This Is Why You Can’t Do Any Work When It’s Hot AF Outside

We’re set for a scorcher this week. Temps are expected to hit 25 degrees celsius over the next couple of days, which generally means two things; lots of ice lollies and a whole lot of being jammed up in a stuffy office with no air con complaining about how much you want to be outside.

But what’s the deal? Why is it when the sun comes out our productivity automatically plummets?

Well, according to a report by Harvard Business School, entitled Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity, there’s a scientific reason that sunnier climes make us a whole lot less efficient.

Apparently it’s all down to something the researchers have coined “the distraction effect.” Basically, all that really means is that when it’s sh*tty outside we’re more able to focus on the task at hand and get stuff done, instead of wistfully gazing out at sunny blue skies and dreaming about being at the beach.

“It’s innately human to see a distraction and want to go take part in it,” professor Bradley Staats explains to Knowledge at Wharton.

“When you are sitting in your office and staring out at an 80-degree day, [you might think,] ‘I’d really like to be out in that.”

But, “when it’s dumping rain or [you’re] in a blizzard, you might say, ‘What the heck? Why not focus on the work that is here in front of me?’”

In short, if you can’t work when the temps climb, you’re suffering from a case of hot weather FOMO. Sigh.

But if you reckon it’s all just a load of psychoanalysis BS, you may want to tell that to the company directors who Staats says are paying extra attention to how the weather plays a key role in workplace productivity and adjusting their workloads accordingly.

Whatever, just let us out to get ice cream already.

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