How to organise your work life like a monk

Working primarily from home requires Shruti Balaji to be organised, create boundaries between personal and professional, and structure time for focused, undistracted work. “Our brain is never free from thoughts, and unproductive ones always distract us,” says educator Hima Arora, who has been practising mindfulness since she started working at a Noida-based school 12 years ago. “To help employees perform optimally, organisations should take steps to make changes at a policy and design level to facilitate deep work,” says Anjali Raghuvanshi, chief people officer at human resources consultancy Randstad India. “By prioritising monk mode, we are creating an environment that benefits not only employee productivity but also their well-being and job satisfaction,” says Saurabh Kale, head of people and culture. “Working in monk mode needs to be for shorter time durations with exclusive attention to a subject or an activity concentrated in hours, and extending in bursts of time to a week or a few months.” This itself, she believes, if practised earnestly, can significantly improve mental clarity and productivity and reduce stress levels.