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Essay 1 Final Draft
Essay 1 Final Draft
Vanessa Ortiz
ENGL 1302-101
16 September 2022
The discourse of running and exercising helping with productivity has been going on for
ages. It is a common question that goes through everyone’s head: does running for a certain
amount of time every day increase the productivity levels of an individual? Many articles
contribute to this study. For example, an article mentioned, “Moreover, evidence reported by
research literature reviews suggest a dose-response relationship and that any level of physical
activity seems to decrease the risk of developing depressive symptoms” (Stea et al. 2). This
supports the idea that if people run for 30 minutes or more, their mindset will lead them to
become more energetic, increasing productivity. If running stimulates a person’s brain and
motivates them to do work, decreasing depression, then it increases the production levels a
person endures. The research for this experiment emphasizes the importance that physical
activity, in this case running, has on the levels of work efficiency in school, work, or at home.
Methods
It is relatively easy for someone to conduct research for this study. It can be tested in four
days: Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. All a person needs is running shoes and a
nearby park if that is how they prefer to run. Everyone is different and can choose any time of
day they want to run; however, 6:30 pm was the time that was measured for the experiment
conducted. The experiment consisted of a 15 minutes increment each day to the amount of time
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the person was running. For instance, a person runs for 30 minutes on the first day, 45 minutes
on the second day, and 1 hour on the third day. On the last day, there will be no running or
physical activity. This is to demonstrate the effects that running for long periods of time has on a
person's mindset and physical nature. After running, the participant wrote notes down in a
journal keeping track of the work they accomplished and their productivity overall for each day
that the experiment was conducted. The investigation at the end shows the growth in production
Results
The results of this research were stable for the three days it was being experimented,
where running was involved. However, there was a decrease on the day without running. The
person seemed to procrastinate on all their assignments, whereas the days they would run, every
task was done, even leaving them with extra leisure time to read or watch tv.
Productivity
Over the past three days, based on the data written down in the table, the productivity
levels were constant when running. Even though running is an excellent factor in a person being
more active, it does not show significant outbreaks each day the person runs. Nevertheless,
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productivity will fall if a person stops running and doing any type of exercise. In the article,
“Physical exercise at the workplace prevents deterioration of work ability among healthcare
workers: cluster randomized controlled trial,” researchers found that exercising for nine months
helped prevent a decrease in work ability (Jakobsen et al. 2). This demonstrated that work
efficiency improved when the workers in the field exercised for a certain amount of time.
Furthermore, the same article discussed that “Accordingly, performing physical exercise at least
twice a week may prevent the age-related deterioration of work ability, health and physical
capacity among workers with physically demanding work” (Jakobsen et al. 7). Not only does
working out help with productivity, it is also beneficial towards other factors like mental health.
Mental Health
Even though mental health was not being studied in this experiment, there was a drastic
change in it too. The participant experienced a boost of energy every time they finished running.
They also realized that it would somehow put them in a better mood. An article stated, “Physical
activity can also improve mental health and cognitive performance” (Manning et al. 1). This
supports the idea that being physically active is favorable towards mental stability and decreases
any symptoms of depression. Moreover, the article “Autonomy enhances running efficiency”
studied how different running speeds can affect a person’s mindset (Takehiro et al. 687). The
research suggested that by the change in speed, a person will be left feeling different and
energetic by the end of their running session. This information is beneficial to the experiment
that was conducted because instead of speed changing, the time did, allowing the participant to
run a greater distance each day. Signs of good mental health also are critical factors in
productivity. If someone has a lousy mentality, the motivation will also be affected in the process
Discussion
Overall, running has a positive effect on people's day-to-day routines. The data gathered
exercising or running. Many articles contributed to the experiment as well. There is great
importance as to why people need to have physical activity in their schedules. Productivity might
be a key factor, but so are many others. For example, mental health is greatly affected and helps
a person have a better view of life. So many people use running, or physical activity, as a
distraction from complex life issues, which ties in with how their mental health improves. Even
though everyone's body and mindset are different, people should include running, or physical
Works Cited
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Iwatsuki, Takehiro, et al. “Autonomy enhances running efficiency” Journal of Sports Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2018.1522939.
Jakobsen, Markus, et al. “Physical exercise at the workplace prevents deterioration of work
ability among healthcare workers: cluster randomized controlled trial” BMC Public
2448-0.
Manning, Jeremy, et al. “Fitness tracking reveals task-specific associations between memory,
mental health, and physical activity” Scietific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 2022, pp. 01-12.
EBSCOhost https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17781-0.
Stea, Tonje, et al. “Association between physical activity, sedentary time, participation in
organized activities, social support, sleep problems and mental distress among adults in
Southern Norway: a class-sectional study among 28,047 adults from the general
population” BMC Public Health, vol. 22, no. 1, 2022, pp. 01-11. EBSCOhost
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12769-x.