A clever way to see the light

Getting outside during the day in winter takes some scheming

As I’m writing this post a few weeks before the winter solstice, the sun is rising after 7 a.m. in my part of the world. It is setting shortly after 4:30 p.m. This means that if you work a fairly normal 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. sort of schedule, the only time you’d see daylight would be on your morning commute.

This could be depressing! So I was intrigued to see a little life hack from a participant in my recent Better Workday Challenge (a project I did for part of my next book). She said that she purposefully kept her lunch in her car. That way, she needed to go outside during the middle of the day in order to retrieve it.

This nudged her to see the sun at least once during the workday. I imagine if she parked a little farther from the office, say, in the back of the employee lot, she’d force herself to build in a little walk too!

Now, obviously there are caveats here. The car isn’t refrigerated (though in cold climates it essentially is). I know not everyone drives to work. I guess on a really busy day she’d risk not getting her lunch if she truly couldn’t get out the door for five minutes.

But I imagine that isn’t every day. And the upside of this pre-commitment strategy is that even on a very busy day, she’d need to find five minutes to go retrieve her lunch. She might not want to at the time. Indeed, she might be annoyed! But her past self knew that a little sunshine and fresh air would put her in a better mood for the rest of the afternoon. It would probably be worth the little annoyance.

So maybe something like this would work for you too! If you don’t drive (or park in a garage) maybe plan to go out to a restaurant or to a coffee shop once or twice a week just to force yourself outside too. You might strategically arrange a meeting with someone external in a nearby spot, rather than your office, to force yourself outside.

In summer, it’s easy to get outside after work. But since that isn’t an option in winter, to see daylight you have to go outside during work. Whatever nudges you to make that happen is probably wise.