Exercise and Productivity
streamline
do less. live more.
work less, produce more
I work with a colleague who swears that her daily habit of exercise makes her more productive. Since she’s one of the most productive people I know, and since my own experience seems to support this, I believe her. So I was interested to read a recent study that compared three groups of dental workers (one of the highest stress health occupations…who knew?!) and found that by reducing work hours both experimental groups increased productivity.
Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash
Upping Your “EQ”
Interestingly, however, only the group that used the reduced hours to exercise perceived that they were more productive. The group that had reduced hours but didn’t use to exercise actually produced the most—at least initially—but didn’t feel that they were significantly more productive. The control group, who worked standard hours (i.e., not reduced hours) and didn’t exercise, actually experience reduced productivity at work over time. The authors theorized that those working fewer hours maintained or grew in their productivity by reducing inefficiencies through behaviors such as focusing or improving room scheduling at work. Those who did not reduce their hours may have been experiencing diminishing returns on their effort, or suffering from fatigue or stress.
An interesting secondary finding was that the group who experienced reduced work hours but who wasn’t forced to exercise had an initial burst of productivity but this later declined over the course of the study period. The exercise group, however, experienced a slow but gradual increase in productivity, suggesting that the effects of exercise may take time and/or may be cumulative. I’m dubbing this E.Q. or Exercise Quotient. (FYI: “EQ” really stands for emotional intelligence quotient, like IQ, the intelligence quotient.)
Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash
I find this research inspiring. Making time to exercise as a caregiver can be extremely challenging. No one—unless you work with the coworker I mentioned above—is standing over you saying, “You know, you really need to take some time to take care of yourself.” Instead, their saying things like, “More yogurt. Yogurt. Where’s my yogurt?,” “I have a poop,” or wailing, “He/she took my toy/spot/paper/yogurt.” Yet research shows that exercise improves mental and physical health, reduces absenteeism at work, reduces risk of a host of diseases and, when modeled for children, actually improves their physical activity levels too. It’s nice to know that it also pays dividends in both actual and perceptions of productivity at work .
What resonates with me the most, though, is that, for these workers at least, increasing their productivity was about forming a habit of exercise. You don’t have to go run ten miles or lift tons of weights. You just have to do a little bit, most of the time, and if you sweat every once in a while, that’s even better. This is one of my “Secrets of Adulthood” (a term (and list) coined by author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin): Great strides happen one small step after another.
Speaking of steps…time for a walk anyone?
“The source for this post is: von Thiele Schwarz U, Hasson H. Employee Self-rated Productivity and Objective Organizational Production Levels Effects of Worksite Health Interventions Involving Reduced Work Hours and Physical Exercise. JOEM Volume 53, Number 8, August 2011 ”
How do you stay productive, and how do you make time for exercise? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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