Enhance Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness

Ability to cultivate mindfulness in a noisy world is a super-power. Jacqueline Carter shares useful and actionable strategies in this interview.

Welcome!

In this edition, we are exploring the all-important question, “How do we remain focused and creative in a world of endless distractions?”. I had the opportunity to interview Jacqueline Carter who wrote a fabulous book titled “One Second Ahead” that I read and reviewed in 2016. I recently read the book again and found the insights and framework even more relevant today than when I read it in 2016. Sharing the interview and a brand new sketchnote that I created based on it.

But before we go further, consider:

• Checking out Visual Leadership Pack of HD Sketchnotes – a compilation of high-resolution sketchnotes covering 90+ powerful (and timeless) ideas to elevate your leadership and learning game. Ideal for coaches, leaders and learners.

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The Competition For Your Attention

Research says that the rapid pace of work is taking a huge toll on our ability to focus, be productive, remain engaged and be creative.

A majority of people at workplace today seem to be struggling to cope with severe stress resulting from conflicting work priorities, hyper-connectedness, onslaught of notifications and information overload. Constant disruptions in technology and the need to keep up adds to the stress.

The key questions then are: How do we cope up with this stress? How do we address our lack of attention so that we can not only complete the things we start without getting too anxious, but also enjoy the process of doing so?

Being “One Second Ahead”

With these questions in my mind, I picked up the book “One Second Ahead – Enhance Your Performance at Work with Mindfulness” written by Rasmus Hougaard with Jacqueline Carter and Gillian Coutts.

The book emphasizes the power of mindfulness in boosting focus, clarity, and performance in a busy world. The core idea is that by training the mind to stay present - just one second ahead of distractions - we can reduce stress, improve decision-making, and become more effective leaders.

The book offers practical tools like short mindfulness practices, mental strategies to handle distractions, and routines to bring calm into everyday work life. Ultimately, it’s about reclaiming control of our attention to thrive both personally and professionally.

An Interview with Jacqueline Carter