Does the Weather Affect Your Productivity?

We had unseasonably warm and sunny weather last week. Couple that with the forecast for a cold, wet weekend and we found it hard to stay focused on work.

So we took advantage of that inclination.

We did some picking up in the yard before going out to dinner on Thursday. We met a friend for lunch on Friday at a restaurant where we could sit outside.

The forecasters got it right. On Saturday, it was cold and wet. So we worked. We wrote this on Sunday.

It made us wonder: does the weather affect productivity?

According to this study [pdf], it does have an affect but it’s minimal – especially compared to the myriad other factors that play a larger role.

But we found we couldn’t resist taking advantage of the good weather to be “unproductive”, knowing we would be more productive when the weather turned.

Does the weather affect your productivity?