Personal GrowthBeginnerPreview
Mindfulness at Work
This course teaches you practical mindfulness tools drawn from MBSR, ACT, and cognitive neuroscience that you can apply inside a busy work schedule. You will finish with a personal daily practice and concrete techniques for meetings, email, and high-stakes moments.
Professionals in high-demand roles who feel chronically reactive, scattered, or drained and want a practical, research-grounded way to restore focus and resilience.
Course content
Workbook & downloads
Put the course into practice — a printable workbook plus editable templates you can fill in and reuse.
Preview the workbook
This workbook is your active companion to the Mindfulness at Work course. Each section corresponds to a course module and contains exercises, worksheets, and checklists designed to turn concepts into daily practice. Complete the exercises in order — each one builds on the last — and return to the workbook whenever you need to recalibrate your practice.
The Attention Economy Inside Your Head
Establish your baseline awareness and begin tracking the patterns of attention and stress that shape your workday.
Exercise: MAAS Baseline Assessment
Complete the 15-item Mindful Attention Awareness Scale before reading further. Rate each statement on a scale of 1 (almost always) to 6 (almost never). Do not look up the scoring key until you have answered all items.
- What was your total MAAS score and your average per-item score? Record both here.
- Which three items scored lowest (closest to 1)? What do those items have in common about where your attention tends to go?
- Based on your lowest-scoring items, what one specific situation at work most consistently pulls your attention away from the present moment?
Worksheet: 5-Day Attention Log
Three times per day for five consecutive workdays, pause for 60 seconds and record your observations. Use the fields below for each check-in. Complete at least 12 of the 15 possible check-ins before reviewing patterns.
- Date and check-in time (morning / midday / end of day)
- Where was my attention just before this pause? (task / past / future / body / phone / other)
- Stress level right now (1 = calm, 10 = peak stress)
- What triggered any stress spike since the last check-in?
- What physical sensations am I noticing? (location and quality)
- Overall attention quality today: scattered / moderate / focused
Checklist: STOP Technique Implementation Checklist
- I have identified my first STOP anchor point (the same daily moment I will use every day this week)
- I have practiced the four-step sequence at least once outside of a stress situation
- I have done one STOP before opening email in the morning
- I have done one STOP before a meeting or call
- I noticed at least one moment this week where STOP interrupted an automatic reaction
- I have written down the anchor point and the moment I will use it in my practice plan
Exercise: Attention Pattern Analysis
After completing your 5-day attention log, review all entries and look for patterns. Answer the following questions based only on what the data shows — not what you expected or hoped to see.
- At what time of day were your lowest stress readings most common? At what time were the highest?
- What were the two or three most frequent triggers in your log? Are they internal (thoughts, feelings) or external (people, notifications, tasks)?
- What physical sensations appeared most consistently alongside high-stress entries? Where in the body?
- Based on this data, what is the single most high-leverage change you could make to your work environment or routine to reduce the frequency of your top trigger?
Formal Practice: Building Your Meditation Foundation
Log your formal meditation sessions, troubleshoot obstacles, and begin tracking both the quantity and quality of your practice.
Worksheet: 30-Day Practice Log
Record each formal meditation session below. Consistency matters more than duration — even a 5-minute session counts. Review weekly and note any patterns in what makes sessions easier or harder.
- Date
- Practice type (FA / OM / FA+OM / walking)
- Duration in minutes
- Time of day
- Location
- Mind-wandering frequency (1 = rarely wandered, 5 = very frequent)
- Session quality (1 = very difficult, 5 = very settled)
- One notable observation from this session
Exercise: The Redirect Observation
During your next three FA practice sessions, keep a tally of how many times you redirect your attention back to the breath. This is not a competition — it is data. Most beginners redirect 10–30 times in a 10-minute session.
- Session 1 redirect count and the most common type of distraction (thought, sound, body sensation, emotion):
- Session 2 redirect count. Did your ability to catch wandering improve, get worse, or stay the same?
- Session 3 redirect count. What single word would you use to describe the quality of attention in this session?
- What does your tally tell you about your personal distraction patterns? How does this map to what you observed in your attention log?
Checklist: Practice Obstacle Pre-Commitment Checklist
- I have identified my most likely practice obstacle from the 7 listed in the course
- I have written a specific pre-committed response to that obstacle
- I have set up a morning anchor that does not require extra calendar time
- I have downloaded or bookmarked a timer app (Insight Timer, Oak, or equivalent)
- I have completed at least 7 consecutive days of any-length formal practice
- I have written my mindfulness identity statement in my own words
- I have identified one accountability structure (partner, app, journal) and activated it
Informal Practices: Mindfulness Inside the Workday
Apply mindfulness techniques directly to workplace tasks, communications, and stress responses — without additional time blocks.
