3 Reasons Why Practicing Mindfulness Can Help You Complete Your Most Important Tasks
Be present, and watch everything fall in place.
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I used to struggle to complete my most important tasks.
Actually, I still do from time to time. Not so much as I used to, but I still do.
If you’re like me, I don’t blame you — I’m with you.
Because let’s face it. We only call them our most important tasks because they’re difficult and often time-consuming.
As a result, checking email and doing other easy, low-value tasks become really tempting.
But if you really want to move the needle towards success, you can’t escape doing your Most Important Task — your “MIT.” That’s right, it’s so important that productivity experts gave it a proper acronym.
This is where practicing mindfulness can help.
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner’s Guide
“With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present moment in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness is a state of mind that you can achieve by focusing your awareness on the present moment.
In other words, you are aware of your thoughts, your emotions, your body, and the surrounding environment for each passing second.
If you’re new to the practice, and if this is a little hard to wrap your head around, don’t sweat. I know the feeling.
When I traveled across Asia and visited multiple Buddhist monasteries to practice meditation and mindfulness with the monks, it took me a really long time to grasp the concept of what it truly meant to be mindful. I had a lot of questions that needed a lot of answers.
For now, the most important thing you need to know is that being mindful is being present. You’re not reflecting on the past nor are you interested in the future. You are simply in the moment experiencing what’s in front of you while being aware of your body, thoughts, and emotions.
There’s a reason why mindfulness is such a widely-accepted practice all around the world. We understand that we as humans think a lot, so much so that we make up thoughts in our heads that could stir up emotions in our hearts and lead to actions that we may not be able to take back.
It goes without saying that mindfulness is key to personal growth. When you practice mindfulness — the act of being in the now— you’ll be able to positively influence the day-to-day, micro-level activities that are required to be successful at work and in life.
And yes, I’m talking about your MITs. We’ve come full circle, eh?
#1 — You’ll Find That Nothing Is Too Difficult
It’s a well-known practice to do your most important tasks before all your other tasks. That’s because they hold one particular quality: it holds high value. It’s the one that will move the needle in your life towards success.
Oftentimes, however, your most important tasks also hold another underlying quality: it’s difficult.
We've already established this earlier.
By practicing mindfulness, however, the word “difficult” becomes null.
You’ll realize that it’s a self-defeating word to describe and compare the current task to what you know is easy and difficult based on your past experiences. But when you are able to practice mindfulness, you are no longer thinking of past experiences, and the task at hand becomes just that: another task that you must complete.
But what if the task is inherently difficult — like it requires skills and experience to complete?
No such thing as a task inherently difficult. It’s all in our heads. Skills and experience, however, can be gained. That means, if you don’t have the current skills nor the capacity to finish the task at hand, then it requires only more time and effort.
This is my point: when you are present, you try to complete the task or solve the problem without the exhausting, mental gymnastics of either comparing it to other tasks or questioning whether or not you can do it.
#2 — You’ll Be Able to Say Goodbye to Distractions
When was the last time you were trying to complete a task and then the next thing you knew, you were mindlessly scrolling through the internet?
Sure, it might be an act of habit, but you must also understand why it was a habit in the first place.
You’ll find that the root of the problem is because you lacked the attention and awareness of reaching for your phone or browsing through Facebook.
When you practice mindfulness, it will help you focus on your most important task because mindfulness requires that you are aware of your actions at all times. And if you’re always aware of what you’re doing, then you can practically kiss all your distractions goodbye.
You’ll be aware of when you’re staring into space. It’ll be easier to catch and stop yourself when you’re mindlessly scrolling through social media. And you won’t start thinking about what else you have on your plate nor will you start thinking about what you’ll have for dinner.
Everything that you do becomes intentional, all in the name of finishing your most important task.
#3 — You’ll Be Able to Take a Deep Breath
Sometimes, your most important tasks can be completely wicked. It will try to discourage you from completing it. But it doesn’t stop there, it will try to taint your hopes and dreams to the extent of making you quit.
You start having doubts and questions. Will doing this actually make a change? What kind of impact will it create? Am I just wasting my time? Should I just quit?
When you are not present, you imagine different scenarios in your head and become overwhelmed, which ultimately prevents you from doing your best work.
But you can put a stop to this, simply by taking a deep breath.
Part of practicing mindfulness is that it will allow you to pay attention to your thoughts and how your emotions react to them.
You’ll realize that whatever you’re thinking about is all an illusion and it’s stirring up your heart unnecessarily. You’ll realize that nothing has actually happened yet. And you’ll learn that no amount of anxiety will change the outcome nor help you complete your goals.
By practicing mindfulness, you choose to stay in the moment and do the MIT right in front of you. Because you’ll learn that’s the only thing you can control.
A Blessing From Up Above
Remember. The default of our minds as humans is to constantly think either about the past or the future.
It might be in our DNA or it might be because of how we’re all raised in the modern world.
In any case, it doesn’t change the fact that you can take charge of and responsibility for your own life. You have the ability to control your mind, be aware of yourself, and make the conscious effort to be mindful.
This ability is what will allow you to do your MITs, reach greater heights, and aim for success in your lives. You can take advantage of this, this opportunity to do so is a blessing in and of itself.
