5 Ways Good Wellness Helps to Optimize Your Productivity

There are some compelling connections between good wellness and your overall productivity.

Whether you are a business owner, employee, freelancer, or stay-at-home parent, taking these associations into account may be of significant help to reap certain rewards.  Honing in on good wellness in support of personal productivity can be great for the following:

• Help you to get things done
• Contribute to meaningful progress towards your goals
• Ultimately, lead to a more flawless journey from point A to B when it comes to your Achievements, Desired Outcomes, and other areas of Success

Implementers of workplace wellness offerings have been rather keen on this for years.  Studies on these programs have observed improvements in various productivity measures across the workforce population that were enrolled.  Also, positive changes were shown in both people considered healthy and sick, such as those with at least one chronic health condition.

As an individual, a proactive approach to wellness is certainly an area to consider for both personal health outcomes and productivity-related results.

Poorer health may interfere with the ability to function well.  Furthermore, it can result in certain limitations.  Although not all health conditions are within our immediate control, engaging in wellness programs and activities can help to prevent certain impairments in our health and well-being.

5 ways that good health and wellness can influence productivity include the following;

1. Improved mental clarity and focus.  People who are in good or better health tend to comment that they also feel better mentally.  Also, certain activities and habits, such as physical activity, meditation, getting sufficient sleep, and eating well can help out our internal biochemistry and the brain which can lead to better memory, executive functioning, and overall cognition.
2. Stress-reduction and reduced burnout.  Wellness can also support people to learn coping mechanisms for when life puts on the pressure, especially considering that many people are juggling to maintain a good balance across priorities.  The American Institute of Stress has been monitoring facets related to the onset of stress, including work-related factors.  High-stress levels may lead to missed days at work, less focus while completing tasks, and a poorer outlook.  Many health-related activities lead to reduced stress levels.
3. Greater levels of happiness.  Although complex, research suggests that “happy workers” feel more satisfied and are more productive.  The exact path leading to someone’s happiness includes several factors, however, people participating in various health related-activities and wellness programs report a greater sense of well-being including overall happiness and a favorable outlook on life.  Furthermore, more engagement in healthy activities may also reduce loneliness.
4. Enhanced motivation and well-being.  Health and wellness as a whole is a great area to plan, work for, track, and achieve goals.  The function of this alone can encourage positive motivation which can have a bit of an amplification effect for other aspects of both productivity and positive well-being.
5. Fewer unplanned interruptions due to illness.  Better immune health can serve as a catalyst to avoid the onset of illnesses or, at least, reduce the severity.  Certain good health practices can help to take a proactive approach to protect and boost the immune system.

Habits such as nourishing the body through good food, taking breaks for physical activity and social time, leaving time for creativity or creative thought, and getting enough quality sleep are all areas that make up “good wellness”.  A more comprehensive list of suggestions is included in a Thrive Global article focused on correlations between well-being and higher performance.

Photo credit(s):  krisna iv on Unsplash

Ashley L Arnold, MBA, MPH is a lifestyle health educator and coach who supports clients to channel authority over their health, well-being, and overall vitality.  Offering health education approaches and 1-on-1 coaching modules, she gets them out of excess weeds of information and inconsistent practices that don’t get desired results.  Through helping people focus on the right applications paired with appropriate consideration for bio-individual facets, they become stronger, more confident self-advocates for their health.  Bottom line, they will surpass challenges, embrace healthful living with ease, and, best of all, feel a greater sense of empowerment and more energy!

In need of formalized support to make healthful lifestyle changes?  Contact me through my business site.

References:

American Institute of Stress, The (n.d.).  Workplace Stress.  Retrieved from https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress.

Gubler, T., Larkin, I., and Pierce, L. (2017, Dec 19).  Doing Well by Making Well: The Impact of Corporate Wellness Programs on Employee Productivity.  Management Science, 64(11), 4967-4987.

Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School (2020, Jan 29).  12 Ways to Keep Your Brain Young.  Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/12-ways-to-keep-your-brain-young.

Krause, W. (2017, May 7).  Wellbeing is Correlated to Higher Performance.  Thrive Global.  Retrieved from https://medium.com/thrive-global/why-well-being-has-everything-to-do-with-productivity-bc89ecc09959.

Peiró, J. M., Kozusznik, M. W., Rodríguez-Molina, I., and Tordera, N. (2019).  The Happy-Productive Worker Model and Beyond: Patterns of Wellbeing and Performance at Work. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(3), 479.

Raghupathi, W. and Raghupathi, V.  (2018, Mar).  An Empirical Study of Chronic Diseases in the United States:  A Visual Analytics Approach to Public Health.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(3), 431.

Nichols, H. (2018, Jan 10).  How to Boost Your Brain.  Medical News Today.  Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320576.php#1.

