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What are healthy office habits and why should we start focusing more on them? When someone explains to us why we should lead a healthy life and the basic methods to achieve it, the most predictable response is for our mind to go to the same ideas as always: go to the gym or at least do some kind of physical activity, take care of our diet, have a good sleep routine…
In reality, these are not entirely misguided ideas: physical activity, nutrition, and the quality of our sleep are all very important aspects that have a direct impact on our health. However, we don’t always realize that healthy living is not just what happens while we sleep, while we skim the supermarket shelf before making our grocery decisions, or while we tone up on the treadmill.
Regardless of the specific behaviors we engage in, leading a healthy lifestyle needs consistency. That is, as far as possible and without falling into exaggeration, it should cover all aspects of our lives and not just stick to one area while maintaining the same old unhealthy habits in the others. So, why not consider applying these habits to our workplace health so we can enjoy healthy office habits?
Remember that, with a few basic and progressively applied habits, the way we work can contribute to our health without us having to make a huge effort to do so.
Why do we need to encourage healthy office habits?
There are three key reasons we should encourage healthy office habits:
1. We spend a significant part of our working day there. This means that taking care of our health when we are in the office is equivalent to taking good care of ourselves, in general.
2. If we feel good when we are at the office, it contributes to our well-being both before starting the day and after clocking out.
3. Leading healthy office habits contributes to increasing productivity. A healthy employee is an employee who is reasonably well both physically and psychologically, and someone who is well inside and out is always going to work better.
10 tips to help you gain healthy office habits
Keeping in mind the main reasons to lead a healthy life, also at work, requires some effort on our part, enhancing our well-being at work is not easy and is not always in our hands. However, here are ten suggestions that can be easily within your reach so you can lead a healthy life while working
1. Take care of your diet
It is as much about taking care of the specific foods we eat as it is about the way we eat. The rush, laziness and the “bad” influences with food can drag us systematically to a diet that does not benefit us. Enjoy life, sweeten it up and spice it up as much as you like, but don’t fall into a dynamic of neglect with food. Find a way to eat a healthy diet most days. Of course, eat slowly and calmly, leave stress out of mealtime.
2. Don’t stiffen up, exercise
Endless days in front of the computer can cause our back, legs, and body as a whole to lose the tone and agility they need. Make sure your posture is correct while working and get up from time to time. Walk, take a stroll whenever possible to make up for long periods of sitting down.
3. Watch out for time
Don’t get to the office in a rush or stay later than expected, unless it’s to resolve an issue that can’t wait. Make the most of the hours you have and distribute your tasks throughout the day as efficiently as possible.
4. Make the most of your breaks
One of the reasons to have healthy office habits is that without being well we cannot work well, and that depends to a large extent on our breaks. Have a good break time routine, take breaks in a way that is consistent with the level of fatigue you are accumulating and take that opportunity to move around, chat with colleagues, have a snack, and get away from the screen. Do not allow breaks and work to merge.
5. Have a social life
A large part of the emotional salary that is included in a particular job is the possibility of sharing space, projects, and time with other people as long as they are nice, we connect with them and the company culture contributes to team cohesion. You are not a production machine: if you feel like it and whenever appropriate, take the opportunity to interact and nurture relationships with your colleagues.
6. Keep your desk tidy
To work with certain efficiency, and of course, with a high level of concentration and peace, it is vital to have our workspace clean and tidy. Make sure there are no distractions or obstacles around your work environment and that your surroundings are uncluttered.
7. Don’t interrupt without a reason
Socializing and enjoying interactions with colleagues is great and positively influences our well-being. However, for all of you to work better, you must respect the work atmosphere and concentration, so when you have free time, you can enjoy it to have a chat and a laugh. To do so, try not to start small talk every now and then or make requests to your colleagues that can wait until later.
8. Watch your attitude at all times
From the moment you walk into the office until you say goodbye to your colleagues. Of course, we all get tired, angry, have bad days, and other issues which you already know. Try to have a friendly, positive, and polite attitude most of the time. It sounds silly, but having a grumpy person on the team can pollute the entire work environment.
9. Use what you need
Make a comfortable and responsible use of materials and spaces. To work well you must have the necessary tools and comfort. Make use of the office and the materials at hand, ask for what is important, and can improve the quality of your performance. In general, if you have a coat rack, don’t keep your coats in the way, if there is a closet, keep your junk there, if you need to write stuff down, get a notebook, and don’t collect pieces of paper. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.
10. Cultivate companionship
Help your colleagues with what they need whenever you can and don’t make them wait unnecessarily. One of the things that contribute most to our unease is poor coordination with colleagues, selfishness, poor performance, or bad character. Don’t be like that and you will make it easier for others not to be like that with you. Be friendly and reachable.
As you know, there are plenty of reasons to add healthy office habits to your life, even if we all find it hard to get into it. That’s okay. You can start by taking care of your psychological health with the help of experts in this area. In addition, if you are responsible for human capital management in your company and you need help to improve the quality of life of the people in your charge, we can also help you. How?
Emotional well-being program for companies
At ifeel, we have one goal: to help companies take care of their employees in a comfortable way and, of course, to accompany them to build a healthy and friendly corporate culture for all. To achieve this, our team of psychologists specializing in well-being at work has created an emotional well-being program for companies.
Through this collaboration, HR managers can receive personalized, data-driven advice on how to improve their team’s psychological well-being. In addition, this program offers employees a comprehensive mental health care service structured at different levels according to their needs. Try our program now to see all its benefits.
Also, don’t forget to visit our Resources section, where we have a variety of content such as podcasts, HR Guides, or Interviews with top leaders. In addition, we have a Psychosocial Risk Factors Template. We encourage you to use it to comply with the requirements of the Labor Inspection.
We hope this post about healthy office habits has been interesting. If you want more information about our emotional well-being program for companies? Simply request it, and we will contact your team as soon as possible.