Worksheet: Single-Tasking Experiment Tracker
Run a 5-day single-tasking experiment. Each day, select one 50-minute deep work block and apply the single-tasking protocol from the course. Record the data below. Compare your subjective productivity and output quality against your normal multitasking days.
- Date
- Task chosen for the single-tasking block
- Start time and end time
- Number of times attention was pulled to another task
- Items captured on the capture list (count only)
- Subjective focus quality (1–10)
- Output produced (describe briefly)
- Comparison to typical day: better / similar / worse
Exercise: Mindful Communication Audit
Choose one recurring meeting or communication context this week and apply the mindful listening protocol from the course. Afterwards, reflect using the prompts below.
- Which communication context did you choose (team meeting, one-to-one, email thread)? What prompted you to choose it?
- Describe one specific moment when you noticed your internal monologue activating while the other person was speaking. What were you thinking, and how did you redirect?
- Did you apply the ACT defusion technique to any email or message this week? What was the thought you defused, and how did the interaction unfold differently than it might have?
- What is one change you will make permanently to how you handle email that triggered a strong emotional response?
Checklist: Nervous System Regulation Daily Checklist
- I practiced box breathing at least once today in a non-emergency context (building the skill before I need it under pressure)
- I completed a 5-minute body scan today at midday or during an afternoon energy dip
- I identified at least one physical tension pattern in my body scan (location and description)
- I applied box breathing or the STOP technique in at least one moment of acute stress today
- I closed my laptop during at least one conversation today and gave the speaker my full physical attention
- I waited at least 10 minutes before replying to any email that triggered irritation or defensiveness
Designing Your Sustainable Mindfulness Practice
Build your personal 90-day practice plan, measure progress against your MAAS baseline, and create a system that sustains itself after the course ends.
Worksheet: My 90-Day Practice Plan
Complete every field. Vague plans fail — specificity is the mechanism. Review this worksheet at Day 30, Day 60, and Day 90 and update only the fields marked as adjustable.
- Daily anchor habit (the existing routine I attach my practice to)
- Daily practice type (FA / OM / STOP / body scan / other)
- Daily practice duration in minutes
- Daily practice location
- Weekly deeper practice: day of week, time, duration, type
- Monthly review date 1 (Day 30)
- Monthly review date 2 (Day 60)
- Monthly review date 3 (Day 90)
- My accountability structure (name of partner or specific app/method)
- Anticipated obstacle 1 and my pre-committed response
- Anticipated obstacle 2 and my pre-committed response
- My mindfulness identity statement (I am a person who...)
- My MAAS baseline score
- My MAAS post-course score
- Change in MAAS score
Exercise: Self-Compassion Break Practice
Apply the 3-minute self-compassion break to one specific difficult work experience from the past month. This is a writing exercise — the act of writing externalizes the experience and supports metacognitive processing.
- Describe the difficult experience briefly (2–3 sentences). Do not edit or minimize it — write what actually happened and what you felt.
- Step 1 — Acknowledge: Write what you would say to yourself to acknowledge this difficulty without dismissing it (This is hard because...)
- Step 2 — Common humanity: Write one sentence connecting your experience to the universal human experience of struggle (Many people in demanding work...)
- Step 3 — Kindness: Write what you would say to a trusted colleague going through the same experience. Then re-read it and apply it to yourself.
Checklist: Course Completion and Graduation Checklist
- I have re-administered the MAAS and recorded my post-course score
- I have completed my written 90-Day Practice Plan with all fields filled
- I have scheduled my Day 30, Day 60, and Day 90 review dates in my calendar
- I have identified and activated my accountability structure
- I have written pre-committed responses to my two most likely obstacles
- I have practiced the STOP technique at least 20 times across the course
- I have completed at least 14 formal meditation sessions during the course
- I have applied at least one mindful communication technique in a real work situation
- I have practiced box breathing in at least one moment of genuine stress
- I have written my mindfulness identity statement and placed it somewhere visible
Your Action Plan
- Complete the MAAS today, record your baseline score, and identify your three lowest-scoring items as your top practice priorities
- Run the 5-day attention log this week — three check-ins per day, 60 seconds each — and review patterns on Day 5
- Choose one STOP anchor point and practice it daily at the same moment for 7 days before adding a second anchor
- Begin 5-minute FA breath practice the morning after your attention log review — attach it to coffee or another reliable anchor before opening any screen
- In Week 2, add a single-tasking block of 50 minutes on your most cognitively demanding task each day and track output quality in the single-tasking tracker
- Apply the ACT defusion technique (I notice I am having the thought that...) to the next three emails that trigger a reactive response
- In Week 3, extend your FA practice to 10 minutes and add a 5-minute body scan at midday on three days
- Complete your written 90-Day Practice Plan before finishing the course — include your accountability structure and schedule your three monthly reviews
- Re-administer the MAAS after completing all four modules and calculate your change score
- Share your practice plan with your accountability partner or enter your habit tracker to create external commitment
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