Running head: ACTION RESEARCH

Natalie Bertelson
Azusa Pacific University: Main Campus
EDUC 526 Capstone Experience in Digital Teaching and Learning
Dr. Joanne Gilbreath
Action Research: Working Out Increases Productivity, Mood, and Energy?
June 5, 2015

ACTION RESEARCH

2
Abstract

This paper analyzes the action research question will working out each day
for twenty minutes positively affect productivity, mood, and energy?
Requirements for the implementation plan included keeping track of workout
type, duration, and time of day the workout occurred. In addition, a scale was
created to rate productivity, mood, and energy at the end of each day. The
results of the action research were compiled and presented in graphs, then
analyzed. At the end of the 26 day experiment, the results were mixed.
Productivity, mood, and energy were affected both positively and negatively.
This was not a sole result of working out, but a combination of life events
that occurred during the experiment. In conclusion, exercise is a vital
component to living a healthy lifestyle, but it did not affect productivity,
mood, or energy in a way that was anticipated.

ACTION RESEARCH

Keywords: productivity, mood, energy, exercise

Section One: Introduction
Implementing physical activity on a daily basis has always been a
struggle for me. School, work, family, friends, lack of motivation, and time
seem to always take precedence over my physical health. I had more
important responsibilities that needed to be attended to, including being a
full time student, substitute teaching in two districts, applying for full time
work, being a girlfriend, and daughter. Those roles are important to me, and
given the frustration of time, I somehow never had enough of it to take care
of myself.
Upon reflection, I came to realize how infrequently I was exercising,
and how that subsequently affected everything else in my life that I held to
dear. What happened was a trickle down affect. From lack of exercise, I
noticed my productivity, mood, and energy was drastically affected. The
negative way in which I viewed myself, dealt with stress, worked, slept, was
ultimately a result of not taking care of myself. I spent my days being an
exhausted substitute teacher, an overwhelmed grad student, an unenergetic
friend, a distant daughter, and a stress eater. Even though I was giving time
to those important aspects of my life, it was not in a productive and
authentic way. I wanted to change.
Part of me knew that taking time out of my busy schedule was
necessary to improve upon my quality of life, but taking that first step was
challenging. I had immediate concerns like how will I get my school work

ACTION RESEARCH

done? and when will I find time to socialize with family and friends. Not to
mention a pang of guilt that I had the potential to ignore those important
things in my life to take care of myself. Somehow, part of that sounded
selfish. Regardless, I hoped that making the change to exercise daily would
ultimately affect all areas of my life in a positive way.
Despite my concerns with time management, I wanted to discover if
working out every day for at least 20 minutes would affect my quality of life
in a positive way. The question I wanted to answer will working out each day
affect my productivity, mood, and energy in a positive way?
Section 2: Implementation
To implement my action research, here are the guidelines I followed:

Work out for at least twenty minutes each day and keep a record of the
type of work out done, time of day it was done, and how long of a

workout it was.
Complete a daily report on productivity, mood, and energy based on a

5-scale measurement system. 1 being low, and 5 being high.

Analyze results, and see if working out affected my productivity, mood,

and energy.
The action research will last for 26 days.

Section 3: Results
In order to keep track of the results, I charted all information about
each workout (see below). This helped me keep track of what I did and on
what day I did it. Here is the set of calendars for April and May outlining the
type of workout, duration, and hour of day.

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Sunday

Monday

19

20
5:30 am
20 mins
Circuit
Training

26
12:00 pm
20 mins
Walk

27
3:30 pm
20 mins
Kickboxing

Tuesday
21
5:30 am
20 mins
Cardio Level
1
28
4:00 pm
20 mins
Circuit
Training

April 2015
Wednesday
22
5:30 am
20 mins
Circuit
Training
29
4:00 pm
20 mins
Circuit
Training

Thursday
23
5:30 am
20 mins
Circuit
Training

Friday
24
4:00 pm
30 mins
Jog

Saturday
25
12:00 pm
30 mins
Kickboxing

30
3:00 pm
20 mins
Kickboxing

May 2015
Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday
1
10:00 am
1 hour
Hike

Saturday
2
NoneGraduation/en
gaged

3
None

4
3:30 pm
20 mins
Insanity

5
3:30 pm
20 mins
Cardio

6
3:30 pm
20 mins
Insanity

7
4:00 pm
20 mins
Cardio

8
5:00 pm
20 mins
Insanity

9
12:00 pm
20 mins
Walk

10
12:00 pm
20 mins
Cardio
17

11
3:30 pm
20 mins
Insanity
18

12
3:30 pm
20 mins
Cardio
19

13
3:30
20 mins
Insanity
20

14
3:30
20 mins
Cardio
21

15
4:00
20 mins
Cardio
22

16

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

23

31

I also kept track of my productivity, mood, and energy at the end of

each day. In order to rate myself with accuracy, I created a scale (as seen
below). I created these scales based on my own definition of productivity,
mood, and energy that was fitting for my lifestyle. For example, an
excellent day in productivity was one where I worked on homework, stayed
on top of household tasks, and exercised for more than 20 minutes. Below
are the scales I used to rate myself, and the calendar I used to record my
results

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Productivity-P
1
Nothing

2
Below Average

3
Average

4
Above Average

5
Excellent

Did not work on

HW, did not stay
on top of
household tasks,
did not work out
for 20 mins

Did not work on

HW, did not stay
on top of
household tasks,
worked out for 20
mins.

Worked on some
HW assignments,
stayed somewhat
on top of
household tasks,
worked our for 20
mins

Worked on HW
assignments,
stayed on top of
household tasks,
worked our for 20
mins.

Worked on HW
assignments,
stayed on top
of household
tasks, worked
out for more
than 20 mins..

