Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, working remotely could make people work inefficiently. But, practicing mindfulness may lower levels of procrastination, says a new study.
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Mindfulness can Reduce Procrastinating While Working from Home"
“Mindfulness can decrease procrastination by lowering the anxiety associated with completing a daunting task,” Gautam said. “By being aware of our anxiety and understanding its effect on triggering unwanted procrastination, one can limit one’s habitual and automatic tendency to procrastinate.”
Gautam, along with Craig Polizzi and Richard E. Mattson, scaled undergraduate students’ levels of anxiety in different scenarios of procrastination. They found a positive correlation between anxiety and procrastination.
“Our findings also implied that anxiety plays a key role in treating procrastination,” Gautam said. “Even being aware of one’s own tendency to put things off until the last minute consistently is enough to lower chronic procrastination to some degree.”
The researchers clarified that mindfulness could be practiced throughout the day. It is merely a matter of being aware of our actions.
“To be mindful is to be consciously aware of two key aspects of the moment – what’s happening in the environment outside and what’s happening within our body and mind,” Gautam said. “We can practice mindfulness at any time by bringing gentle and non-judgmental awareness of our present thoughts, emotions, and action tendencies.”
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