facing. However, they do understand that adapting to and accepting changing circumstances will help them maintain a sense of peace and tranquility in their lives.

Make Fewer Mistakes

The focused, calm, and self-aware mind makes fewer mistakes at home or at work. Therefore, it can be said that meditation helps remote workers work smarter by committing fewer errors at work. Fewer errors at work boost productivity and self-confidence at work. This is a win-win situation for both the employee and employer.

Reduces Reactivity

Regular meditation helps one to calm down to the extent that one does not react unseemingly to changing or difficult circumstances. Instead of acting impulsively, a person responds to a situation with thought and foresight. When remote workers merely react to their circumstances, they are not able to make the most of a situation. They are not able to turn obstacles into opportunities. Furthermore, their team members and managers do not enjoy being subjected to their impulsive behaviors.

Improves Collaboration

Since meditation creates self-awareness and adaptability, it is easier for those who meditate to work in conjunction with others. Collaborating with other remote team members becomes a breeze when you respond to the needs of the moment and the team with self-awareness and a sense of purpose. It is easier to work with others when you know what your purpose and role are in a team.

Better Crisis Management

Meditation helps a person to not lose their sanity under trying times. Everyone faces a crisis at some point in his/her life. The crisis can be a personal or work-related crisis. People who practice meditation regularly are able to respond to a crisis in a calm and effective manner. They do not overreact or focus their energy on unimportant tasks. They focus on the most immediate needs of the moment and try to minimize the fall out from a crisis. This skill becomes handy for remote workers who suddenly find themselves in understaffed or difficult situations at work. So meditation can help remote workers work smarter by being able to respond to any work-related crisis without being ruffled.

Conclusion

Meditation offers remote workers a plethora of benefits that can help them to work smarter at work. Meditation helps with focus, concentration, productivity, creativity, and collaboration at work. The benefits mentioned above help both remote and non-remote workers to work smarter at work. In addition, the benefits of meditation can also be used to tackle tasks in non-work-related areas of life as well.