A big portion of our lives revolves around our professions. Hence, when it comes to making the healthiest version of ourselves, taking up healthy habits around the workplace is an essential piece of the puzzle.
A healthy work habit is any behavior that benefits your mental, emotional, and physical health. These routines play a significant role in improving your overall well-being and making you feel good. Other benefits of healthy work habits are more productivity, better moods, easier weight control, higher energy levels, and improved longevity.
Unfortunately, with most places, the office is often filled with temptations that make it challenging to stick to healthy routines.
To improve work habits, drastic steps are not necessary. Instead, you can take small behavior and environment changes to start reaping the benefits.
Something as simple as investing in functional standing desks and ergonomic office chairs will go a long way in enhancing your comfort, focus, and long-term health. Better yet, big brands like Autonomous have simple delivery terms for their high-quality ergonomic adjustable stand up desks and office chairs, which enables the instant creation of a healthy workstation.
Joining a wellness club or taking up healthy routines like reflection, meditation, attitude control and better eating choices can also be part of creating healthy work habits.
Start with the five healthy workplace habits below and be sure of excellent results.
Avoid Sitting All Day
If you have a nine-to-five job, chances are that you spend a big portion of your days at an office desk. This is a disservice to your health, especially if you sit commuting or on the couch later at home.
According to a study published in PLOS Medicine journal, people who sit more than seven hours a day and sleep too much (more than nine hours) and spend less than 150 minutes of physical activity a week are four times more likely to die early than those who skip such bad habits.
Luckily, there is room to improve. You can kick your sitting habit by taking the stairs, walking, stretching, washroom breaks, and long walk breaks at lunch. You can also choose to commute to work.
Better, getting a standing desk and an ergonomic chair can reduce the “sitting disease” risk. Autonomous has the best deals on standing desks, office chairs, and ergonomic office furniture.
Maintain a Good Posture
If sitting is inevitable, at least ensure that you are sitting up straight.
According to a published study in the Journals of Gerontology, Good Spinal Posture is crucial if you want to have independence later in life. By keeping your spine in bad shape, your chances of needing assistance in basic tasks in old age will increase.
Not only will a bad posture affect you negatively later in life, but also will it make you feel less energetic day after day – A research done on 110 university students proves this. When asked to skip upright position or walk in a slouched position, skippers fell more energetic, while students who slouched reported lower energy levels.
Avoid Wearing High Heels
If you wear high heels to work, it’s high time you consider switching to flat shoes. First, heels will interfere with healthy walk breaks and impede good posture.
In a Journal of Applied Physiology-published study, people who use high heels 40 hours a week for more than two years compromise their muscle efficiency while walking. This is because heels shorten fibers of the calf muscles, and increases the risk of strain injuries. Besides, heels can be downright uncomfortable. If you must wear high heels to work, at least have flat shoes to change and use during work hours.
Avoid Eating Lunch at Your Desk Alone
Facebook friends don’t count!
Not only will sitting alone during lunchtime increase your unhealthy sitting hours, but also will you spend more time feeling lonely. Feeling lonely hurts your health. A Review on loneliness shows that having good quality relationships and more friends boosts mental health and enhances the chances of living longer. The opposite is also true. Loneliness impacts your mortality, mental, and physical health negatively.
Studies also show that time spent with coworkers, family, and friends is more rewarding than alone time.
When Facebook is added to the mix of staying alone, things go downhill even more. A PLOS ONE-published study shows that people are fond of using Facebook often feel worse than non-users. Increased Facebook use declines someone’s life satisfaction.
During lunch hours, get up, hook up with a friend, and completely log off social media.
Take Breaks and Get Outside
Do you, at times, feel too busy to take a break? Failure to take work breaks reduces your ability to focus.
Even a small distraction from work can dramatically enhance your focusing ability on the same task for a more extended period, based on a Journal Cognition-published study.
According to recent study, walking in nature changes your brain. Participants of the study who walked through a natural environment experienced lower rumination levels like negative self-talk and had little neural activity in the brain area linked to mental illness in comparison to participants who walked through urban areas.
If your work days are spent in a city, find a green space like a path, a park, or a patch of trees to spend time with nature. Gazing at a natural space frequently is a research-approved way of enhancing productivity.
The next time you are considering setting a shop up at your desk for lunch, persuade yourself to go outside for a few minutes. You can even return to your work desk after an hour feeling refreshed, focused and happy.
Need to Start Now?
Look no further! Autonomous has a range of top-rated ergonomic office chairs and height-adjustable standing desks. Get the right fit for guaranteed results.
Stephen is a versatile and enthusiastic content writer with a passion for writing. He has over 8 years of experience in the field of writing. He strives to transform businesses and lives through his writing, and enjoys every minute of it.
