The Effect of Mindful Planning on the Academic Productivity of Adolescents

Abstract

Mindfulness is the concept that indicates the awareness, acceptance, and nonjudgment of present-moment experience. However, until now, mindfulness is still a topic that has yet to be explored in great depth. To downsize mindfulness from a vague concept to a concrete application, in this study, the role of mindfulness in self-planning will be focused on determining its effect on academic productivity (measured by a self-reported questionnaire with 20 baseline questions and 10 follow-up questions) of adolescents (Chinese from 15-18 years old, N=20). At the beginning of the study, all participants were asked to complete a questionnaire with 20 baseline questions indicating their productivity level; then, they were divided into the experimental group (N=10) and control group (N=10) with a similar average base level of productivity. In the following week, the experimental group was asked to write and submit their plans for the next day following the directions on a specially designed mindful plan table in detail using handwriting and the reflection on their plan completion during the day every night. The control group just listed their tasks and completed other procedures similarly. After a week, effective results were gained from most participants (N=6 in each group) who finished the experiment, and they did the same questionnaire again with 10 more follow-up questions to determine the new productivity. Paired sample t-tests are used to analyse the data within groups, and between groups. The result indicates that no significant differences in baseline scores (p=0.12) were found between time points within the control group, while a significant difference (p=0.002) was found between time points for the experimental group; no differences were found between groups on the follow-up scores (p=0.956).