Sitting stagnant in an office all day has detrimental effects on your body; your posture, your blood sugar levels, and your muscles all suffer from lack of movement. From the minute you sit down, muscles cease activity, increasing blood sugar levels, and blood vessels constrict, which contributes to fatigue. Blood can pool in the lower legs, causing varicose veins, on top of many more poor side effects we’ve all read about in every health magazine ever. How to combat this? Move!
Here are some ideas to get yourself up from your desk and keep your body balanced:
1. Have conversations in person.
Instead of sending an email, walk down the hall to your co-worker’s office to ask a question, go talk to IT when your computer has a problem, or hold a standing meeting in your office to check in with your team.
2. Drink lots of water.
You’ll have to get up when, you know, nature calls.
3. Enlarge your workspace.
Leave things you know you’ll need out of your reach, so when you need them you’ll have to get up to get them. Invest in a tall shelf, or use a table across the room. Expert challenge: leave your coffee over there.
4. Commute intentionally.
Plan a bike route, or leave a little earlier and park with a few blocks to walk to where you are going.
5. Send your print job to the printer that’s down the hall, instead of the one that’s beside your desk.
6. Set a timer.
Set a timer on your phone or put an appointment in your e-mail calendar for every 20 or 30 minutes. If you haven’t gotten up to do one or more of these ideas, walk to the water cooler and get a sip. You’ll increase your energy, productivity, and mobility throughout the day.
