Can’t get anything done? ‘Summer brain’ isn’t limited to kids

We've officially entered the days of double showers, flip-flops and too-revealing clothing only (kind of?) acceptable in sweltering weather.

So while most of us enjoy these long days and hot nights, our bodies and brains need a bit of adjusting. We find ourselves constantly forgetful, distracted and disinterested in slogging away at the office. After all, why bother chasing down colleagues to meet that project deadline when half of them are on vacation?

Enter "summer brain drain." Yes, there is a term for our collective summer laziness. And while you might be familiar with the term in the context of children whose cognitive abilities lessen during summer months due to the absence of school, the Star Tribune points out that this phenomenon can affect adults too.

"If you’re lucky enough to have an office window, you need to not look out it," Diane Amundson, a workplace productivity engineer, tells the newspaper.

Also see: Summer love is actually a thing

She cites vacation, the kids being at home and nice weather as the primary distractions.

“Other people being on vacation works as a bottleneck to what you’re doing,” she says. “You need a paper from Bob and you can’t get it, so you can’t finish this report for Cindy.”

And we are often adjusting to a new summer schedule and routine, says Naomi Pelley, regional director for the health management firm HealthFitness.

“We could say the same thing at Christmas time.”

Also see: Why summer is making you fat

Canadian Business points out a number of strategies companies use to manage overly antsy employees on unproductive summer afternoons. Among them include: a Monday-Thursday compressed work week; unpaid leave during quieter months; and requesting vacation schedules well in advance.

As for children, there is well-documented research that shows cognitive skills decline in the summer months. On average, students lose approximately 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills, reports NBC.

Teachers typically spend between 4-6 weeks reteaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. And lower income students experience experience greater summer learning losses than their higher-income peers.

So what are we to do with our heat-induced lack of productivity? Embrace it. Hey, it only lasts 2.5 months.