Team Partners Telecommunications

6 Secrets to Leading a Healthy Office Life

Posted on Aug 03, 2017  | Tags: health

It is, for most of us, an unavoidable fact of life, we have to work to live, and that work, again for most of us, involves sitting in an office staring at a screen for hours on end. I’m doing it now. I know.
Some months ago, we looked at this problem and, whilst bemoaning the sedentary nature of office work came up with a number of ideas to help us keep fit, in spite of it. These ideas included things like walking / running to work; getting off your chosen mode of transport the stop before your destination if the whole way isn’t feasible; refusing to use the lift; running up stairs and power walking at lunchtime. Hopefully you took all these on board and now run marathons just for the hell of it...

The snag is, though, that all these splendid ideas can’t be done in the office, so we started to think of things we could do whilst working that would help us to safeguard our health, things we could do at our desks, whilst we’re there, staring at the small screen... and here are just a few ideas:

1. Check your posture. It’s such an obvious thing, but for reasons unknown we seem to be prepared to compromise when it comes to our office chair, the position of the screen, the relative heights of these, our arm supports, and the comfort and support of our backs. We wouldn’t do it at home, so why at the office? Be pushy and ask your boss to protect you!
   
   
2. An option is to get a standing desk. Apparently, these encourage you to keep on the move, shifting your weight around and generally keeping your body moving.
   
   
3. If that sounds too much like hard work then how about using an exercise, or yoga ball as your office chair. The good thing about these is that you end up moving all the time, presumably to stop you falling off, but in so doing you’re burning calories and flexing muscles all day long.
   
   
4. Once you’ve learned how to keep your balance you could also try some discreet exercises and stretches at your desk. We won’t repeat them all here but have a look at this for some excellent advice. There’s some good stuff about seating posture there too.
   
   
5. Avoid eye strain. Did you know that we’re 70% less likely to blink when we’re looking at a screen? It’s something to do with concentration, but just stop reading this for a second and look at something else. Did you blink? You did, didn’t you, and more than once too! Blinking is nature’s way of protecting our eyes, with each blink bringing nutrients to the eye’s surface and keeping it healthy.
   
   
6. Don’t cradle your phone! There are few things more likely to end up causing you painful problems than trying to use your computer whilst nursing a phone between your shoulder and ear. If that’s you, stop it! Get yourself a headset, even better, get yourself a wireless headset, you’ll be surprised at how comfortable these are and how liberating it is to be able to wander around whilst on a call. If this is of interest, contact us and we’ll be able to help.