Pausing for More

Abstract

As college students are adapting to new workloads and freedom while facing significant stressors and time management struggles, they might not have tools to assist their transition. Students took the Brown & Ryan (2003) Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in class, participated in a classroom presentation on mindfulness, purposeful pausing to destress/re-center, and typical personal productivity methods such as time management tools and commonly adopted systems. Then, they practiced a selected mindfulness as well as productivity tool for weeks during the semester, re-took the MAAS and completed a Qualtrics survey about their practice experience. Students self-reported slightly increased mindfulness via the MAAS and the brief survey as well as anecdotally. Via qualitative feedback, students described their experience with the mindfulness and productivity tools and expressed feeling “seen and heard.” They also described the class in which the experience took place as understanding, welcoming and comfortable. Information on each suggested mindfulness and productivity Tip/Tool (hack) introduced in the classroom presentation is provided.