Productivity and the Weather

“Logic is in the eye of the logician.” –Gloria Steinem

When discussing places to live once we retired, my husband came up with a plan. His idea was to drive south from the Chicago area until we arrived at a location where the residents did not recognize a snow shovel. I can write anywhere, so I was willing. We ended up in southwest Florida six glorious warm years ago.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that I was shocked when I walked out to my car Thursday morning and discovered frost on the windows. This is Fort Myers. This is not supposed to happen, folks. We simply don’t do the frost thing here.

My first impulse was to go back in the house, crawl into bed and pretend it was all a bad dream. But I was on my way to Yoga class. To me the struggle to contort my body into impossible positions is worth the effort because of the corpse pose at the end of class. I feel grounded, at peace, and ready to write when I leave. I decided not to let a little ice deprive me of this pleasure.

Not only do we not own a snow shovel any longer, we also do not have an ice scraper. I didn’t want to mess up my karma by possibly crashing into someone so I knew I had to clear the front and rear windows. I dug around in my purse. The only tool I could come up with was a package of Tic-Tacs. Don’t laugh—it worked. Keep it in mind the next time you find yourself in this sort of predicament.

I made it to class and I made it home, but nothing felt right for the rest of the day. I find it hard to believe that my work habits can be so easily affected by the weather or temperature. Logically it would seem that I’d be more productive on days when it’s nicer to be indoors than out, but in this matter I defy my own logic.

Does the weather affect your productivity?

Tags: Gloria Steinem, Chicago, Fort Myers, Tic-Tacs, Yoga,