5 Ways To Stay Motivated In The Depths Of Winter
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash
Here’s the good news: you made it through January! It’s often the hardest month of the year, and this one certainly seems to have lasted at least 15 weeks. But as we say hello to February, we still have a ways to go before we see a return to those sweet summer days (that’s the bad news). If the dull, grey skies are getting to you, here are our top tips for making it through the day, and for making the most of it.
1. Start the day right
It’s warm under the duvet, and it’s cold outside. The sun is not streaming through the curtains, because it’s not ready to wake from its bed of clouds yet, either. The to-do list is piling up, but the motivation is not. Where do you go from here?
I find that I need a kind of mental circuit-breaker when I get into the too-many-things-to-do, I-simply-can’t-begin rut. After waking up, avoid prolonging the pain and jump straight into the shower — resist the temptation to scroll on your phone first. When you’re out of the shower, awake and refreshed, you’ll encounter another hurdle: do not sit on your bed in your towel for 40 minutes scrolling on your phone. Start with an easy task, and follow the productivity flow from there.
As a bonus, consider a sun lamp: they mimic natural outdoor light, which can boost your mood. You can also get sunrise alarm clocks which will wake you up with light, helping to bypass the doom and gloom of grey winter mornings.
2. Manage Your Day
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
Small, manageable tasks mean that you get more opportunities for gratification — you have more to tick off your to-do list! In dark times, we have to celebrate the small stuff.
There are free time management tools, like Asana, that I find particularly useful: this one’s made for teams and companies to organise projects, but it works just as well as a way to organise your own life.
When your tasks are broken up and written down, your mind won’t feel so clogged and overwhelmed by trying to remember everything you have to do. That feeling of having constantly forgotten something is not the vibe.
3. Make Time For Fresh Air
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
Sometimes we really do need to take a stupid walk for our stupid mental health. There’s a reason it’s a trend – being outdoors for just 15 minutes can do wonders. Especially for those of us working from home, try incorporating a stroll into your lunch break, or after work, to break up work time from leisure time.
Living in London, I often miss the long countryside walks available to me back home, but there are plenty of parks to enjoy in cities. For me, a trip to Hackney City Farm is a great escape from the hustle and bustle.
4. Connect With Friends And Family
Commit to quality time with your loved ones! Schedule in phone calls, video calls, or meet face-to-face if you can.
We schedule out our time for work and chores, and when it’s busy it can feel like a slog to fit anything else in. It’s important to continuously evaluate the work/life balance in our lives, and to schedule time for things that are paramount to our wellbeing — the things that make us feel happy.
5. Be Kind To Yourself
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Don’t be too hard on yourself: your worth is not determined by your daily productivity. It has been an extraordinarily difficult couple of years for many of us, and if you feel like you need a break — take one. Being well-rested is necessary for long-term success: look after yourself, and you’ll start to see, and feel, the results.
