Having a desk job is something that is probably a lot of people’s worst nightmares. If you’ve got an active job then you go to having a sedentary job, it’s something that can really screw with your body, your metabolism, and various other things that you won’t think would be affected. For example, sitting at your desk all day is awful for your body and could lead to an early death as you’re at higher risk of muscular skeletal disorders, obesity, diabetes, and many more different things. Therefore, you should opt for introducing tools that can help relieve some of these issues. For example, purchasing a wrist rest to rest your arm on when using a computer from prolongued periods of time; buying a suitable chair to maitain good posture, and other similar devices. Something else that is often forgotten about is staring at computer screens for prolonged periods. They don’t give off any radiation but can harm your vision quite significantly.
So, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let’s get stuck into the nitty gritty of the post and look at ways that you can stay healthy if you do have a desk job. Whether you provide SEO services in Manchester, a receptionist at a law firm in London or a web developer in Glasgow, this is a post that, no matter what your job, if you sit at a desk all day, you can improve your health and quality of life with the tips in this post.
Take Hourly Breaks
This is something that not a lot of employers like to actively encourage for obvious reasons but it’s something that should be done, without doubt this should be something that’s done regularly for anyone who sits at a desk full time.
This can make the difference to your day as heavy workloads, tight deadlines and long hours sat in one position affect your mental capacity and performance and affect your physical health too. You should aim to get up and walk around every few hours whether that’s to the photocopier, the toilet, the kitchen to make a brew, whatever. You should just get up and move around and do it often. If you’ve nowhere to go then move in place. Touch your toes, stretch out, walk on the spot, or do star jumps for a few minutes, you just need to get that blood flowing and get moving.
Pace Yourself Through the Day
All work and no play doesn’t sound fun really, does it? Whether you go off to the loo to spend 10 minutes on your phone or if you have five minutes to yourself at your desk, most people take a break from their work to check their Facebook or Twitter or to update themselves on the goings on in the world that day. If this is you then the Pomodoro Technique, named because the timings can be measured using little tomato-shaped kitchen timers (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato), encourages this kind of behaviour by breaking tasks into “Pomodoros”.
These pomodoros are intense, 25 minute bursts of work which are followed by little five-minute breaks. This is a method that allows people to work hard for a period and stave off distraction but then rewards them with time to chill out as well. If you don’t have a tomato timer handy then you will have no problems finding an app that will track time the same way. But, Francesco Cirillo, the founder of the technique recommends that you use the real thing as the act of winding up the Pomodoro is a declaration of your determination to start work on the activity at hand.
Drink Plenty of Water
Staying hydrated is important. You should drink as much as you possibly can throughout the day as this will obviously help you stay hydrated but it will also promote getting up and walking around a bit more as you’ll need to go to the loo more often.
Drinking plenty of H20 will also help you to fight off fatigue and dehydration headaches and it should also keep you from snacking when you’re not actually hungry too. One way of going about drinking more water is buying a reusable water bottle that you can take to work with you every day and getting one with measurements on it is even better as this will enable you to keep track of how much you’re consuming throughout the day.
If for whatever reason you’re not drinking enough throughout the day, try and get a bit creative with adding some fruit to your water and add a bit of flavour to your water.