Autumn Blues: 9 Ways to Remain Positive and Productive
When days draw shorter and darker, and the weather edges towards winter frosts, we all need some tricks to fight off a depressive mood and remain as productive as we were in summer.
The Collabio Spaces team is sharing 9 effective recommendations for keeping the spirit going through the autumn blues:
1. Change of Scenery
This is a tested favourite method for improving mood — load your brain with new information by tweaking your environment. Add a new plant to the desk, move your furniture within the room, add more light (or use powerful life bulbs).
In general, why not upgrade your space from time to time? It’s always a good idea to spice up the everyday!
2. Manage Energy during the Day
Make the best use of your work hours and free time. keep in mind that 20% of effort bring 80% results! So, you can afford to take a break and do nothing before getting into the flow again.
Also, schedule your day according to own biorhythms. This will help you make efficient decisions with less effort. We’ve described this approach here, along with 4 more scheduling strategies.
3. Ditch Digital Noise
Turn off the tech and forget about the social feeds of ‘more successful’ others. Scrolling through social media posts of smiley vacations or family time will only dampen your spirit at work. Despite knowing that others are not always as happy as they appear on Instagram, we still become distracted. Envy adds pressure. Switch notifications off, unsubscribe from digital noise and you will reduce your pressure levels.
4. Spend More Time with Positive People
Why waste your time on those who constantly complain about how bad things are?
Avoid toxic interactions and try to surround yourself with those who strive for the best and exude positive emotions. Positive, encouraging people energise us for productivity, learning something new, and embracing experience. Let the experience of others inspire you.
5. Set Healthy Boundaries
This tip works in both professional and personal worlds. It is important to ensure both contexts work for you. What’s more, it’s essential to keep a healthy work-life balance so as not to face burnout. We have all felt the impact of remote work during the pandemic — the business and personal got confused, and many stopped dividing these spheres altogether.
By the way, not so long ago, we collected 5 myths about work-life balance you’d definitely like to know! ;)
6. Focus on Good Things
Maintaining a positive outlook is your best friend in times of uncertainty. Even if everything goes against you, try to remember that there are good things, people, events. We can bet that in a week, month or year you will not even remember about the current difficulties and troubles. But all the good things that were with you then will stay with you.
Remind yourself of this more often! You can even put a sticker note on the monitor and look at it when in a bad mood.
7. Identify Reasons of Negativity
The mood doesn’t turn sour for no reason! Whether it’s the dull weather outside, business failures, conflicts with loved ones or something else, you can always find the root of your sadness. As the saying goes, you need to work with the source of the problem, not with the consequences. If something upsets you, try to either resolve the issue or stay away from the problem, if possible!
8. Let Yourself Feel
Of course, even the most positive people have sad periods or unhappy thoughts. This is the norm, and you should not avoid this part of yourself. Acceptance is the best cure for sadness. Once you’ve figured out the reasons for the negativity, step back from it.
To quickly cope with such experiences, you can keep a diary or journal where you will write down how you feel. Awareness will lead to understanding and acceptance, and then to more positive thoughts.
By the way, you can keep your journal at hand in the Collabio Spaces app. ;)
9. Practice Self Care
Strong physical, mental and emotional health together make a great barrier for stresses and autumn depressions. There are several ways to care about yourself:
- Eat healthy food, sleep well, do physical exercises.
- Practice good hygiene every day.
- Communicate with friends and relatives and support each other.
- Do things you really enjoy — except for work, these might be hobbies.
- Relax well, take breaks between working sprints and enjoy your time!
We hope that all these pieces of advice will come in handy for those who are struggling with autumn sadness. Have some exclusive tips to share with us and other readers? Feel free to do so in the Responses section below!
