Want to Get More Done? Your Thermostat Might Be the Problem
If you’d like to be more focused during the day, this simple, science-backed tweak to your workspace could dramatically boost your productivity—no extra hours or effort required.
Looking to be more productive?
Time-saving hacks are always on my radar, so the advice below was a welcome tool.
It’s tricky, though, because in those post-lunch, long hours of the afternoon, this tip makes it much easier for me to want a nap.
Maybe that’s where the freedom of getting to choose your breaks comes in handy.
Anyway, try it and let me know if it helps. (The tip below, not the nap. Well, maybe the nap too…)
To your writing success,
Mindy
Want to Boost Productivity? Turn Up the Heat!
By Mindy McHorse
If you’ve ever spent time in a shared office space, you can probably relate to thermostat woes. It’s one of the biggest complaints of working in a space you don’t control: You’re either too hot or too cold, but never just right.
Fast-forward to life as a Barefoot Writer, where setting your own thermostat is one of the many perks you enjoy.
That said, what’s the ideal temperature for maximum productivity?
Many people say, “the cooler, the better” — the theory being that a dropped thermostat makes you less sluggish and therefore more productive.
But it turns out the opposite is true. Not only is a cold office environment uncomfortable, it also kills your focus. According to a study by Cornell University researchers, a cool 68 degrees caused employees in an office environment to make 44% more errors.
Employees were also more distracted in the colder environment. Researchers reasoned that the resulting drop in body temperature means your body expends energy to stay warm, which means less energy for concentration and creativity.
However, in the same study, researchers found that cranking the temperature up to 77 degrees made employees twice as productive.
As a Barefoot Writer, you get the final word on what temperature works best for you.
But if you’d like to test this theory, consider upping your thermostat for a week to see if you come out more productive than before.
Great job.
This is one of those pieces that makes you stop and recalibrate.
The thermostat detail is more loaded than it appears. ASHRAE Standard 55, which most commercial buildings are still designed around, was calibrated in the 1970s on a dataset that skewed heavily male. The wars over office temperature are partly a legacy of that. Research since then consistently finds measurable performance drops at deviations as small as 1°C from individual comfort thresholds.
You have identified something most workplace productivity writing completely skips over: the environment is setting the conditions before any personal habit or routine gets a chance to work.