How to Stay Motivated During Winter
Nine ideas to help you stay energised, positive and productive during the darker months using a holistic approach.
LAST UPDATED: 22/10/2021
This article touches on a lot of ways you can improve your wellbeing and align your body and mind so that you can get the most out of it. Yes, you’ll find a few straightforward productivity-boosting tips as well, but, I like to approach productivity (and everything in life) in a holistic and well-rounded way. I truly believe that each area of your life affects the other and that by working on all areas, you’ll be able to find more complete solutions.
So, here are just some ideas to help you increase productivity and boost your mood and energy.
1. Wake up at the same time every day
Waking at the same time every day gets your body into a sleep routine that makes it easier for you to fall asleep at night, get better quality sleep and feel more awake and raring to go in the morning. Make sure you do this on weekends too. If you need to sleep in, don’t deviate by any more than an hour.
2. Delay your morning coffee
Try to delay your morning caffeine hit by two to three hours. You might feel tired immediately after waking, but your body releases cortisol to help with that so that after 30 or 60 minutes, providing you’ve slept ok, you’ll be feeling awake. Drink coffee during this time and your body gets an extra bump of cortisol so that yes, you’ll peak in the morning, but you’ll also crash majorly later in the day.
Delaying your first hit of caffeine until two to three hours after waking will mean you take it at a time when that natural cortisol peak is starting to drop, providing you with a more balanced lift of energy.
An extra piece of info – if you rely on caffeine every morning for your cortisol hit, your body produces less of it naturally. So don’t mess with your body – delay your caffeine if you can!
3. Go phone-free first thing
Stay off your phone in the morning for as long as you can. While it’s tempting to see what everyone’s up to, doing so causes you to go into a reactive mode which triggers stress responses and primes your brain for distraction during the day. So try to go phone-free for the first hour and start your day as you mean to go on – calm and in control.
4. Get outside
Ok, so this article claims to help you stay motivated, and I admit, it might not seem that way with me telling you to go spend time outside. But it really does make a difference, especially during the winter months when we have fewer daylight hours.
Getting outside during the day and spending some time in the natural light helps us regulate our internal clock and sleep better. It also lifts your mood and gives you energy, which will help when you’re back at home/in the office and trying to work.
5. Plan your day
If you’re here looking for more direct ways of increasing your productivity, this is one.
Take some time every day – either at the end of one day in preparation for the next, or at the beginning of your day – to set your intentions, make a list of what you need to do and put a plan in place to get it done.
How you do this depends on what works for you. I would recommend setting some time for each thing on your to-do list. A rough goal is to block your day and tasks into hourly slots, as the more specific you are about what needs to get done, the more productive you’ll be and the less time you’ll waste.
Not only will setting a plan help you get more done, ticking each item off your to-do list as you go acts as a little reward that boosts your motivation further.
6. Make small steps every day towards your goals
It’s important to make sure that your to-do list isn’t just tackling a superficial layer of things. If you’re just batting the ball back to the other side of the court every day and you’re not actually making progress, you’re not serving yourself well. So make sure that what you’re doing a) has an impact, b) honours your needs, c) aligns with your values and long-term life goals.
Having said about the importance of your actions making an impact, it’s important to understand that the impact might not to immediate. Some long-term goals require small steps over a very long time before you see the result. These are the ones that are the hardest to stick to. But by making consistent steps towards them, you will get there in the end, and you’ll rest more peacefully at the end of every day knowing that you’re making progress and not putting things off.
It can help to spend some time daily (or however often it works for you) reminding yourself of your long-term goals and the reasons you’re doing what you’re doing.
7. Use your weekends wisely
Okay, so lots of these tips aren’t necessarily just for winter. But I find that it is more difficult to stay motivated and productive when it’s colder, wetter and darker outside, so I feel like I’m bringing these tips to you at an appropriate time. Do these things during the winter and you’ll likely reap the benefits and want to carry your new habits through to next year and the warmer months. Hopefully, it feels more worthwhile to be developing habits and routines that you’ll benefit from for life rather than for just a short amount of time.
So, this tip can also be used all year round. It’s about setting some time during your weekend to prepare and plan for the week ahead so that your busy working days are not as stressful.
You needn’t go overboard with this. Here are some simple things you can do at the weekend that’ll make weekday-you happier:
- Spend an hour or so cleaning your home so that it’s easier to maintain during the week.
- Plan your meals for the week, or at least have a general idea of what you might like to eat. Do a food shop and perhaps some bulk cooking. I love cooking but I personally don’t like setting aside time during my weekend to cook a load of weekday dinners – this, to me, feels like a chore. So, instead, I make it a habit to cook double of whatever I’m making if I know it’ll keep well. I do this during the week too, often freezing the leftovers. Then, on days when I don’t feel like cooking, I have a choice of homemade meals to pick from.
- Wash your hair on Sunday evening, check the weather forecast for the next few days and get an idea of what you’re going to wear and the accessories you’ll require. You might even set a few days of outfits out ready.
8. Have leisure time
Rather than waiting till you’re burned out and spending a day or two on the sofa or in bed, make a habit of getting regular leisure and rest time. It might seem too luxurious and a ludicrous idea considering the amount you need to get done, but by allowing yourself some time every day for pleasure and relaxation, you’ll feel happier, more rested and better able to focus when you’re getting stuff done. If you struggle with this, make sure to set time for it in your daily schedule.
9. Practice task blending
Have you heard of task blending? It’s one of my favourite ways of motivating myself to do the jobs I don’t like. You simply pick one job you don’t like to do and one thing you do like to do and either reward yourself with it after or find a way of combing them at the same time.
Some practical examples of task blending:
- Listening to your favourite podcast or to motivating music when tidying the home, doing the dishes or exercising.
- Making your favourite warm drink to sip as you start work or do your daily admin.
- Lighting a nice smelling candle to help you stick to your daily meditation.
- Phoning a friend or family member during a walk.
- Making vegetables taste better by celebrating them and making them the star of your dish, rather than just a boiled-to-a-pulp side. Or, if you’re wanting to eat something “naughty”, having a smaller portion of it and having some fresh fruit or vegetables to eat alongside it – just make sure they’re also tasty, else it’ll feel like you’re punishing yourself and you won’t enjoy your meal.
- Buying yourself some flowers or a tiny treat when you have to go out to the bank or do food shopping etc.
I hope you got something from these tips and I’d love to hear how you keep yourself motivated. Drop a line in the comments section below if you have anything to add.
