Tips To Stay Fit And Healthy In Your Home Office

Whatever happens in the near future, one thing is for certain: the home office is about to become a mainstay of working life, as people look to do away with lengthy commutes and companies realize they can operate just as productively with large portions of their workforce working remotely. However, with these changes come additional challenges. What happens when your Internet connection goes down with no IT support in sight, and how do employees manage to stay healthy, with many becoming virtual couch potatoes who spend work rest and play all in the same sedentary position? We cannot help with IT support, but we can provide these top tips for home office workers looking to kick-start their well-being.

have stress relievers and stretching apparatus at hand. Modern offices are packed with useful tools for helping workers relax and stretch their weary muscles, with everything from gym balls to sit on to stress balls available on every desk. It is important for people who work at home to both adopt some of these practices and to even take things further. Doing a little 5-minute yoga session in your office probably wouldn’t be acceptable, but at home it is totally possible, and something that may inspire you to incredible productivity over the proceeding hours.

eat and drink right. Whether you are a self-employed gaming aficionado or the CEO of a huge corporation, maintaining a healthy diet when working at home is key to you not feeling frazzled and devoid of energy come the end of the working day. The key to this is to remain hydrated, while resisting the temptation to gorge on caffeinated drinks and foods rich in fat. The short boost or pleasure rush they provide will only be followed by a crushing low. Instead, be sure to keep re-filling your glass with water and ensure you eat as much fruit and veg as you can. Ditching pasta and bread in favour of natural grains and beans is also advisable, as they provide excellent healthy proteins.

getting regular hours of sleep is a must. When your commute involves rolling out of bed into your workstation, the temptation can be to start confusing your body clock by going to bed late, knowing that the alarm clock won’t go off till 8:55 a.m. However, just as it is important to get a good night’s sleep when you travel for work, the importance of sleep cannot be underestimated when you work from home. Remember, nothing gets you feeling good about your work/life balance than getting up and being active before you head online. Make sure you get to bed early enough so you can make the most of your pre-work morning hours.

make sure your home office setup is safe. HR departments everywhere go to great lengths to ensure that office workstations are ergonomically sound, allowing employees to work long hours in the same position with it not being to the detriment of their physical and mental well-being. Such things that are taken into account include: seating, lighting, ventilation, screen positioning and much more. Every home office worker needs to be taking the same things into consideration too, otherwise they risk suffering chronic back or neck pain, or even acute eye strain.

when work stops, abandon your screens and hit the home gym. Perhaps one of the worst pitfalls of working from home is never taking a break from your screen, simply logging off from work only to fire up a Netflix series or YouTube video. Not only will your eyes appreciate a break from the screens that rule your life, but so will the people you live with. Taking prolonged breaks from the use of screens altogether is undoubtedly one way to get yourself out of a mental health funk.