What Women Professionals Are Doing To Stay Well During Seasonal Shifts

There’s something disorienting about experiencing darkness at 5:30 p.m. Suddenly, there’s an urge to curl up on the couch and call it a day, but your inbox is still flooded with emails. This is one of those frustrating yet strangely universal realities for professional women. Fortunately, there are ways to maintain your edge, focus and creativity, even when your body is begging for a nap instead.

Feeling sluggish or unmotivated as the seasons shift is not a personal failure or a sign of lost ambition. It’s a biological response to environmental cues. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is real, showing up most often in the fall and sticking around through winter, and it can affect anyone. Discover how it can mess with your health and productivity:

• Grogginess: Your body’s circadian rhythm is regulated by light. When the sun rises later, your brain doesn’t receive that strong “time to wake up signal,” making you feel groggy and sleepy at work.
• Sleepiness: Seasonal changes can cause a dip in melatonin. You might feel more sleepy, irritable or have less patience for colleagues.
• Vitamin D deficiency: It’s common for vitamin D levels to drop significantly due to longer nights. This can make you more susceptible to colds or fatigue, leading to more sick days.

SAD might be common for working professionals, but there are effective ways to manage it. Here are some practical tips to help you stay healthy and productive as winter rolls in, even if all you want to do is hibernate under your desk.

Food powers you both physically and mentally. It’s like a two-for-one deal that most people forget about. Small healthy swaps can impact your focus and energy. For instance, if you love chocolates, try swapping milk chocolate for dark chocolate with at least 90% cacao to reap its mental health benefits. 

Start with baby steps — no need to quit all your favorites just yet. Practice habit stacking for mindfulness. Instead of forcing a new behavior, stack it onto something familiar to make the healthier changes stick longer with minimal disruption to your comfortable routines. 

Let go of the “all or nothing” approach to fitness. The goal during low-energy seasons is consistency, not intensity. A short walk is better than a skipped hour at the gym. Consider breaking your exercise into 10-minute chunks — do squats and pushups before your shower, take a brisk walk at the end of your workday and do stretching while dinner cooks.

Block out time for your workouts in your calendar and guard that slot like you would the last piece of cake. Treat it as a nonnegotiable, stick with it and you might just surprise yourself by showing up consistently.

Rest is essential. Think of it as charging your battery — you wouldn’t expect your laptop to work without power, so don’t expect your brain to. Adults aged 18-64 years old require seven to nine hours of rest every night to feel at their best the next day. 

Set an alarm for 30-60 minutes before your intended bedtime, and once it goes off, turn off all gadgets to avoid doomscrolling. If you work from home, try the five-minute shutdown routine — take five minutes to close your computer, clear your desk and list the top three priorities for tomorrow to create a psychological boundary between work and rest.

You need to set boundaries at work to avoid burnout. However, it could be easier said than done. According to licensed marriage and family therapist Allison Barton, it’s hard to say no because women are taught to prioritize others’ needs over their own, so they may fear that denying a request will make them look selfish or uncooperative.

Remember — every time you say no to a nonessential task, you are saying yes to your well-being and ability to deliver on your top priorities. Use clear, concise language to decline the request. Proactively reschedule or cancel what isn’t essential.

Now you’re armed with tips to remain focused, effective and resilient at work. Pick habits that feel most manageable, and see how you rise to the challenge. Soon enough, you’ll feel well-rested to power through the colder days.