For many of us, our working life consists of mainly sitting in an office in front of a computer monitor for eight hours per day. Whilst there have been a variety of studies which have argued that human beings have not gone through tens of thousands of years of evolution in order to be confined to a chair or cubicle for up to eight hours per day, for many this is unavoidable. Luckily, there are a variety of ways to combat the health problems that can be incurred from a sedentary lifestyle which unfortunately for many of us, have been forced upon us due to work commitments.
If you’re working day does consist of being confined to a chair all day, then for your own sake you should seek to do everything possible to make yourself as comfortable as possible. A simple search of ‘desk job unhealthy’ into Google brings up a number of articles stating how unhealthy, tedious and downright dangerous it is for human beings to be sat behind a desk for hours at a time – from gaining weight and a likelihood of struggling to sleep well at night to depression and having years shaved off your life simply due to working in an office. Fortunately, there are ways in which you can combat a sedentary lifestyle in the office.
Ensure you have a comfortable place to sit
First and foremost, it is imperative that the chair that you sit on for around eight hours a day – Monday to Friday – is a comfortable one. For both health and work reasons, if you are forced to sit on an uncomfortable chair all day, your work is going to drop in standards and your health will suffer. There is no reason for employers not to ensure that their workers have adequate office chairs and due to the variety of fantastically comfortable office chairs available these days, if you are still sat on an old fashioned, hard backed chair that regularly gives you back problems, go to your boss and tell him/her that enough is enough.
There are a number of extremely good office chairs on the market. If money is no object, you have the option of purchasing the £1200 Herman Miller Embody Chair. The Embody Chair is described as featuring six ergonomic functions which encourage the most helpful posture for computer users. The chair is supposed to reduce stress, boost creativity and conform to your every movement so its description is certainly impressive – although you would expect so given the chairs hefty price tag. Other office chairs such as the Amazon Basics Mid-Back Office Chair and the ‘Walker’ Fully Adjustable Chair are great options that come at a much cheaper price. For something a bit out of the ordinary, the best professional esports players/competitive gamers use chairs such as the DX Racer Formula Series. These professional gamers regularly spend 8+ hours each and every day playing computer games, so it is imperative that they have a comfortable place to sit. These chairs are available for around £200. The price of a good quality chair pales in comparison to the health benefits of having a good chair to sit on whilst at work. Studies have found that, even if you work out regularly, sitting for lengthy periods is terrible for your body, to combat this, professors have suggested changing positions every eight minutes and taking a two minute walking break at least twice every hour.
Take breaks to walk around the office and chat with colleagues
The health benefits you will receive from simply taking a break every hour to stretch and have a quick walk around the office are immeasurable. As aforementioned, there is a great deal of evidence which suggests that sitting in an office chair, inside a building all day is bad for your health not to mention the effect on your eyes after staring at a computer screen for so long. One way to help counter these problems is to take short and regular breaks – walk around the office, stretch, meditate, chat to colleagues in the office kitchen (if you have one). Taking regular breaks also increases productivity – working all day everyday increases the amount of stress and anxiety in your body, so once you complete a task, reward yourself – listen to your favourite song, browse Twitter, have a snack – then get back to work and do the same again. If you get stuck in a monotonous rhythm it will show in your work, so reward yourself after you’ve done a good job and mix things up.
Eat well
Somewhat surprising to many people who don’t work in an office, sitting inside, in pretty much the same position all day whilst staring at a computer screen is both mentally and physically tiring. Therefore, after a hard day’s work, it is very easy to grab a takeaway or chuck something quick and easy in the oven or microwave. But the combination of sitting down all day at work mixed with an unhealthy diet is literally life threatening. Try and fit in time to do some exercise whilst you are not at work, 30 minutes jogging per week is better than nothing. Also, ensure that you do not skip breakfast as doing so is thought to put your body in a constant state of stress and disrupt your metabolism. At the same time, regularly eating fast food is another shortcut to the hospital. Fast food meals usually contain twice the calories of a regular meal of the same size, which increases the risk of heart disease.
Try to make your workplace your home away from home
We all know that office spaces can be dreary, bland and dull places indeed, but your home office doesn’t have to be this way. If you have your own cubicle to be separate from employees, why not decorate it with pictures of your favorite art work or photos of your family. Purchase some nice looking ornaments to place around your computer screen – you will be surprised with how much better you feel. A recent study published in the Guardian showed that if you enrich a space with art work people will feel much happier and work better. It goes without saying that feeling happy at work and not feeling anxious about it will have a positive effect on your overall life.
You spend a large portion of your life working so it is vital that you don’t despise your job, so do all you can in order to make your working day as enjoyable, as stress free and as enjoyable as possible.
Hundreds of Business Opportunities – Visit the Home Business EXPO
