Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
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Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#2On a meaningless task under laboratory conditions. Maybe mindfulness just gave them some perspective on how pointless it was.
I don't see how this is relevant to the real workplace where stress can be paralyzing and burnout is a greater threat to productivity and motivation than being chill is.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#3The very meaning of mindfulness is to detach from the self, and to do each and every task no matter how mundane it is as if brand new at each and every moment. Kind of like to see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour --so to say. So though the mundaneness of everything is quite real, the absolute newness of every moment is just as apparent. It's as if nothing has changed, yet everything has -jus all at once. At least w/o sounding too new age-y about it.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#4Most engaged yet least attached.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#5I'm singularly glad someone did this research. Anecdata: Mindfullness never worked for me, and I suspect even harmed me some. I noticed that I became more nihilist and depressed when I used to meditate. Meditation basically made me start realizing the pointlessness of everything, the little value of emotions, which is great if your goal is to become unemotional and destressed. However, stress and emotions are how humans do great things. It's what motivates us to overcome nihilism, and desire to do something, be someone, etc. I hope more research is done, and we prescribe Mindfullness only contextually and not as a panacea.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#6makes sense, mindfulness meditation changes the perceived value of rewards. Maybe someone stops ranking social status as high on their list and will not be motivated to do tasks that are only rewarded with social points.
I don't think motivation decreases for tasks that are meaningful to the individual, it can be good if the workplace goals are aligned with those of the individual, or bad if they are disconnected.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#7I'm singularly glad someone did this research. Anecdata: Mindfullness never worked for me, and I suspect even harmed me some. I noticed that I became more nihilist and depressed when I used to meditate. Meditation basically made me start realizing the pointlessness of everything, the little value of emotions, which is great if your goal is to become unemotional and destressed. However, stress and emotions are how hum…
I think this is why like most things in life, meditation is yet another thing that should be done in moderation.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#8It will be interesting to see how reproducible this is. Meditation can contribute to clarity of thought. If the task is an experiment or work that helps people and pays or something a child needs may effectively all be different cases.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#9On a meaningless task under laboratory conditions. Maybe mindfulness just gave them some perspective on how pointless it was. I don't see how this is relevant to the real workplace where stress can be paralyzing and burnout is a greater threat to productivity and motivation than being chill is.
Fair point, but meaninglessness of one's job can be quite demotivating too if you're paying attention to the bigger picture.
Re: Mindfulness Meditation Impairs Task Motivation but Not Performance [pdf]
#10As a former mindfulness case study, I'm sad to hear it was not helpful to this study. While the report does cover a number of experiments, the limitation to their research is the use of self-reports. While you can attempt to frame questions in a way to reduce priming, self-reporting is not a good metric because people can begin to respond with what they think you want to hear. Furthermore, the granularity of the timeframes for the experiments seems pretty small. In the case study I was involved in, we were tracked over months/years and showed higher "mindfulness scores" (granted, self-reported, so same limitation). A better approach (though time and cost expensive) would be to perform a longitudinal study on participants and measure their performance overtime. This removes the "answering with what you want to hear" issue while strengthening the study's validity.
As an aside, I like to look towards the Tao of Pooh (or I suppose general Taoism?). The idea is to not let things get you down, but to appreciate the here and now. Mundane activities exist and sometimes you have to do them, but if you can "get over" its mundanity, you can return to enjoying other things.