Fun in the sun productivity [Hack Your Day]
Since I work from home, I have plently of time in the Summer to go here and there. I spend about 3 weeks each Summer at Lake Balaton here in Hungary which is a nice sunny place to be, but for me this is not a vacation, it is just a different, more sunny and fun place to work. So how can you stay productive when you have all this fun in the sun going on? Here are a few tips I use to keep my productivity at its peak.
Use the UV index to schedule work
The UV index is an international standard to measure how harmful the sun is. As a rule of thumb it is not recommended to go out into directed sunlight from 11am to 3pm. This is a great way to schedule work! Since you shouldn’t really go out in that time, why not stay indoors, or on the shady patio to do some work? You can do some serious sunbathing or swimming early on, and then take a quick shower and work until the afternoon, when you can go out again.
Schedule all your work in the morning
I realize this goes against what I just said, but this is an alternate method for areas where UV is not a concern, or for people who hate working through the midday. In fact, this is he main reason I suggest working in the morning, midday is a very tiresome time in the summer. First of all, you either need to prepare something to eat, or you just need to eat it, either way, you spend half an hour not working at least. When it’s hot, your body reacts to all this eating more intensly, meaning you get much more tired after a good meal than you might usually do. For some people this takes an enourmous effort to fight off, and indeed may lead to being less productive in the long run.
What I recommend is waking up around 7am and working untill about midday. This may give you enough time to do everything you need to do, and will free up the rest of the day for eating and having fun in general. I still don’t advise going out in the sun until 3pm, but you can take a nap, play some board games or have a light read, and so on.
Work where you feel most comfortable
This could be advice in general, but in my own experience the importance of this is much more elevated when working in these fun in the sun type places. You can take this as far as you want, from working with your laptop at the seaside, renting a boat and working there, going into the water on a mattress and working on notes in the middle of the lake, wherever you are most at peace, you will be most productive.
Most people’s minds work a bit differently when working in places where they would normally be on holiday. It is harder to sit down and do something, temptation is greater, and you get fed up with work much more easily. If you can connect fun with work however, you have a much higher chance of working productively.
Imagine wading into the water with a pen and a notepad, climbing on to your mattreess and taking notes, working on your latest ideas from there. I always get the “Wow, how cool is this!” feeling, which helps me tremendously at times.
Be firm, but flexible
Always keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with having fun. It is important to be strict, meaning you should constantly work each day, roughly the same amount, but you should let yourself let go at times. If your family, spouse or girlfriend is with you, and they are dying to play some Monopoly with you, just go with it and have fun.
If you are tense and always miss out on these opportunities, you might get more work done in the short run, but you will be more tense and angry because you can’t have fun, and you also know your friends and family has to miss out on you.
Whatever happens, try and be consistent, but do not put this rule over everything else in your life, if you are lucky enough to work at the seaside or lakeside, take some time off to have fun, Summer only lasts for a while, make the best of it!
Original post here: Daniel
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