Every year, all of a sudden, the long, gloriously warm days shrink to a few cold and dreary hours. The days are short but the season seems miserably long. I used to envy animals who hibernate through it, avoiding icy roads and winter weight gain. This year I want to have a cold weather plan; a way to make winter as productive and enjoyable as possible. It will never match late spring or autumn–the Napa Valley seasons with the best weather and day lengths for maximum fun and productivity, but I plan to do better than my usual “work, eat, sleep” winter routine of years past.
How to get up in the morning: What helps you rise and shine, even on cold, dark mornings? I like a hit of caffeine first thing. How about one of those coffee makers that you can preset so that your coffee is hot and waiting for you when you get up?
An alarm with a pleasant sound or your favorite song can motivate you to not push the “snooze” button. Committing to an exercise class or a session with a trainer to move your body is a good way to get going. It’s dark out, you might as well be in a well-lit gym doing something that revs your circulation and benefits you all day long.
What you do the night before makes all the difference in either helping you to look forward to the morning or to be able to snooze in a warm bed for an extra fifteen minutes. You need to set up the coffee programming and the trainer appointment, and also have a plan for accomplishing the main activities of the day.
Do as much as you can to clear the decks the night before, such as wash your hair, put away the laundry, plan a warm outfit with rain options, get the gym bag ready, and make sure all the things you need for errands and work are staged. One of the oldest and most effective organizing tips is “Put it by the Door.” You can go an extra step and put it in the car.
Schedule salon appointments, continuing education classes or workouts for evenings—these are fun things you can do outside of precious daylight hours. Push dinner time for well after dark too; the soporific effect of food combined with cold and dark can lead to some crazy early bedtimes.
Speaking of dinner, organizing your meals to be nourishing and delicious as well as healthy can make winter days brighter. Recently I’ve been organizing the files of one of the valley’s amazing health-conscious chefs. The recipes in their voluminous breakfast files have me dreaming of zucchini waffles, overnight oats and tahini energy bites. Put ingredients on your grocery list, shop for a week’s worth of recipes, and make meal prep something you look forward to.
Queue up as many entertaining movies and shows and load as many novels on your Kindle or bedside table as you can. Having some good entertainment to reward yourself with is essential over a long winter.
Make sure your heaters are working and put economical space heaters where you need them. You won’t be as productive if you’re cold and miserable at your desk.
If you don’t have seat warmers in your car and you have any kind of commute, consider buying heated seat covers. Again, any way to make the season less dreary and uncomfortable is money well spent.
You’ve got to have good lighting. If you have seasonal affective disorder, look into light therapy lamps and get as much time outdoors in the daylight as you can. Task lighting is important, so don’t strain your eyes: get the right lamps. There’s a reason candles and twinkling tree lights are such a big part of holiday decorating—light cheers us up.
Plan your festivities. It is certainly easier (and cheaper) to bah-humbug the holidays and groundhog it until February 2, but that can be cause for regrets. Planning at least one fun social activity for each late fall and winter holiday can give that sense of excitement and anticipation that helps us to stick with our good habits.