{"id":2781,"date":"2020-06-29T09:25:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T23:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/?p=2781"},"modified":"2020-06-29T09:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T23:55:57","slug":"plants-and-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/2020\/06\/29\/plants-and-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Plants and productivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/2020\/04\/27\/wellbeing-and-productivity-hacks-sessions-kick-off-on-the-5th-may\/\">Wellbeing and Productivity Hacks<\/a> sessions I did was on the topic of &#8216;Plants and Productivity.<\/p>\n<p>The basic idea is that embedding some nature into your daily life can have a positive impact on both your mood and your productivity.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve come across multiple articles and tips along the way suggesting this is the case and during the presentation I posited a few ways that you might be able to add nature to your day.<\/p>\n<p>I thought I&#8217;d share them here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Indoor plants \u2013 get some &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bhg.com.au\/indoor-plants-best-house-plants\">https:\/\/www.bhg.com.au\/indoor-plants-best-house-plants<\/a> and then gaze lovingly at them<\/li>\n<li>Take breaks in nature \u2013 about 17 minutes a day &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/au\/blog\/brain-waves\/201906\/how-much-time-in-nature-is-needed-see-benefits\">https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/au\/blog\/brain-waves\/201906\/how-much-time-in-nature-is-needed-see-benefits<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Have your lunch outside in the sunshine (assuming there is some sunshine)<\/li>\n<li>Add an outdoor element to your daily commute (walking, riding) &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/ggia.berkeley.edu\/practice\/savoring_walk\">https:\/\/ggia.berkeley.edu\/practice\/<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/ggia.berkeley.edu\/practice\/savoring_walk\">savoring_walk<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Do your exercise in nature &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/life\/is-it-better-to-do-your-exercise-outdoors\/11420432\">https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/life\/is-it-better-to-do-your-exercise-outdoors\/11420432<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Take <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/forget-siestas-green-micro-breaks-could-boost-work-productivity-42356\">micro-breaks<\/a> using nature images &#8211; this forest video is pretty relaxing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IJtkKeul5-k\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IJtkKeul5-k<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Incorporate nature sounds into your productivity routine &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/mynoise.net\/\">https:\/\/mynoise.net\/<\/a> has a good range but you can find plenty of others online<\/li>\n<li>Take time to notice nature (includes photography)- <a href=\"https:\/\/ggia.berkeley.edu\/practice\/noticing_nature\">https:\/\/ggia.berkeley.edu\/practice\/noticing_nature<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Exposure to nature works on productivity and wellbeing via a number of pathways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It improves our mood and improvements in mood can have all sorts of flow-on benefits &#8211; feel better, act better<\/li>\n<li>It exposes us to better air quality and cleans up air pollution<\/li>\n<li>It can <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Attention_restoration_theory\">restore attention<\/a> after long periods of concentrated work, which I am guessing you experience as a student<\/li>\n<li>It can lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/office-plants-boost-productivity\">greater workplace satisfaction and productivity<\/a>, i.e. you enjoy being in your workspace more. I have some plants here in my home office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2782\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2020\/06\/20200626_091544-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2020\/06\/20200626_091544-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2020\/06\/20200626_091544-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2020\/06\/20200626_091544-1-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It lowers <a href=\"https:\/\/psychcentral.com\/news\/2020\/01\/06\/plants-shown-to-reduce-stress-at-work\/153075.html\">stress and anxiety levels<\/a><\/li>\n<li>We typically engage in other healthy activities when we are in nature &#8211; e.g. walking, socialising, exercise, sports etc<\/li>\n<li>If outside, we get exposure to <a href=\"https:\/\/examine.com\/supplements\/vitamin-d\/\">vitamin D and its many benefits<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And as a keen gardener, I find many benefits of regular time spent tending to plants. It appears I am <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2211335516301401\">not the only one.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, one doesn&#8217;t need to become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2020-04-10\/gardening-australia-costa-georgiadis-tips-for-covid-19-isolation\/12132902\">Costa from Gardening Australia<\/a> to get the benefits.<\/p>\n<p>See if you can add just a little bit of nature to your day and notice if it improves your mood or productivity.<\/p>\n<p>And if it does, let me know and perhaps we can share your hack with the broader student community.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One of the recent Wellbeing and Productivity Hacks sessions I did was on the topic of &#8216;Plants and Productivity. The basic idea is that embedding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":2783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[3494,10787,9138,669,10406],"class_list":["post-2781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifehacks","tag-nature","tag-plants","tag-productivity","tag-wellbeing","tag-wellbeing-and-productivity-hacks"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}