Daily dynamics of needs-based crafting, nature exposure, nature relatedness, and energy across life domains

Replenishing depleted energy, both during and outside work, is essential for employees’ well-being. Two recovery strategies to restore energy include exposure to nature and detachment-relaxation crafting. Moreover, nature relatedness may represent a psychological pathway through which nature exposure contributes to energy recovery. Despite substantial research examining the effects of each strategy on energy recovery independently, it remains empirically ambiguous whether one of these strategies has a stronger impact on energy than the other within the workday. It is also unclear whether energy is required for using both strategies. Moreover, the work context may limit opportunities and flexibility to be exposed to nature and to proactively craft for detachment-relaxation, suggesting that the use of recovery strategies may differ between work and non-work domains. Using an ecological momentary assessment design with 6624 measurement occasions nested within 386 employees over two weeks, we examined (1) the moment-to-moment contemporaneous, autoregressive, and cross-lagged associations between detachment-relaxation crafting, nature exposure, nature relatedness and energy, and (2) how work and non-work domains influence differences in levels of nature exposure, nature relatedness, detachment-relaxation crafting, and energy. Our findings showed significant contemporaneous, autoregressive and cross-lagged relations. Nature exposure, nature relatedness and crafting in the preceding 3 h positively predicted current energy levels. When being outside of work compared to at work, employees were more likely to be exposed to and related to nature, and more likely to proactively craft for detachment-relaxation within a 3-h period. Our findings enhance our theoretical and practical understanding of daily recovery processes related to nature exposure, nature relatedness, and crafting strategies across life domains.