Keeping Healthy At Work

When you work in an office, whether it’s a home office or an off-site office, keeping healthy at work is rarely a priority as it’s far too easy to spend the day at your desk.  Unfortunately, that’s an incredibly unhealthy way to live. Both physical and mental stress can be traced back to having an unhealthy work environment and can have a significant effect on your life.  Here are 5 areas where you can make free or cheap improvements that will help you to be healthier and happier.

Setting up correctly

Ergonomic desk - Keeping healthy at work - Sharyn Munro Virtual Assistance
Image from http://www.ergonomics-info.com/ergonomic-computer-desk.html

Having your office set up correctly is important.  Some things to consider are:

  • Seating: Are you at the correct height? Do you need a footstool?
  • Keyboard: Can you reach your keyboard easily? Do you need an ergonomic keyboard
  • Monitor: Is your monitor at eye level? Is there a lot of glare on the monitor? Is the contrast
  • Desktop: Is your desk cluttered and stressful? Can you easily reach the things you need to use regularly?
  • Phone: Do you cradle the phone between your ear & shoulder or do you have a proper headset? Do you have to do a lot of typing while you’re on the phone? Are you set up to allow you to talk on the phone and reach your mouse & keyboard, and see your monitor easily?

There’s a great article about setting up your desk correctly HERE.  The image to the right is also from the Ergonomics-Info.com article

Plants to clean the air

NASA’s  Clean Air Study suggests that indoor plants can remove toxic chemicals from the air.  A list of plants, and the chemicals it removes is available at the link.  Other lists of air filtering indoor plants can be found at:

Aloe - Keeping Healthy At Work - Sharyn Munro Virtual Assistance
Andy Aloe lives in my office

 

Take a break

I think that the best thing you can do for your health & fitness is to take a break. Take a short break from your desk and go for a walk, run or ride. Go out for lunch, sit outside in the sun and get some fresh air. Get away for the weekend and leave your work at work. Take a break and go away for week or a weekend, disconnect and have a computer and phone free break.  Regular breaks are healthy on every level, and your emotional and mental health are just as important as your physical health. At the very least, consider downloading one of the many meditation apps available. I use Smiling Mind, and taking 10 minutes once or twice a day to have a quick break and reset is really refreshing.

 

Desk yoga

Keeping healthy at work isn’t just about your surroundings and mental health. It’s also physical. I have a few of these saved and I put one on when I need a quick break.  Here are a couple of my favourite YouTube videos:

 

 

 

 

 

Desk Exercises

Similar to Desk Yoga, I have these saved as well and use them whenever I need to. Generally, I prefer the stretching exercises, but I’ve included some others in case that suits you better:

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s my top 5 ways to make your workspace happier and healthier.  Other things you might want to consider include: a standing desk; a FitBall chair; using a “lockout” app to lock your computer at a specific interval to force you to take a break; in-office massage services to give you a neck & shoulders massage once a week or even hiring a virtual assistant to do something that stresses you out.  Anything that helps to reduce physical and mental stress will have an impact which will flow on to your personal life.  Make keeping healthy at work a priority and see the positive effect it will have in your whole life.

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