When you are looking for small tricks and strategies that can help you get the most out of your time or improve your mood at work, regularly getting up from your desk might not be the first thing that comes to mind.
However, there are several reasons to try out this simple practice. Here are five of the biggest benefits:
1. Protecting your health
It has been proven that spending long periods of time in a sitting position is simply not good for you. One of the reasons for this is that excessive sitting slows down your metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to break down fat and to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure.
What’s more, spending too much time looking at a computer screen can affect the health of your eyes and neck, while excessive typing can lead to wrist strain. So taking a break from your desk really can make a difference to your health.
2. Avoiding mental burnout
Spending too much time sitting in the same spot, staring at a screen or looking through paperwork is not conducive to mental sharpness or acuity. Forcing yourself to stay at your desk until a certain task is completed – even if you stopped making any real progress a long time ago – is more likely to lead to mental burnout than positive results.
If you are looking for inspiration to help you solve a particular problem at work, allowing yourself to stand up from your desk and get some mental perspective could be exactly what’s needed.
3. Getting some fresh air
The human race evolved in the outdoors; as a species we are not meant to spend all of our time enclosed in buildings, breathing in recycled air and staring at the same four walls.
Of course, many modern-day jobs demand that we spend a lot of time indoors, but this time can be much more fulfilling and productive when it’s interspersed with spells outdoors. When you have been working at your desk for a couple of hours, it’s surprising just how invigorating it can be to go outside and take in some deep breaths of fresh air, even if it’s only for a couple of minutes.
4. Speaking to your colleagues
Having a face-to-face chat with some colleagues – whether it’s to talk about work or simply to say hello and see how people are getting on – is a perfectly valid reason to get up from your desk and walk around the office.
You could treat this time as a brief break from work, but it can also be viewed as something that supports the overall performance of the business, as co-workers talking to each other in person contributes to effective teamwork, creativity, workplace morale and staff satisfaction.
5. Eating and drinking healthily
If you find yourself particularly absorbed in a key task or project, it can be easy to forget how important it is to keep your body properly fuelled and hydrated.
Getting up from your desk for occasional trips to the watercooler or to eat a nutritious lunch away from your workspace will help to ensure you have the physical and mental energy required to stay productive throughout the working day.
Image courtesy of iStock-g-stockstudio
