At least 70% of people all around the world work remotely. The biggest drivers for remote work are the fast-developing digital changes in almost every industry in the world. Apart from digital changes, 2020 and all that has been happening all around us, has made most of us work away from our offices.
In Australia, as of 2019, remote working is the emerging trend. 2020 has seen the rise in the number of people who started working remotely (from home primarily) due to the outbreak of COVID19. Now, according to statistics, 32% of Australians work from home. For many, remote working has many benefits, from setting your own working hours to avoiding all the traffic. Additionally, according to a study conducted, working from home has brought a 13% increase in the performance of the employees.
Of course, there are some downsides to remote working as well. For one, the isolation, both professionally and socially, lack of physical activity and struggle to stay healthy when working remotely, just to name a few.
Thankfully, working remotely means you have enough time to adopt some healthy habits. Stick with us for a while to find out how to stay healthy and active as a remote worker.
Regular exercises
People who work remotely require a regular workout routine. It’s highly important to develop some sort of regular exercise routine especially if you spend most of your day sitting behind the desk.
Make a space in your schedule for exercising. You can workout anytime you want – morning, middle of the day, at night, whatever works for you. Similarly, you can choose any type of exercise to do from high intensity to low – again it all depends on your personal preference.
Exercising regularly has many benefits for both our physical and mental health.
Watch out what you eat and when
Working from home means having our eating schedules easily mixed up. Being close to the kitchen means that you will munch on something throughout the whole day – mostly unhealthy snacks.
To avoid this, try acting as if you’re going to an actual office and plan your meals accordingly. Get rid of all unhealthy snacks and snacking habits and stock your fridge with veggies and whole grains and other healthy foods.
Planning meals in advance will also help you a lot. By knowing what to cook each day of the week, you won’t be tempted to order fast food or go looking for a quick unhealthy fix. You can also prepare all your meals in advance each day, so you can just sit and eat whenever lunchtime is!
Posture and overall health
When working from home you spend a lot of time in the sitting position. Too much sitting is not good for our physical and mental health, for our posture, or our overall health.
Spending too much time in the sitting position can cause back and neck pain, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, weight gain, and so on. When you are in the seated position, you put way to much pressure and stress on your spine, your back muscles, and neck. That’s why your posture matters and there are many ways to correct your posture when sitting. You could do yourself a favor and invest in an ergonomic chair that offers lumbar support. Similarly, a standing desk could be of great help.
Another long term solution for all who lead a sedentary lifestyle is visiting a physiotherapist. In recent years, demand for physiotherapy has increased in Australia. Aussies are realizing all the benefits of physiotherapy.
You can find a great physiotherapy center that offers great services of physio in Canberra. A good physio center offers treatments designed for their client’s needs and has in mind your hectic work schedule.
Set working hours
Often when we work from home, we forget about time and our working hours become nonexistent. We also spend too much time in front of the screen and too much screen time causes headaches, foggy mind, eye problems.
This is why setting working hours and sticking to them is important. If you forget about time, you forget to eat, to take a much-needed break, your whole day passes in front of the screen.
If you organize your time accordingly, set working hours, count in all the brakes you will have time to dedicate to your health and to be active.
Use all the perks of the remote working – you know which time of the day is the most productive for you, so set those hours as your working hours, that way you will have time to eat healthy meals, to exercise regularly, and to take time away from the screen.
For some remote workers organizing their time is easy, while for others it might be complicated. The best solution for all remote workers is to make a schedule, to set working hours. Once you learn to set working hours and to stick to them, staying healthy and active won’t be a problem for you.