Mood- M
1
Bad

2
Fair

3
Good

4
Great

5
Excellent

2
Below Average

3
Average

4
Above Average

5
Excellent

Energy- E
1
Exhausted

Results
Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

May 2015
Wednesday

Thursday

Friday
1
P- 2
M- 5
E- 4

Saturday
2
P- 1
M- 5
E- 4

3
P- 1
M- 5
E- 3

4
P- 3
M- 5
E- 1

5
P- 3
M- 5
E- 1

6
P- 3
M- 5
E- 3

7
P- 3
M- 5
E- 3

8
P- 4
M- 5
E- 4

9
P- 5
M- 5
E- 5

10
P- 4
M- 3

11
P- 4
M- 3
E- 4

12
P- 4
M- 3
E- 4

13
P- 4
M- 3
E- 4

14
P- 4
M- 3
E- 4

15
P- 4
M- 4
E- 4

16

E- 4

April 2015
Sunday
19

26
P- 3
M- 4
E- 4

Monday
20
P- 4
M- 4
E- 4
27
P- 5
M- 2
E- 3

Tuesday
21
P- 4
M- 4
E- 4
28
P- 5
M- 2
E- 3

Wednesday
22
P- 4
M- 4
E- 4
29
P- 5
M- 2
E- 2

Thursday
23
P- 3
M- 3
E- 4
30
P- 5
M- 3
E- 1

Friday
24
P- 5
M- 4
E- 4

Saturday
25
P- 5
M- 4
E- 4

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To understand the results of my action research project, I will explain

the outcome of each area. First, I will explain the productivity results.

At the end of each day I rated myself using the scale I created (see
above). My productivity fluctuated during the 26-day experiment, which
surprised me greatly. I anticipated that exercising daily for at least 20
minutes would boost my drive to stay on task with homework, and household
chores. I discovered this was not altogether true. In the beginning of the
experiment, I was very productive. Working out motivated me in other areas
of my life. However, midway through the experiment I experienced a major
setback: time and motivation.
On May 1, my parents came in from out of town for my graduation.
Leading up to their arrival I was very productive because I had to be in order
to spend time with them. On the day of my graduation, I not only earned my
masters degree, I became engaged. Needless to say, my productivity took a
major hit. I did not workout, stay up with household tasks, or work on
homework during this time.

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Ever since that exciting weekend my productivity was majorly affected.

Although I was working out, my effort on schoolwork was affected as you can
see in the graph above. Graduating, yet still expected to do class work was
extremely challenging, and took me a while to get back to my routine.
Overall, my productivity was not as high as I thought it would be, but this
was because of unpredictable events that occurred in my life during this
experiment. Next I will analyze the mood results.

What I discovered from this experiment was I tended to be in a better

mood after I worked out, however it was not the sole cause of my happiness.
My mood was positively affected when I worked out, but it was also positively
affected when I didnt (see calendar). Similarly, I had days where my mood
suffered, even when I exercised. Looking back on the events that occurred in
my life during this project, it makes sense that my mood fluctuated.
During this action research project, I experienced some of the
happiest and stressful moments in my life. My mother-in-law to be had major
surgery, I was a full time student, graduated, got engaged, and worked.
Trying to find time to exercise was challenging, and a stress in itself. Even if I
did work out, I sometimes was in a poor mood because something else in my
life suffered, like relationships or finding time to do homework. Overall, I

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discovered that working out is a facet of determining my mood but not the
only factor. Lastly, I will analyze the results of my energy.

The results of my energy were the most surprising to me because I

scored a five only one time. I anticipated that exercising would give me a
major energy boost, which would consequently affect my productivity and
mood in a positive way. Although this was the case several times, as a whole,
I expected a more positive outcome. The mean rating was above average,
which is good, but not the results I was hoping for. I was still tired most
mornings, especially if I worked out at 5:30 am. I also noticed that I stayed
up later because I had to fit more things into a day than I did before I was
consistently working out. These factors affected my energy in a negative
way.
Overall, working out for 20 minutes each day helped increase my
energy. I did not see the results I wanted to, but I believe that if I were to
make adjustments to my action research plan, I would see a better outcome.

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Section 4: Conclusions
After conducting this action research project, I learned that working out
20 minutes each day had mixed results. I anticipated that it would affect my
mood, productivity, and energy in a positive way each day, but that was not
always the case. In reality, my mood, productivity, and energy were also
affected by the events that were going on in my life. This made it difficult to
determine if working out was truly the cause of my productivity, mood, and
energy, or if it was a combination of everything going on in my life at the
time.
In order to see more consistent results, I plan on making adjustments
to my action research plan. First, I am going to work out at the same time
each day. I believe this will help increase my energy if my body is on a
regular workout schedule. Also, I am going to track my food intake. I am
interested to see if making healthier choices, in addition to working out, will
affect my productivity, mood, and energy in a positive way.
Lastly, I would like to do this action research project again during the
summer when my schedule is less busy. Like mentioned before, life was the
busiest it had ever been during this action research project. I want to see if
my results will be different if I try again during a different time of the year.
Section Five: General Comments
When I started the project, I was adamant about making my health a
priority. After completing it, I realize that my expectations were too high for
the lifestyle I lead. Yes, I need to take care of myself, but working out added

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to my stress because I didnt have time for it. I learned that taking on a new
lifestyle choice during a busy and stressful time does not work for me. I plan
on redoing my action research over the summer in order to instill a routine
so that when school starts, I will have a consistent workout schedule already
in play.
Overall I am glad I participated in this action research project. Working
out is something I need to do in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Exercising did positively affect my health, but it did not produce the results I
had anticipated in my productivity, mood, and energy.