What “instorative” means
This blog post is part of a series aimed at making science more accessible and practical. It responds to many of my clients’ wishes for clearer explanations of the growing number of scientific papers on topics related to working life, performance, and wellbeing.
The following article by Johanna Prugger and Simone Kühn, titled “The blind spot in research on nature’s benefits: Restorative versus instorative effects and potential biases” was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
The paper’s central practical message is that nature may do more than help us recover after stress: it may also enhance cognition, mood, and readiness to function even when we are not already depleted. In other words, nature contact can be treated as a proactive work-performance habit, not merely an emergency response strategy to burnout.
- Restorative effects help you return to your usual baseline after mental fatigue, stress, or negative affect.
- Instorative effects are improvements above a neutral baseline—such as a better mood, more focused attention, or greater cognitive functioning—without a preceding stressor.
This distinction matters at work because, rather than waiting until concentration is poor or stress is high, you can build small doses of nature into your daily rhythm to support sustainable performance. While the review identified relatively few explicitly instorative studies, those examining cognitive outcomes reported beneficial effects of nature exposure, while about two-thirds examining affect did so.
While the review primarily covered physical presence in nature, it also included photographs, virtual reality, soundscapes, video, and a classroom-window-view intervention. In practical terms, this means that even if you live in an apartment in the city, there are ways you can introduce nature into your day.
The paper suggests that while spending time in nature is ideal, visual and auditory nature cues are credible supplementary options. One of my favourite strategies is listening to a rainforest morning birdsong playlist first thing in the morning. I also love to fill my work and living space with plants and have a view of nature whenever possible. Consider how you could bring nature into your life – perhaps a botanical-themed wall mural, a painting or art print featuring nature, or photos of a recent nature-based holiday.
Design principles
- Make it routine, not contingent on feeling overwhelmed. The paper’s instorative framing specifically challenges the assumption that a person must first be stressed or fatigued for nature to be useful.
- Protect the break from work inputs. A “nature break” spent reading email or rehearsing a difficult conversation is unlikely to provide the same beneficial attentional shift as simply walking, looking, listening, or being present. Psychological detachment is the key to this strategy i.e. totally switching off from work tasks.
- Use nature before high-value work. Schedule exposure before writing, analytical work, complex decisions, client sessions, or creative problem-solving—activities where attention, working memory, executive function, and emotional tone matter. This raises your baseline, providing fuel for the tasks that lay ahead
- Favour repeated, modest exposure. Most studies in the review involved short exposures, typically from 1.5 to 90 minutes, with average exposure durations of around 28 minutes in instorative studies; this supports the plausibility of practical, repeatable practices rather than infrequent full-day excursions.
- Choose a setting that feels compatible. The authors note that aspects such as fascination, coherence, and compatibility – feeling that the place fits you and supports what you want to do – may be part of nature’s broader positive, potentially instorative qualities.
A realistic workday pattern
An approach that embraces both instorative and restorative activities throughout the work day could look like this:
- Before work: 15-minute green walk or time in the garden.
- Mid-morning: 5 minutes looking outside or stepping outdoors after a demanding meeting or writing task.
- Lunch: Eat or walk somewhere with trees, a garden, water, or open sky.
- Before a client-facing task: 3-5 minutes outside, ideally without your phone.
- After work: A short garden task or green walk as a boundary ritual.
Everyday practices for thriving
| Practice | How to use it at work | Likely contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Start outdoors | Spend 10–20 minutes walking, sitting in a garden, or travelling part of the way through a green space before beginning demanding work | Arrive with a more positive affective and attentional starting point |
| Take mico-breaks | Take a brief outdoor break between focused work blocks—ideally without email, podcasts, or work calls | Interrupts cognitive overload and may support attention and mood |
| Walk meetings | Hold suitable one-to-one conversations or reflective meetings while walking in a park, garden, or tree-lined route | Combines movement, social connection, and environmental stimulation |
| Green transitions | Use a short garden, park, or tree-lined walk after work to psychologically close the workday | Supports detachment and reduces the tendency to carry work strain into the evening |
| Nature views | Position a desk near greenery or take regular visual breaks looking at trees, sky, planting, or a garden | The reviewed literature includes nature exposure via real settings, window views, photographs, and videos—not only outdoor immersion |
| Nature soundscapes | During low-demand tasks or breaks, listen to birdsong or other natural soundscapes rather than continuous urban noise | A practical substitute when outdoor access is limited |
| Digital nature doses | Use high-quality images, video, or immersive nature content for short pauses when work is home-based or urban-bound | Indirect exposure also appeared in the reviewed evidence, though real-world contact is generally the richer intervention |
| Active care of plants | Water, prune, repot, or briefly attend to workplace/home-office plants during breaks | Creates a tangible, attention-shifting ritual and aligns well with regular exposure rather than one-off “treatments” |
The main takeaway isn’t to offer a one-size-fits-all solution, especially since the evidence is still limited. Instead, think of it as a good reason to try spending regular time in nature, all while paying attention to how it affects your concentration, mood, energy, creativity, and your ability to connect with others. What sparks motivation and supports recovery in one person might not have the same effect on another. Take some time to explore and find out what works best for you e.g. the best environments and the right amounts of time, and gently weave these into your workday. This way, you can create a routine that optimally supports your wellbeing and performance.
Important caution
The paper is a critical review, not definitive proof that every form of nature exposure reliably boosts every aspect of job performance. It highlights a substantial research imbalance (45 restorative studies versus only 8 instorative studies) and calls for better measures, more realistic long-term designs, and clearer separation of recovery from enhancement.
For practice, the sensible interpretation is: use nature both preventively and restoratively as a daily resource that may help you start your working day better, function more effectively, and recover more easily at the end of the day.