10 Healthy Office Habits to Practice Right Now

Around 1.7 million people suffer from work-related illness each year, which comprises either mental illness arising from a toxic work culture or physical illness resulting from unhealthy work practices. With these alarming ever-rising stats, every organization must focus on adapting healthy office habits and encourage their employees to do so. But as a matter of fact, various organizations encourage healthy habits at work, but only a few are successful at implementing them in daily routine.

Flexibility, care, communication, ergonomic furniture, and proper posture at the desk, to name a few, are some of the healthy office tips practical examples. If you are also worried about your employee turnover rate and are stressed with constant breaks and falling sick of your employees, then you need to follow and implement healthy office habits. This article will cover some useful tips for creating a healthy office space.

Remain Active

Most of the work relates to physical issues because old ways of working promote a sedentary lifestyle which is extremely hazardous for the health. Being seated in your chair for hours at a time makes you lazy and ruins your posture, damages your spine health, and gives rise to various long-term issues. This is why it is important to take frequent breaks or practice an active style at work.

Thus make sure you get up from your chair every hour or so, set up an alarm to remind yourself to take frequent breaks where you can stretch, do a yoga pose, or release all the stress. If you don't have enough time to sneak in a break every few minutes, then a standing desk is also a good option. There are various health benefits of standing desk, and fighting inactivity in the workplace is one.

Desk Exercises

You might have heard about the importance of a good workout for a healthy lifestyle, but have you heard about working out at the desk? Well, desk workouts aren't exactly the priority of health professionals to kill those calories and keep the muscles active, but for people who are glued to their chairs due to extensive work responsibilities or cannot spare hours to go to the gym, a few desk exercises are far better than sitting all day.

Practice desk crunches, desk ab workout, chair triceps dips, chair mountain climber, or any other exercise that you can do right at your workstation. While others give you a strange look, don't forget to encourage them to join you and create a healthy workforce for all.

Practice Proper Sleep

A change that will promote wellness in your work life and positively affect your personal life is to complete your hours of sleep. Lack of sleep is extremely detrimental to health and compromises work efficiency. Insomnia has a bad impact on your general mood and your working efficiency.

If you want to be happy at work, you should get at least seven hours of sleep each night. A good night's sleep will improve your general mood and increase your productivity at work. ‍

Ensure Healthy Posture

When it comes to a workplace, bad posture is the root of all problems; hence you should avoid it. Working in a bad posture makes your mind dull and subjects the sensitive body parts such as the lower back, lumbar region, spine, and neck susceptible to long-term injury.

Thus practice always sitting in an upright position. To ensure you are sitting properly, buy an ergonomic chair and avoid sitting in poor broken chairs that cause you to slouch. Learn about various types of posture and find the one that suits your needs. You will find a substantial rise in your productivity by improving your posture.

Prevent Eye Strain

Most of us spend our days staring at a computer display, which is wonderful for your professional efficiency but not great for your eyesight. It is best to spend time focusing on objects far away to strengthen your eyesight.

Focus on a faraway object for a few seconds to adjust your eyesight. A light, another structure, a street, or even a tree could be the culprit. This activity will lower the chances of developing eye problems.

Socialize

Here is one of the healthy office habits at the workplace. When you tend to bottle up all your feelings, that's when you feel on the verge of exploding. Don't let the work stress make you negative but realize that the stress of work can get to anyone, even your colleague who is sitting right beside you. Open communication or a nice chit-chat with your colleague can immediately uplift your mood and help you improve work stress. And who knows, you could ask for work-related help while you are chatting?

Know When to Stop

One of the most common causes of trouble in employees is the loss of work-life balance, thus facing overworking effects on mental health. A good organization produces happy employees and prevents overworking because they realize how overworking leads to employee burnout and permanently damages the employers and employees.

Thus taking frequent breaks, allocating time slots to relax, having a fun chit-chat after a few hours of work, and giving the chance to take mental health leave from work are all of how you can make your employees feel valued.

Get Organized

Most of the time, the cause of our workplace stress is not internal but external factors that are overwhelming the brain. One of such cases is being greeted with a constant mess. Mess in a workplace gives rise to frustration, mental blocks, and loss of productivity. Employees who keep their desks clean and their paperwork organized are better known to be efficient than those who don't.

Take Time for Yourself

It's vital to take time to do the activities you enjoy, whether in the morning, over lunch, or after work, to help you de-stress and focus on what matters to you. It is one of the healthy office habits you should practice. ‍If you like to take a walk in the fresh air, then head out during the break hour; if a nice cool drink makes you happy, doing what you like positively affects your mood.

Stay Hydrated

Water is the key to solving all the problems, whether related to work or other life. Drinking enough water every day — eight to ten glasses — will help you stay hydrated. Many fruits, such as oranges, grapefruit, grapes, watermelon, cherries, cucumber, and apples, are high in water and can help you stay healthy and hydrated.

Instead of snacking or munching on unhealthy food items, keep these fruits or nuts nearby so you can always have something to eat that burns your appetite and meets your daily hydration needs. A well-hydrated body always performs its best.