ICAS ICAS logo

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Careers support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Finance + Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Business and governance
    5. Charities
    6. Coronavirus
    7. Corporate and financial reporting
    8. Cyber security
    9. Ethics
    10. Insolvency
    11. ICAS Research
    12. Pensions
    13. Practice
    14. Public sector
    15. Sustainability
    16. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD courses and qualifications
    2. CPD news and updates
    3. CPD support and advice
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

These mindfulness routines will improve how you work

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
By Lesley Stewart, CA Today

16 March 2018

Take a mindful moment

To boost your productivity and focus, our experts suggest:

  • Turn off your phone - it's an unnecessary distraction.
  • Stop multitasking - one job at a time.
  • Breath slowly - it'll help your energy.

As workplace stress costs the UK economy £4 billion a year, could office mindfulness be the answer to a healthy and happy workforce?

When we’re stressed with the constant demands of our inbox it’s all too easy to overlook our health and wellbeing – and that of our team.

The average workday is filled with a cycle of meetings and surprise deadlines, and there’s rarely enough time to take five and catch your breath.

But with cases of work related stress rising significantly and costing the UK economy billions, can businesses really afford not to invest in the wellbeing of their workforce?

Why are companies embracing mindfulness?

Mindful meditation is being offered at some of the world’s biggest companies to cut workplace stress and boost productivity, and Intuit QuickBooks are one of the latest companies to recognise the need for taking a “mindful minute.”

“We recognize that the workplace can cause stress and while we place a lot of emphasis on work-life balance, we know it’s hard to take a break when it’s busy,” said Hayley Penn, HR Business Partner at Intuit. “We brought in Mindful Talent to host a breathing workshop. We hoped that the workshop would give our teams tools they could employ during stressful moments to slow down their breathing and give them a bit of mental headspace.”

Reduce your stress, gain an edge

What are the benefits of mindfulness and can it really help businesses flourish? There’s almost too many benefits to list says Alister Gray, Founder of Mindful Talent. “Mindfulness enables people in both their personal and professional life to increase their awareness, reduce stress, become more creative through greater clarity of thought, improve communication skills, deepen relationships and understanding through compassion - and to gain an edge in business by being fully present and focussed.

“This approach transcends the way an organisation is run as it has a direct impact on the bottom line, employee engagement, performance and retention. Not only that, it has been proven to increase health and wellbeing, including mental health thus impacting the bottom line via a vastly reduced number of sick days.

“As sick days reduce, productivity obviously increases and due to an increase in focus the employee and the business becomes more effective and efficient. It’s a win-win situation.”

How to improve your focus

What’s the one change we could all make today to be more focussed and less stressed? Stop multitasking and begin to uni-tasking says Alister, who explains that focusing on one task at a time has been proven by neuroscience to improve productivity.

“When we think we are multitasking and being effective, we are simply switching tasks quickly and recent studies have shown that we risk losing up to 40% in productivity. Focussed awareness on one task, without distractions, will improve your mental state as well as your effectiveness and productivity.”

Another quick change says Alister is to turn off your devices whilst working on important task. “Place your devices on do not disturb and if the temptation is too much, place the device in another room.”

Mindful Talent’s Stuart Sandeman delivered the Breath Means Business workshop at Intuit and the feedback was “nothing short of incredible.” Executive Coach Stuart said: “Intuit are a pleasure to work with, they are a forward thinking organisation who are clearly invested in their employees’ health and wellbeing.”

Putting mindfulness into practice

Hosting the breathing workshop with Mindful Talent is just one of the ways Intuit are supporting the mental wellbeing of their employees, who have access to free weekly office yoga sessions and a subscription to meditation app Headspace. Hayley said: “In a recent employee survey, many of the respondents commented on the fact that Intuit really looks after them and their wellbeing and we saw an increase in our overall engagement score.”

Hayley notes that as a result employees’ feel much more comfortable talking about their mental wellbeing and sharing when they are feeling stressed. “Many of the breathing workshop attendees have been using the breathing techniques learned to help boost their energy or to keep calm in times of stress such as before giving a presentation.”

And for any readers currently feeling the pressure of their inbox - a final piece of advice from Mindful Talent: “One thing that you can apply immediately is to breathe consciously. Most of the time we breathe unconsciously, often in shallow and constricted patterns, and this has a huge impact on our health, energy and vitality.

"Tapping into a resource that is always available and so powerful… we’d recommend any business to give it a go!”


Find out more about how Mindful Talent can help inspire your business through their tailored solutions.

2022-11-mitigo 2022-11-mitigo
ICAS logo

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

ICAS logo

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: