How does Spring affect our moods, productivity and how can we make most of it?
As most of us might have realised, Spring brings a lot of positivity, extra light and better moods to many of us. It usually marks the fresh start of the year and we tend to make space for things that would enable this fresh restart for us. Along with physical decluttering, decluttering our thoughts will bring us fresh perspectives and new ideas. A few of the ways we can practice this ‘spring’ mindset through our everyday work activities are as follows:
- One thing at a time:
Multitasking on one hand might give us an impression that we are getting multiple things done at the same time, but on the other hand, it proves to be less productive as we are constantly shifting our thoughts across multiple subjects. Multitasking diverts our attention and causes interruptions and distractions in all of the activities. Focusing on one task at the moment leads to effective completion of the task and reduces brain fatigue.
- Organise your space for creativity:
As we are all returning to offices slowly, there will be many opportunities for social interactions around each others’ desks. Take an effort to reflect on yourself through the objects that are on your table. Inspirational elements such as blooming flowers or small significant objects that connects you with yourself create a positive spirit around and spread good vibrations. Make opportunities for timely social interaction around your desk. This is also a unique way that fosters meaningful and creative worksites, portraying individuality. Employees’ happiness impacts their productivity and overall makes a workplace a positive atmosphere for everyone.
- Find an anchor point each day:
During the day, find one anchor point out of all the tasks and then let other tasks be in their order of importance. Feeling confident in ourselves is directly proportional to our level of productivity. We might leave feeling underconfident if we tie productivity to a lot of tasks in a day. A good way to tackle this can be having one goal each day that will determine our productivity. Slowly we can increase the number of tasks for each day and gradually increase our productivity without feeling underconfident in ourselves.
- 2 hours of Deep work:
After determining if we are a morning person or night person, we can dedicate 2 hours during any time of the day to ‘deep work’.This is the time when we get done the most important task of the day when there are minimum distractions. For example, I am personally a morning person so I would dedicate 7-9 am to deep work when there are not many emails and no noise of the information. As energy fades during the day, we can get other non-creative tasks done at that time. This leads to achieving productivity without feeling burnt out. Knowing when we work best, helps us to achieve most during the day.
- Physical exercise keeps our thoughts moving:
Exercises help us to be alert and increase our blood flow. It gives us more energy that will help us in accomplishing tasks. Approximately, moving our bodies for 45 minutes a day in total gives us the energy for the entire day. It doesn’t have to be heavy gym lessons, it can be any activity like walking, dance steps, anything that excites us. Physical exercise has a direct influence on feeling confident during the rest of the day.
- Pause, reflect.
In the fast-paced motion of life, we miss out on small details that happen and our life becomes very event-focused. We judge ourselves too fast and we sometimes don’t get an answer on the reason we behave in a particular way. In these moments, we need to pause, take a step back, and try to understand ourselves. Looking back at our way of working helps us to understand what is not working in our ways of working and it will help us to do things differently. Reflection helps in decluttering our mind, recognising our behavioural patterns and helps us to think in terms of possibilities rather than limitations.
Hope this Spring brings a lot of refreshing starting points for you and make you feel more productive and confident.
Happy Spring!
