It’s getting hot in here – 4 hacks for hot summer days
Do you remember the days you walked out of your office and felt like you were walking into a brick wall of heat? I do! In my past non-remote jobs we were blessed with an air conditioner. Some days I didn’t even know how hot it was until I stepped out of our office building in the evening. Working remotely changed this completely – I now know exactly how warm it’s outside – and this can make it hard to work when it feels like you’re working in a greenhouse. Let’s collect some ideas to stay cool even if the sun is burning!
#1: Stay hydrated!
Most important and not only on hot summer days: drink, drink, drink! And I don’t mean drink a lot of coke, coffee or margaritas – alcohol, caffeine and sugar can be counterproductive if you want to stay cool and focused. Water is the key – you can also switch to tea if you like it more or pimp your water with frozen berries or lemon. I think and hope I don’t have to tell you why staying hydrated, especially on hot days, is essential ;)
#2: Feed your belly with the right food!
Our body is doing a great job day by day. Digesting what we eat is part of it. Some food is easy to digest, other meals aren’t. Additionally you can choose food that contains a lot of water, which pays into our first tip.
Go for meals that aren’t too heavy.
Don’t eat big plates of food; stretch it over the day, eat smaller plates and therefore more often.
Eat for example watermelons, cucumbers, salad and tomatoes.
#3: Make your home office space ready for the heat!
There are lots of tips you can follow to keep your flat or room cool:
Get yourself a fan. Please make sure you’re buying one that is as quiet as possible. It can be really annoying to have a noisy fan running all day long.
Keep all technical devices, you don’t need for your work, off.
Use cooler times of the day to open your windows and let the fresh air in. Close the windows and curtains after that.
I personally don’t want to follow the last tip as I hate being in a dark room – so I always keep all the windows open to let the air circulate constantly instead (not the best idea on really, really hot days).
I also asked some of our team members what their hacks are. Kelley, for example, had to rearrange her office set-up so her desk isn’t in the sunlight by the window anymore but on the other side of the room in the shade.
#4: Keep your body cool!
You probably won’t have an air conditioner in your home office (the environment will thank you!), but as you’re in your personal space you can just do whatever you need to stay cool. We’ve collected some ideas:
Use a wet towel and put it on your neck.
Put your feet into a bucket of water. Note: Please don’t waste the water after your cool-down-session. You can easily use it to water your plants for example.
Our dear Silvia from support lives in Greece and she is experiencing some really hot summer days (more than 40 degrees) at the moment. She tries to keep her hair wet to keep a cool head.
Julia from Marketing lives in Spain. She is fighting the heat by wearing a wet Bikini-Top.
Watch out: Some biology at this point. Please be aware that cooling down your body temperature makes your body work and spend more energy as it always tries to stay as warm as needed (I already mentioned the great work our body is doing all day!). So refreshing with some ice-cold water or drinks is OK, but shouldn’t be used permanently.
It can be hard to stay focused and get your work done on hot summer days. There is no general advice as each body and also each flat is different (thinking of top floor apartments). Try out our tips and figure out what works best for you. And: I know it’s getting hot in there, but as a remote worker you always can take off all your clothes (if there are no video calls scheduled).
Do you have any master hacks to survive hot summer days in the home office? Did you try out one of our tips? Let us know in the comments below!
