These Age-Old Monk Practices Can Help You Lead a More Focused, Productive and Creative Life Buddhist and Benedictine monks have some ancient habits that every hard-working entrepreneur should know.

"No matter what's been going on, no matter what the mind's been stressed with right now, no matter how the body feels, just for a moment, [let] go of all that. Just [focus] on the space around you," a pleasant voice with a British accent instructed. I was listening to a guided meditation about relieving stress. Even if I don't always stick to a daily meditation routine, the occasional session can do wonders during stressful times.

Afterward, I started thinking about the voice on the other side of that app — Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk who co-founded a company valued at an estimated $3 billion (as of August 2021, after merging with Ginger Health). It made me wonder if any of the habits that Puddicombe picked up in the monastery have served him as an entrepreneur. The more I learned about monastic practices, the more inspired I was to apply them (or modified versions of them) in my role as CEO of Jotform. And I'm not alone — just check out the monk mode challenge on TikTok.

Here are some of the monastery mantras that I've found most helpful as an entrepreneur, in terms of boosting creativity and productivity.