Assessing Your Workday Habits
Introduction
Our daily routines are composed of countless habits we perform almost automatically, without giving them much thought. These routines, whether it's standing at a specific spot on the train platform to reduce commute time or visiting the local coffee shop to order our "usual," provide structure and predictability to our lives.
These routines and habits allow us to be more efficient with our time and focus on other priorities, creating a rhythm that guides us through our day. But, in the context of the workday they also have implications for our health and wellbeing.
In today’s computer-centre office many of us spend a significant amount of the day sitting, whether it’s at a desk, in meetings or during our commute. This more sedentary way of working has become so integral in our daily routines that it is easy to overlook its effects.
The purpose of this article is to help raise awareness of your sitting habits and give you’re the tools and knowledge to assess your workday habits. By becoming more aware of your sedentary habits you can start to make small, changes which can improve your wellbeing.
What Are Workday Habits?
Workday habits are the routines and patterns that we engage in during our working hours. They include activities like our commute, the amount of time we spend at our desks, how often we take breaks and how we manage our work tasks and commitments during the workday.
Many of these habits are automatic, we do them on auto-pilot without really thinking. This allows us to focus and concentrate on the requirements of the workday. We rely on our routines so much that we rarely stop to consider how they might be affecting our physical and mental health.
Why Assess Your Workday Habits?
For many of us, the majority of our workday is spent seated, glued to computer screens, immersed in virtual meetings, or engrossed in paperwork. While this may seem like a normal part of modern work life, it's important to understand how this habit of prolonged sitting impacts our long-term health.
Negative Health Implications – prolonged sitting is linked to an increased risk of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and musculoskeletal problems.
Lower Productivity and Efficiency – poor time management and prolonged sitting can lead to decreased productivity and increased fatigue.
Poor Mental Wellbeing - sedentary behaviour can negatively affect mental health, leading to increased stress, anxiety, and decreased overall mood.
By assessing our workday habits, we can gain a better understanding of our routines and identify areas for improvement. This assessment helps us recognise unhealthy patterns and take proactive steps to reduce the associated risks.
Benefits of Assessing Your Workday Habits
Healthier Lifestyle - changing sedentary habits for more active ones can lead to improved physical health, reducing the risk of chronic diseases and enhancing overall fitness.
Enhanced Productivity - integrating regular movement and breaks into your workday can boost productivity and maintain high energy levels throughout the day.
Improved Mental Wellbeing – activities that support mental health, such as short walks or stretching, can alleviate stress and improve your mood.
Long term Health Benefits - small, consistent changes in daily habits can contribute to healthier aging and a better quality of life over time.
Taking a proactive approach to our health and wellbeing allows us to make informed decisions that promote a healthier, more productive, and balanced work life. By regularly assessing and adjusting our workday habits, we can optimise our energy levels, improve our performance, and enhance our overall quality of life.
How to Assess Your Workday Sitting Time
Assessing how long and how often you sit during the workday is an essential first step toward understanding and improving your daily habits. Here are a few quick and easy ways to track your sitting time:
Post-it Note Method:
Grab a post-it note and keep it with you for the entire day. Each time you get up from sitting down, make a mark on the post-it note. This simple method helps you become more aware of how often you change your position and can highlight periods of prolonged sitting.
Diary Review:
Pick a typical workday and review your diary or calendar. Identify how many "gaps" or "breaks" you have between meetings and tasks. These gaps represent opportunities where you could take a break and move around. Add up the total number of breaks you could potentially take in a day.
Meeting Analysis:
Calculate the number of 1-hour meetings (or longer) you have committed to attend in a typical week. These meetings often require extended periods of sitting. By adding up these hours, you can get a sense of how much of your workday is spent in meetings and how it contributes to your overall sitting time.
Use a Timer:
Set a timer on your computer or phone to remind you to stand up and move every hour. Keep a note of every time you either moved or hit “ignore” on the prompt. At the end of the day, review how often you actually moved, or if you hit “ignore”.
Using any of these strategies, you can start to get a clearer picture of how long you sit during the workday.
By identifying how often and how long your sit every day is the first step towards breaking away from the sedentary habits towards a more active workday and improve your wellbeing.
Evaluating your Workday Sitting Habits
Once you’ve completed your initial assessment of your workday sitting time, take a moment to reflect on the results.
Were they as expected, or were you surprised by how much time you spend sitting? Research shows that office workers can often be seated for up to 80% of their workday, with much of this time spent at their desks or in meetings.
This initial assessment is a valuable indicator of whether it’s worth delving deeper into evaluating your workday sitting habits in detail.
To help you with this deeper evaluation, we’ve created a free digital workbook that you can download.
This workbook is designed to help you analyse where most of your sitting occurs throughout the workday. It includes a series of questions that guide you through a comprehensive assessment of your daily routines and sitting habits.
Here’s what you can expect from the workbook:
Describe Your Average Workday:
Detail how long your workday typically lasts.
Describe how you travel to and from work.
Outline the types of tasks your day involves.
Note if you work from home and how often.
Describe Your Break Frequency and Duration:
Record how regularly you take breaks from sitting throughout the day.
Estimate the average length of these breaks.
Identify activities that prompt you to take breaks from sitting.
Describe Your Travel Habits:
Assess your travel habits and how they contribute to your overall sitting time.
Quantifying Your Daily Activities:
At the end of the workbook, there is an exercise to quantify the tasks of your day. Summarise how long you spend on each activity, including desk-based tasks, phone calls, video calls, meetings, breaks, travel, and commuting.
By the end of the workbook, you will have a clear picture of your total daily sitting time. You will see how long you typically spend sitting during various activities and identify areas where you can make changes from sedentary to active behaviour.
This detailed evaluation empowers you to prioritise changes that can significantly reduce your sitting time and improve your overall health and wellbeing.
Using this information, you can start making small, manageable changes to your daily routine. Whether it’s arranging standing meetings, taking regular movement breaks, or adjusting your workspace, every step towards reducing sedentary behaviour is a step towards a healthier, more active workday.
Download our free workbook today and take the first step towards transforming your workday habits.
Summary
Our reliance on computers in the workplace has resulted in jobs that are less physically demanding and more sedentary. Understanding how deeply these sedentary habits are embedded in our day-to-day routines is crucial for assessing the extent of our sitting habits.
This awareness provides a baseline from which we can measure the effects of change and progress towards a healthier, more balanced workday.
To combat the sedentary lifestyle that dominates many of our workdays, the key lies in taking small, manageable steps. These incremental changes, though seemingly modest, can lead to significant transformations in our overall health and wellbeing.
Using the methods we've discussed to track and understand your sitting habits and consider how much time you spend sitting and where changes can be made.
By regularly assessing and adjusting your workday habits, you can optimise your energy levels, improve your performance, and enhance your quality of life. Download our free workbook today and take the first step towards a healthier, more balanced workday.
