“For 20 years I’ve been looking for how to add balance to the workplace, and that gave me the idea for the experiment” says David Levy, computer scientist and technology professor at the University of Washington. A student of Zen for 20 years, he knew meditation helped him be more focused and productive at work but he wanted to find out if this might be true for others.
Levy had one group of human resource managers undergo eight weeks of mindfulness-based meditation training. A second group got eight weeks of body-relaxation training. The third group received no initial training but then was given the same training as the first group after eight weeks.
Subjects were given a stressful test on their multitasking abilities before and after each eight-week period. They had to use email, calendars, instant-messaging, phones and word-processing tools to perform common office duties. Researchers looked at their speed, accuracy and number of times they switched tasks. The participants also were asked to record their stress levels and memory performance while doing the jobs.
Researchers found that the meditation group not only had lower stress levels during the multitasking tests but also were able to concentrate longer without being distracted.
But for the other two groups – those who received relaxation breathing training and those who had no initial training – stress did not go down. However, when the third group received meditation training after eight weeks, their stress also decreased.
“Further, those who meditated also spent more time on tasks, didn’t switch between different chores as often and took no longer to get their work done than the other participants, the study found. “Meditation is a lot like doing reps at a gym. It strengthens your attention muscle,” says Levy.
For Mary Anne and I, this has certainly been true in our lives. The more we take 10-20 minutes a day to sit quietly and do some form of meditation, the more we feel grounded, more focused and in control. We know that meditation works … the key is to find the right practice and time that works for you. Meditation, also called mindfulness training, means finding 10-20 minutes to stop all the busyness and sit quietly with yourself. If 10 minutes is too much, start with 1 minute and work your way up. It’s not the length of time you spend, it’s the fact that you consistently take time to check in with yourself, let go of your thoughts and allow some time to just be quiet.
Tony Schwartz, founder of the Energy Project, says we must have time to recharge or our battery (body) will die (get sick). Meditation, if for only 5 minutes a day, not only helps to recharge and re-energize us, it increases our focus and performance as well. Who doesn’t want that?
So we can’t help but ask “What time will you meditate today? tomorrow?”
