Picture yourself at work. Hunched over a keyboard, clicking away on a mouse, answering the phone or having meetings. The most moving around you’re likely to do is walking to and from the copy machine.
It’s no surprise that our sedentary jobs are causing fatigue and stiffness, both mentally and physically. Fortunately, having a desk job doesn’t exclude you from staying more physically active at work. There are several ways you can boost your activity levels at work and increase productivity, too.
Three easy ways to stay more active at work and boost your productivity
Staying more active at work can be as simple as taking these three steps:
- Making a mental shift — Somehow, somewhere along the way, Americans got it into their heads that working without breaks is the sign of productivity. Not true! Working without breaks actually causes physical and mental fatigue. Studies have shown that people who take just one break of five minutes or less have a 13% increase in productivity.
- Using the one in 40 rule for breaks — Studies have shown that the mind can only work continuously on a singular task for an average of 40 minutes at a time. After that, your productivity begins to slow. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a lot to reset the brain’s ability to refocus. Standing up and moving around every 40 minutes, changing positions or walking to another office is enough to give your brain the blood flow it needs to be ready for the tasks at hand.
- Maintaining good hydration — On average, water represents up to 60% of our body weight. In spite of this, many workers allow themselves to become chronically dehydrated. Being dehydrated can lead to issues like:
- Digestive problems
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches
- Joint pain
- Decreased productivity
If you’re feeling thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Make sure you’re consuming about 2 to 3 cups of water per hour in order to keep your brain firing the way it should.
Find out how Border Therapy Services can help you stay more active at work
Many factors can make it harder to stay active at work, but our Border Therapy Services team can help you find ways to do so. We can perform a free screening for you, and this can be used to reveal the source of work injuries or pinpoint ways to increase your work productivity and activity levels. Our team also excels at building personalized therapy plans designed to help boost at-work activity levels.
Want to do your therapy at home? No problem! We offer at-home therapy and virtual care sessions. Even better, we don’t require that you have a doctor’s referral before you start using our therapy services, so you won’t have to leave home to get one.
Take the next step to staying more active at work. Contact us today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.