If you're going to give your best to being productive and getting things done, you need to aim for a balanced amount of work and rest in your life. And it's not just rest breaks you need. You also need to take frequent breaks that involve moving.
Many of us take a train, bus, or car for our commute to and from work. We spend hours at a desk, return home, and then slob out on the sofa for the evening. And we do it all sitting down.
A comprehensive review of studies on sedentary behaviour carried out by researchers from Loughborough University and the University of Leicester links sitting for lengthy periods with a range of health problems including an increased risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. In 2018, The World Health Organization listed inactivity as the fourth biggest risk factor for global adult mortality. Even if you do the recommended 150 minutes (in bouts of 10 minutes or more) of moderate aerobic exercise through the week (be it a run, a gym session, or a brisk walk), if you spend long periods of every day sitting down, you're still classed as ‘sedentary’ and at risk of health problems.
So, if sitting is the problem, could standing be the solution? Apparently not. Whether you sit or stand, it's being in one position that's the problem.
What to do? Move more.
In 2016, the UK government publication ‘Health Matters: Getting every adult active everyday’ recommended that we should break up long periods of sitting time with short bouts of activity every 30 minutes. The publication suggests: ‘As well as being physically active, all adults are advised to minimise the time spent being sedentary (sitting) for extended periods. Even among individuals who are active at the recommended levels, spending large amounts of time sedentary increases the risk of adverse health outcomes.’ It goes on to suggest that we should reduce the amount of time we sit during our working day by taking regular time not sitting during work and finding ways to break up sedentary time.
So, if your work involves sitting or standing for long periods, how you can be more active? Here are a few ideas for making your working day more active.
Set a reminder. To help you get into the habit of moving more, use an app or phone reminder to prompt you to move around for a couple of minutes every 30–60 minutes.
Walk instead of calling or emailing. Pretend it's the 1990s! Instead of e‐mailing, texting, or messaging a colleague across the room, walk over to their desk and talk with them face to face. Put your printer and rubbish bin on the other side of the room so you have to get up to use them. Take phone calls standing up. And use the stairs, not the lift.
Turn waiting time into moving time. Waiting to use the photocopier or for colleagues to vacate the meeting room you've booked? Don't stand there twiddling your thumbs. Take a stroll instead.
Stretch. Stand up to stretch out your chest and extend your spine to reverse the hunched position of sitting. As well as moving around, improve your posture. Activities that can help your posture include yoga, tai chi, qigong, Pilates, and the Alexander technique.
Drink more water. But don't have a bottle by your desk so you can sip throughout the day. Instead, leave it in the staff kitchen or somewhere else so that you have to get up and walk every hour or so. Don't keep food next to you either; put it somewhere that you have to get up and go to. And use the toilets furthest away from your desk.
Volunteer for the coffee run. Go out and get your coffee, tea, or smoothie instead of letting someone else pick one up for you. Try and get in a 15‐minute walk at lunch. Find a new sandwich shop that's further away from the one you usually use. And find new places to eat outside. See your lunchtime as a time to get moving and to enjoy your food, not a time to stuff something from the nearest food shop down your neck.
Organize standing or walking meetings. Not only does it get you out of your chair, but it could be a good way to make sure meetings are more efficient and don't drag on unnecessarily.
Not everyone can get moving in this way if they are a wheelchair user or have other mobility problems. Matthew McCarthy, a researcher at the University of Leicester's Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, suggests that ‘completing short bursts of upper body activities using resistance bands or table‐top arm cranks’ may be a way to activate your muscles and get moving.
As well as moving around every 30–60 minutes there's other things you can do to make your working day more active:
Walk, run, or cycle at least part of the way to and from work. If you can bike, walk, or even run to work, this can be an excellent way to fit more activity into your day. Even if you don't live close enough to your workplace to be able to do this, you can still find ways to make at least part of your journey more active. Get the train part of the way and ride the rest, get off the bus a few stops early and walk, or park your car a kilometre or two away or find the furthest carpark space from your workplace building.
Start an office fitness challenge. Get your colleagues involved and make it a challenge to be more active together. As well as the physical health benefits, regular bouts of activity can help boost productivity. When you're moving, you are also increasing blood flow to the brain, which can help you stay alert and on top of things.
Take a hike: It's well known that walking helps improve oxygen flow to the brain; we only need to walk at a moderate pace to increase our heart rate which then causes us to breathe deeper which, in turn, helps more oxygen get into the bloodstream. With the heart pumping faster, our circulation increases and more oxygen gets to the brain.
But new research has suggested that it's not just our hearts that are responsible for blood flow to the brain. Researchers at New Mexico Highlands University have recently found that the impact from your feet hitting the ground while walking sends a hydraulic wave upward through your body. This wave is actually strong enough to send blood back up through your arteries, increasing blood flow to the brain. While the effects of walking on cerebral blood flow (CBF) were less dramatic than those caused by running, they were greater than the effects seen during cycling, which involves no foot impact at all.
More oxygen getting to the brain is a good thing. Your brain uses about 20% of your body's total oxygen supply, so if you're not getting enough oxygen up there, it's easy to feel groggy and unfocused. You don't need to start running marathons! You can start by simply going for a brisk walk at lunch.
Switch Off
No matter how active your day, creating a balance between working and not working is essential when it comes to being happy and productive. Sometimes it can feel like work is taking over your life. It's not just that you spend most of your day at work; even when you're not there, you're still thinking about it. With constant access to the internet, email, and texts, it's easy to stay plugged in all day when you're at work and when you're away from it. You can find yourself in a state of permanent activity with little in the way of a rest or break when technology puts you somewhere that you're not.
You need to switch off! Just as you wouldn't leave the engine of your car running when it's parked outside, so you need to switch off the engine of your mind. Here are a few ways to switch off and leave work behind:
Get closure; leave work at work. Before you leave work, empty your head. Simply write a note or e‐mail to yourself of any work‐related things that are on your mind; tasks left to do and any concerns. Then shut the notebook, turn off your computer, and walk away.
Quit while you're ahead. Use Ernest Hemingway's approach: ‘I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.’ Stopping while you're ahead is a good tactic: you know what you've done, you know exactly what you'll do next, and you feel fine about getting started again.
Set a firm cut‐off time. To get you out of work by, say 5 or 6 p.m., plan something – an activity or event or a totally separate, unrelated task for after work. Meeting up with a friend for a drink, booking an exercise class, or stopping to make dinner creates a different obligation to attend and moves you away from work.
Close the door on it. If you do need to bring work home, if possible only work in a specific room in your home so that when you're done, you can close the door on it. Unless your job specifically requires you to be on call 24/7, there's little that happens after 8 p.m. that can't wait until the morning.
Disconnect. On your days off, consider having a full day or at least a few hours to disconnect. Get used to being without your phone, tablet, or laptop. Get some fresh air. Go hiking or cycling. Play a sport. Take a phone but turn it off. Do something creative, artistic, or musical.
Avoid burnout. Whether it's stress, constant bouts of illnesses due to a weakened immune system, or constant exhaustion, recognize the early warning signs before you start burning out. Don't ignore the signs. Overwhelmed? Get some advice and support. Feeling tired? Get more sleep. Getting ill? Take time off.
Your body and mind need rest to function properly. Taking time to recharge is crucial to sustaining motivation, perseverance, and productivity. Think of it this way: anything that increases your ability to be efficient and productive is part of your job. Anything that reduces your ability to be efficient and productive is part of your job to not do.