Get your brain in motion

Tag: work/life balance

Get fit at work – 10 Exercises to Do at Your Desk

Most people today spend too much time tied to desks, buried in emails. Our modern lives have been engineered so that we can spend most of it sitting down. Unfortunately, sitting is literally killing us.

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 3.2 million deaths can be attributed to lack of physical activity. Our sedentary lifestyles are responsible for increasing our risk of diabetes and heart disease as well as a loss of muscle and bone strength. Perhaps even more alarming is that people who exercise regularly are probably still not getting enough movement in their lives to counteract the deleterious effects of sitting too much.

According to this article, with a little more activity throughout the day, we can actually reverse the inevitable weight gain associated with such a sedentary existence.

There are countless ways to sneak more activity into our day, aka exercise hacks. There are exercises to do at our desk, such as chair exercises and stretches we can incorporate into our daily routine.

Here are 10 stretches you can do at your desk:

1. Rubber Neck – Sit up tall and drop your right  ear down towards your right shoulder (you don’t have to touch it!) and hold for a few seconds and repeat for the left side.

2. Reach for the Stars – Interlace your fingers and reach up towards the sky, as high as you can … keeping your palms facing up towards the ceiling.

3. Look Around – Turn your head the left and try and look over your shoulder and hold for a few seconds … repeat on the right.

4. Bobblehead – Drop your chin down towards your chest and GENTLY roll your head from side to side.

5. Shrugs – Raise both shoulders up towards your ears and hold for a few seconds and release. Repeat a few times for good measure.

6. Chest Opener – Bring your hands behind your back, press your palms together, sit up tall and hold for 5–10 seconds.

7. Seated Toy Soldier – Sit up tall and extend your right arm all the way up towards the ceiling. Straighten your left leg out and raise it up as you bring your right arm down and try to touch your left foot.

8. Knee Hugger – With a bent knee, lift your right leg up and grab it with your arms and pull it in as close to your chest as you can. Hold for 5–10 seconds and make sure and do it on the left side, too.

9. Reach and Bend- Extend your right arm over your head and reach out as far as you can to the left and gently bend over. Hold for a few seconds and do it the other way.

10. Knee Press – With your right ankle on your left knee, gently press against the right knee a few times. Of course, after you’re done with the right side, be sure and give the left side some love, too.

Image: PixabayGeralt

Six Tips for better Work-Life Balance

Experts agree: the compounding stress from the never-ending workday is damaging. It can hurt relationships, health and overall happiness.

Here are some tips suggested by experts to help you find the balance that’s right for you:

1. Let go of perfectionism: the healthier option is to strive not for perfection, but for excellence.

2. Unplug: by not constantly reacting to the updates from work, you will develop a stronger habit of resilience.

3. Exercise and meditate: exercise, yoga or meditation are effective stress reducers. They pump feel-good endorphins through your body.

 

4. Limit time-wasting activities and people: identify what’s most important in your life and make sure it truly reflects your priorities. Then, draw firm boundaries so you can devote quality time to these high-priority people and activities.

 

5. Change the structure of your life: instead of trying to do it all, focus on activities you specialize in and value most. Delegate or outsource everything else.

6. Start small. Build from there: taking on too much too quickly is a recipe for failure, so start with small changes.

For more information read the full article.

Work_life_balance_rat_race

Image source: Wikimedia – By KVDP, Shokunin, Aungkarns – Own work  (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Everyone strives for a reasonable work/life balance, but it’s a common experience that it is often very hard to reach. Professional help may come in handy.

In a recent Time magazine article Tim Ferriss, author of the international bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek, has shared six tips to enhance productivity, illustrated the science behind them, why they really work and have a positive impact on your daily routine.

  1. Manage Your Mood. Most productivity systems underestimate the impact of feelings. If you are calm and happy you are more likely to get your work done sooner and better.
  2. Don’t Check Email in The Morning. Checking your inbox first things first in the morning amounts to having your priorities hijacked by whoever has decided to send you a message.
  3. Before You Try To Do It Faster, Ask Whether It Should Be Done At All. Not all the things you are planning to do really need to be done before you call it a day. Focus only on what is really important and set your priorities accordingly.
  4. Focus Is Nothing More Than Eliminating Distractions.
    Concentration is key to successful prioritization.
  5. Have A Personal System. Productive people have a routine, a system of their own to get things done, and they stick to it.
  6. Define Your Goals The Night Before.
    If you wake up and you have already thought about what should be your priority during the day you are halfway to success.

Do you want to know more?

3281131319_680396f345_z

Image source: Flickr – Matt Gibson (CC BY-NC 2.0)