There is documented research showing that mindfulness meditation can have many positive effects on workplace outcomes. It is reported that ‘regularly doing it boosts your resilience, enabling you to mitigate stress, regulate emotions, and have a more positive outlook so that you can bounce back from setbacks’.

One of the questions for beginners like me is how long or how short these mindfulness sessions should be? How often should we do in a day? During my quick research I found this very useful article in Harvard Business Review Can 10 Minutes of Meditation Make You More Creative? guide by Emma Schootstra, Dirk Deichmann and Evgenia Dolgova from the Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands.

The authors of the article write that they conducted a study to test whether short mindfulness sessions increased productivity. For their studies, they divided students in three groups before a brain storming session on ‘possible use of drones on business’. One group was shown 10 min guided mindfulness meditation, second one with a ‘fake’ video and third group none.

Their study revealed that the group that the group that meditate came up with wider range of ideas than the other two groups. They also found that ‘a short meditation, similar to physical exercise, often put people in a more positive and relaxed frame of mind’.

Experiment With Managers

The same Dutch University researchers conducted another similar study with Dutch research organizations with senior innovation managers. These managers were shown 12 mins mindfulness videos before they were assigned to work on a creative assignment individually first followed by in groups.

Their study demonstrated that ‘meditation helped them clear their minds, focus more on the task at hand, and come up with original solutions.

Better ideas, better decision making, and a better mood — all in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee?

Researchers, Rotterdam School of Management

The authors conclude the article with a challenge to everybody ‘to try and find out yourself whether mindfulness meditation is useful or not‘?

Content of this note post is inspired by and source from Emma Schootstra, Dirk Deichmann and Evgenia Dolgova article Can 10 Minutes of Meditation Make You More Creative? in Harvard Business Review.