With the weather becoming warmer, spring is a good moment to rethink where and how we work. Rather than spending every meeting or work session inside university buildings, consider taking your work outdoors: try a walk & talk meeting or set up your laptop outside for a change of scenery.

Movement, exposure to green environments, and variation in surroundings can support creativity, concentration, and wellbeing. So why not make use of the outdoor spaces around the VU? For example, have you ever been to the Amsterdamse Bos, the VU’s botanical gardens or the rooftop on the Main Building?

For long brainstorming sessions, the Amsterdamse Bos is only a 10-minute walk away from the VU. Being three times bigger than New York’s Central Park, there are extensive walking paths, ponds, quiet spaces to sit, or cafes to grab a coffee and sit down for a bite. For some lively distractions to shift your mind, there’s a petting zoo, and multiple farms and playgrounds to be found. And if your research has you going in circles, the labyrinth offers an appropriately themed place to reflect on it.

For meetings or individual work that requires sitting down, there are several outdoor locations on and around the VU campus that work well and have access to Eduroam available. The Zuidas Botanical Gardens are open daily between 9am and 5pm, and are a beautiful space to walk around, have a coffee at the cafe or sit down at the picknick tables next to the water. The Rooftop Garden of the Main Building is open daily between 7am and 7pm, and provides fresh air, greenery, and seating spaces.

In the spirit of Albert Einstein: look into nature a little more often this spring. Your next great idea, productive meeting, or solution to a problem you’ve been struggling with may arrive in the sun and between the trees rather than behind your desk!