Tag: Summer

Light, weather, and productivity—thoughts from a summer rain shower

My (home) office is in a small attic conversion. I have a large window right in front of me, and a smaller one behind. Light from the small window creates a reflection on the monitor, so its shade stays down. I like a lot of light in the room, so I prefer keeping the shade on the large window open.

The large window faces south, and overlooks my backyard. The trees on the mount provide the backdrop. When the sun is up, the south-face means it shines straight through the window, and into my eyes. There’s a cluster of trees to the east end of the backyard that stops the sun coming in early in the morning. Later in the evening, the sun dips sufficiently to the West for the light to not fall straight on me. However, if the sun is out, for most of the day it shines straight into my eyes, forcing me to close the shade—darkening the room.

…if the sun is out.

That phrase is at the centre of my paradox.

I am happier when it is sunny. I am also a lot more productive when there’s a lot of light in my room. Sadly, the position of the window means that I can’t be both.
If the sun is out, I can’t keep the window open so am neither uber-productive nor very happy.
If the sun is not out, I can keep the window open, so am quite productive, if not as happy.

This is where the seasons also make a play. In winter, the days are short, and the sun rarely makes an appearance even in those short days. This makes most people sad, including me. But this also means that I can keep the window shade open all day. This gives a tremendous boost to my productivity (and relative mood).1

In summer, the days are long, and the sun makes an appearance more often. So I need to keep the window shade closed most days—a dampener to both productivity and the mood. The mood recovers a bit from walking/running in the sun during the midday break, but productivity does suffer.

Why am I writing this now? Because I just recorded this observation.

I had quite a productive autumn-winter-spring this year. However, I have been struggling a bit to keep the work going at the same pace since the sun started showing up. However, for the last 10 days or so, we have had a fair amount of rain and rain-like weather. This has meant very little strong sun, and I have been able to keep the window shades open. Productivity has been through the roof!

Continue reading Light, weather, and productivity—thoughts from a summer rain shower

A happy, summery spring day

It’s still spring time, but the weather today belonged in mid summer – temperatures in high 20s, bright sunshine with no clouds in sight, and a gentle breeze just to help stay cool

I went for my first bike ride (non commute/transport) in almost 11 months – the first since the mammoth 150+mile day in Wales last June.

It. Was. Beautiful.

Loved the feel of rolling along on a road bike on our Surrey roads and lanes. Beautiful sunshine, and fresh green leaves everywhere. The gentle SSE breeze helping stay cool on the way out, and helping out the tiring legs on the way back. The beautiful stream side in Shere, and a happy ride partner. It was so good that even the 3-4 dickheads in cars who attempted injury/murder couldn’t piss me off for too long.

Loved it! :)

(Returning to news of City & Arsenal drawing helped too – that 4th place is now in our own hands, 2 wins away.)

Add in an evening spent playing with Chewie, listening to soft jazz and enjoying the (now) pleasant chill in the air. The day could scarcely have been better.

On to the work week tomorrow – lots of SMR follow-ups, and IDT feature devs for me, and likely the last week in office for R.

Happy end to a happy week :)

View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards town center
View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards Cathedra
The oh-so-inviting stream in Shere
View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards Newlands corner
Moi at halfway point break in Shere