Webinarmed / BeaconLive Blog

In the working world, there are good days and there are bad days. Some days, you are on top of your work, you are productive, and you genuinely enjoy the work you are doing. Other days, everything may seem to be going wrong and you can’t seem to find any joy in your work. You roll out of bed 20 minutes behind your normal morning schedule, you hit an hour of traffic during your commute to work, and your local Starbucks somehow runs out of espresso for your morning latte. At this point, the last place you want to spend the next 8 hours of your day is confined within a 6’x6’ box.

However, what you may not realize is that you are 100% justified in this desire. Though you may begin to protest that you feel as though your cubicle is draining the mere life out of you, there is some grain of truth to your complaints. Sufficient research has been conducted to reveal a correlation between your life span and the effect your cubicle is taking on your livelihood – specifically, sitting is a lot worse for you than you may think. According to a recent Infographic posted by Mashable.com, sitting at a desk all day can actually increase your risk for cardiovascular diseases and other fatal conditions. With this recent research, it’s no wonder why employees in these positions are pushing to implement standing desks in their workplace. Although standing is not as comfortable than sitting, it may just save your life.

Though you may have already given your cubicle a facelift after reading the first installment in this series, those changes won’t necessarily get you out of your chair and onto your feet. To combat against sitting-related health concerns, here are some tips for those cube dwellers who feel restless and restricted in their small work areas. And even though these suggestions may seem trivial, remember: your life (and productivity) may depend on them!

Even in the most hectic times at work, there is always time to move around. If your body is tired, your mind must be tired too. Staring at a computer screen all day will inevitably cause your mind to run off track and turn your brain to mush. If you’re feeling as though projects and ideas are running together, you owe it to your mind and your body to take a quick break because:

1. Sitting all day places immense stress and pressure on your back and joints
2. Electrical activity in other muscles shut down completely
3. Calorie burning drops to a rate of 1 per minute

While your body’s energy slowly decreases, so can brain activity and alertness. To fight these sitting side effects, you must engage your mind and your body. Get up and stretch. Take a walk to the kitchen for a fresh cup of coffee or a cold beverage. Start a quick conversation with a coworker a few cubicles down from yours. Do whatever you need to do to create an excuse to be active for a few minutes, recharge your batteries, and then get back to work.

Do you have stairs in your building? Although the elevator can seem particularly convenient when you stroll into work 20 minutes late, the small bit of exercise you get from walking up a few flights of stairs can be the boost your body needs to wake up in the morning (and also, to stay awake throughout the day). Now, I am not preaching for everyone to completely denounce the use of elevators. I understand that someone who works on the 60^th floor of the John Hancock Tower is undeniably going to be a little apprehensive to take the stairs every morning. However, if you are someone who works in a small office space with only 5 floors, taking the stairs will give you that extra bit of exercise each day to help combat the effects of a “sitting” job.

If you do work in a fancy, 30+-story office building in the heart of Boston, there are other ways to keep your body active. Remember, emailing is not the only form of communication in the workplace. While it may seem convenient to send a colleague an email about a project you are working on, there may be times where a quick trip down the hall can be a more efficient use of your time and can also be beneficial to your health. If it is a simple question or a quick thought (something that doesn’t need to be recorded into an email for future recollection), take a walk and ask that person verbally. The trip will exercise your body and stimulate your muscles, and the human interaction will awaken your mind and increase alertness. Once you return to your desk, you can approach your work again with a refreshed body and mind.

You would never think that your body and muscle movement play such an important role in workplace productivity. Engaging your whole body will effectively engage your mind, allowing you to stay invested in your work and generate better quality thoughts throughout the day. Also remember that cubicle décor can also affect your work ethic in a positive way – check out the first blog in this series, “Turning Your Cubicle Into A Home-icle,” and send us your before-and-after photos. Check up on our Twitter page to see other readers’ ideas as well as the improvements the BeaconLive team has made to their cubes (coming soon!).