ERASE WORK ANXIETY
Overwrite the Monday morning blues with a simple exercise you can do at your desk
If you lie awake on Sunday nights and fret over the seemingly insurmountable to-do list you have to tackle in the coming week, you are not alone in the worrisome dark. In fact, a quarter of UK employees lose sleep due to anxiety over returning to work after the weekend, with yet more reporting that their stress levels only increase on their Monday morning commute.
A recent study into the tangible benefits of mindfulness should ease your concerns. Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada found that daily meditation before taking on your inbox can decrease mind-wandering and the “repetitive, off-task thinking” that hampers your ability to learn, complete jobs and generally function throughout your 9-5. Getting zen on a crowded train is, however, a difficult thing to imagine. Instead, adopt productivity biohacker and MH columnist Tim Ferriss’s approach to mindfulness: take one minute to write down what’s in your head – your worries, your objectives for the week, your shopping list – as a stream of consciousness. Then, and this is the important bit, screw it up and throw it away. This technique has been shown to off-load unnecessary anxieties while focusing your mind on the tasks that really deserve your attention. Putting work fears in the bin before the week has even really begun is the sort of mindfulness we can get behind. And that you don’t have to close your eyes, or focus on the ‘feeling’ of your breath is a bonus.