How to Boost Your Productivity, Health and Wellness at Work

It’s that time of year again when we start to think about health and wellness. Now that we’re in a new decade, I started thinking about ways to make my everyday life better! I am very much into healthy eating and exercise, I workout 5-6 times per week and I eat all my fruit and veggies so I’m covered there, but I often think about how I can feel even happier and healthier, especially during the winter when I suffer a lot from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Having SAD, anxiety AND a chronic health condition makes it difficult for me to keep up my work productivity during the winter months. I compiled some tips that I will be implementing in 2020 to boost up my health, wellness, and productivity for work and I encourage you to follow along with me and do the same!

VITAMINS AND MINERALS

Try to stay on top of your vitamins and minerals – especially the sunshine vitamin! Vitamin D has so many proven health benefits. It has even helped me with my crohn’s flare ups! The reason why I take it though is that it makes me feel happier. During the winter months in Canada we often don’t get a lot of sun so I made sure to speak to my dr so that he could prescribe me the right dose of vitamin D (I suggest you do the same!)

TRY YOGA

Try to incorporate some yoga! I’m a cardio and strength training type of person but I’ve recently joined a yoga studio, which was definitely going out of my comfort zone but I wanted to try something new. I was amazed even after one class how much the mind and body are connected, especially through yoga and meditation. I felt rejuvenated! The instructor explained how yoga (especially twisting poses) brings in new blood and it circulated in your body and brain to help your immune system. If there’s one thing I need, it is an immune boost this winter. This is my son’s first year in school and he is catching every germ imaginable! I’ve never had so many colds and viruses so I’m hoping the yoga really helps with my immune system so that I don’t have to take too many sick days and postpone and delay my work too much!

SET A TIMER FOR BATCHING WORK

Setting a timer for batching work – keeping myself productive has been a challenge at times, especially when I’m doing a task at work that I don’t really enjoy. I figured out that the best way to get the tasks I don’t like done is by setting a timer for 45-minute increments and then to stop when I’ve hit that time and go back to that task later or the next day. I close all my tabs so I can just focus on the task for 45 minutes, you would be shocked as to how productive you can be by just doing that! It’s kind of like the Pomodoro method except my time block is a little bit longer because I batch work during it. For example, I do all the social media posts for my client for the week during that time, then after the 45 minutes, I move on to a different task or take a break for a while.

THIS LAST ONE WORKS…REALLY!

Plan a vacation! We like to plan a trip to Florida every couple of years. We like to go during the winter so that it breaks up the wintery weather for a while. I need to see some palm trees every once and awhile. I don’t like going to Florida during the summer because it’s just too hot and I don’t take well to extreme heat. February is the perfect time to go, it’s still warm and sunny but the nights are way cooler. Going on vacation and taking a break from work will let you come back with more drive to be productive. We often feel draggy with work because we need a break and it’s been long overdue. Think about the last time you went on vacation, has it been over a year or two? You need to book a sunny location for at least a week ASAP!

These are my favourite tips to increase my productivity, health, and wellness at work. Working is our livelihood, but so is our health. If we don’t have our physical AND mental health, we struggle with life and work. Let’s take care of ourselves so that we can be the best versions of ourselves that we can! What are your favourite ways to stay healthy and productive?

Ellenie is a wife and mom to one amazing and spirited little boy. She is a social media manager and virtual assistant. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a special focus on generalized anxiety disorders and OCD. She has suffered from anxiety and panic attacks her whole life. Ellenie has been finding positive ways to conquer her mental battles every day and would love to share them with anyone who also suffers from an anxiety disorder. She also has Crohn’s Disease and has written about living with its struggles and raising a young baby. Ellenie lives in Montreal, Quebec, but is planning on traveling a lot in the near future. She loves to stay active and eat healthily, a few of the key lifestyle changes that have helped her with her mental and physical health struggles.

You can find her on her website, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.