Staying active and productive in winter looks good in books and motivational magazines, but in real life, it sucks. The laziness, lethargies and that familiar low creep into your body and life in a vulnerable cold night and never leaves you till the end of winter. It’s a major struggle to just go about doing your daily routine properly, let alone doing anything else. The worst struggle: waking up in the mornings. All you want to do is stay snuggled in your perfect bed and never come out, just like how the sunshine never comes out.
Research says that the winter blues, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), affects almost 500,000 people every year. This could be the reason for you feeling so low. If not this, winter sure has a way to make you feel miserable and out of shape.
But how to overcome this? Here are a few tips that can help fighting SAD and get over a lazy self to be more productive and energetic in winter.
- Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps majorly in boosting productivity and also your mood! If you’re not getting it from sunshine, you can take supplements. Thank God for them! Eating a diet rich in Vitamin D and complimenting it with supplements is a good idea to stay productive. Read here more about Vitamin D.
- Go outside
Yes, it is freezing cold out there, but natural light helps build up energy. So even if it is just for some time, go outside and breathe in the fresh air, instead of being bundled up inside your blankets all day and night. In doing so, you are telling your brain that it needs to get active, which is what you need.
- 10 uninterrupted minutes to do a task
Small parameters help focusing on a task a lot more than sitting for two hours for it. Set timers and dedicate 10 uninterrupted minutes to focus on one task. Shut off all distractions – your phone, the television, etc. and create a diversion free environment for those 10 minutes. And once you feel productive for those 10 minutes, you will definitely want to add more of those to finish other tasks too.
- Make a to-do list and place them all over
Get together in one list all the things you need to do for the day and then make copies and put them everywhere – your bed, your cupboard, your couch, your kitchen, and even your bathroom if you think that’s necessary! This will help you push yourself to do these activities/chores so that you don’t have to see them around anymore. Well, it’s one way to boost self-motivation.