A Wellness Journal for Your Best, Healthy Life

A wellness journal can be important in achieving your goals.

The use of a journal can help to Clear the mind, allow for Self-reflection and Emotional expression, Provide accountability, Reduce stress, and improve overall Problem-solving.  It can be supportive of personal growth and may lead to a greater sense of empowerment in one’s life.

It is also considered an inexpensive form of self-care!

Writing therapy with the use of a journal has been used in a range of scenarios related to overall health and wellness.  Essentially what can make journaling supportive to health is when it is leveraged in a concerted way.  More on this can be found through PositivePsychology.com under “writing therapy”.  Also, a brief synopsis on the history of journal writing as a form of therapy is available from the Center for Journal Therapy.

In scientific studies, various associations between creative expression and health outcomes have been observed.

Self-reflection exercises, such as those that can be applied through the use of a journal, have been used to support people in overcoming grief or trauma.  The rationale behind this is that expressive writing can help people to acknowledge traumatic events, organize thoughts, and, then, help them to make sense of things.  Essentially, it is a way to learn from the experience and move forward.  Experts in this area point out the need to find the right amount of time spent on journaling vs. over-reliance on the tool which could result in rumination.

Studies that have focused on people with chronic health conditions have shown improvements in overall well-being even if the act of journaling was only once a week.  Furthermore, there has been some evidence to suggest the simple act of using a journal can boost the immune system and, therefore, benefit health overall.  This could have been a bi-product resulting from stress reduction.

Improving immune health is especially relevant when health conditions have been diagnosed.  

For general wellness and personal growth, journals can be used to create healthy habits.  A few ways in which a journal is supportive for goal setting and forming habits include;

• Definition and visualization of goals
• Organization of information and supportive details
• A catalyst to plan necessary steps and your time
• Leverage of self-accountability and check-ins

Furthermore, the use of a journal can be a great way to notice patterns in your behavior and possible triggers that throw you off track.

When incorporating health and wellness into your journal, you can also use sections to monitor Food and Water intake, Sleep or fatigue, Exercise, Self-care, and factors or symptoms associated with a health condition.

Using a wellness journal is not only a good way to plan out your favorite healthy activities, but also to draft and track other personal goals, such as those related to Productivity, Altruism or Volunteerism, and/or Relationships.

In my wellness practice, I leverage a symptoms journal approach that also incorporates factors related to well-being.  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly participants will notice something they hadn’t before completing the journaling exercise.  Recently, I added a simple journal tool for general health and wellness.  It is conveniently named Live Your Best, Healthy Life!

Photo credit(s):  Wellness Stock Shop

Ashley L Arnold, MBA, MPH is a lifestyle health educator and coach who supports clients to channel authority over their health, well-being, and overall vitality.  Offering health education approaches and 1-on-1 coaching modules, she gets them out of excess weeds of information and inconsistent practices that don’t get desired results.  Through helping people focus on the right applications paired with appropriate consideration for bio-individual facets, they become stronger, more confident self-advocates for their health.  Bottom line, they will surpass challenges, embrace healthful living with ease, and, best of all, feel a greater sense of empowerment and more energy!

In need of formalized support to make healthful lifestyle changes?  Contact me through my business site.

Sources:

Ackerman, C.E.  (2019, Nov 20).  Writing Therapy:  Using a Pen and Paper to Enhance Personal Growth.  PositivePsychology.com.  Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/writing-therapy/.

Baikie, K.A. and Wilhelm, K.  (2005, Sep).  Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing.  Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11(5), 338-346.

Center for Journal Therapy  (n.d.).  A Brief History of Journal Writing.  Retrieved from https://journaltherapy.com/get-training/short-program-journal-to-the-self/journal-to-the-self/journal-writing-history/.

Murray, B.  (2002, Jun).  Writing to Heal:  By Helping People Manage and Learn from Negative Experiences, Writing Strengthens Their Immune Systems As Well As Their Minds.  American Psychological Association, Monitor on Psychology, 33(6), 54.

O’Connor, M.  (n.d.).  Evidence of the Healing Power of Expressive Writing.  The Foundation for Art and Healing, The UnLonely Project.  Retrieved from https://artandhealing.org/evidence-of-the-healing-power-of-expressive-writing/.

Pennebaker, J. W. and Smyth, J.M.  (2016).  Opening Up by Writing it Down:  How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain, (3rd edition), New York, NY:  The Guilford Press.

Smyth, J.M., Stone, A.A., Hurewitz, A., and Kaell, A.  (1999, Apr 14).  Effects of Writing About Stressful Experiences on Symptom Reduction in Patients with Asthma or Rheumatoid Arthritis:  A Randomized Trial.  Journal of American Medical Association, 281(14), 1304-09.