3 Easy Wellness Hacks for the Desk Jockey

Back pain and eye strain and stress, Oh My!

Whether or not your body is registering the negative effects of a sedentary work life, youcan take control of your wellbeing by making small changes to your environment and your behaviors AT work.  Don’t wait for your employer to create a culture of wellness. Incorporate these 3 easy wellness hacks into your work day and begin to build your own healthy and productive work environment.

Wellness Hack #1: Add a Touch of Mother Nature

Studies have shown numerous positive effects of having greenery in your workspace including cleaner air, stress reduction, improved creativity and increased productivity (1). Scientists explain these benefits based on the concept of biophilia—our innate love of life or living things. A biophilic workspace design includes natural elements ranging from having a variety of plants, an aquarium, even bringing dogs to work. Unable to bring Fido or Nemo to work? Start with plants. Medium-sized plants (>20cm) are shown to improve air quality. If your office has no natural light to sustain these plants, try succulants. 

Wellness Hack #2: Strategize Frequent Movement Breaks

The Desk Jockey Conundrum: Our bodies are designed to move most of the day. Our jobs require us to sit most of the day. Prolonged sitting is detrimental to our health and can lead to weight gain and chronic conditions, like Diabetes and High Blood Pressure. The Solution: take frequent, purposeful breaks. Strategize your breaks according to your work itinerary and schedule them in. For example, if you start to experience low back pain after an hour of sitting, schedule in this simple Table Top Stretch to lengthen and stretch your back side. If you tend to experience symptoms of dead butt syndrome by the afternoon, schedule in these office-friendly movements to retrain those gluteal muscles. Not sure what to do? A 3-minute walk will move those sedentary muscles and realign your posture.

Wellness Hack #3: Protect Your Eyes from Strain

According to the American Optometric Association’s American Eye-Q survey, 58% of adults experience digital eye strain or vision problems as a direct result of spending an average of 7 hours a day on the computer (2). If you work with computers all day, you can protect your eyes from digital strain. Try these tips from the American Academy of Ophthamology (3):

• Sit at arm’s length from the computer screen and position the screen so you are gazing slightly downward.
• Reduce screen glare by using a matte screen filter, if needed.
• When your eyes feel dry, use artificial tears to refresh them.
• If you wear contact lenses, give your eyes a break by wearing your glasses.
• Blink often.
• Wear blue light filtering glasses.
• Take regular breaks using the “20-20-20” rule: every 20 minutes, shift your eyes to look at an object at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.

By staring at screens all day, we’re also exposed to blue light waves, which may cause a host of issues ranging from eye strain to macular degeneration. Although there is conflicting evidence about how blue light exposure affects your eyes, doctors and researchers are in agreement that it does disrupt your circadian rhythm and, therefore, your sleep with pre-bedtime exposure (4). Unplug from your devices and your LED lights two hours prior to sleep time. If you must be on screentime, blue light filtering glasses are an inexpensive tool to guard your eyes from blue light, particularly at night.

When we think of an environment that exudes “wellness,” most of us don’t think of our work space and, yet, most of us will spend about 1/3^rdor 90,000 hours of our adult lives at work (5). Taking worksite wellness into our own hands starting with simple hacks like adding plants, doing movement breaks and wearing blue lens glasses can help us reverse the occupational hazards that come with our desk jobs.

SOURCES:

1. Largo-Wight, E. et al. Healthy workplaces: the effects of nature contact at work on employee stress and health. Public Health Rep. (2011); 125(Supp 1): 124-130.
2. American Eye-Q Survey. American Optometric Association. (2015).
3. Vimont, C. Reviewed by Khurana, R. Are computer glasses worth it? American Academy of Ophthamology. (2017).
4. What is blue light? The effect blue light has on your sleep and more. Harvard HealthLetter. (2018).
5. Global Wellness Initiative. The future of wellness at work.(2016).