Health tips for knowledge workers
It's all about making choices to control your environment, whether you work from home or an office.
Note: This post is a reminder to myself. The information is not medical advice. Ask a doctor before making lifestyle changes.
I did landscaping in college, and on summer break early in my career.
The job was great for my health. I walked thousands of steps per day, spent hours in the sun and fresh air, zero screen time, brought my lunch, and left work behind after each day.
But…shoveling stones, trimming boxwoods, and hauling tree branches is hard work. The pay wasn’t enough to support a family of five. And I got bad poison ivy every few months.
So, we do “knowledge work” instead, where you might relate to a scene like this:
Look up from the computer and it’s 5:15pm.
Your pedometer shows 1,013 steps for the day.
A mug, a glass, and a crinkled seltzer can sit on the desk.
Also, a bowl and spoon from an unidentified lunch ate between meetings.
A single Airpod.
You think to yourself: How did I get here? If I repeat this routine everyday, how will my body feel? What can I do instead?
Many people reading this work at a desk, either at home or in an office. Let’s identify health problems that come from working this way and share tips to avoid common issues.
Problems
Now for the obvious: the default position while working at a desk is sitting. If you sit all day, your body is not getting enough movement.
What are the problems with sitting at a desk all day?
Your posture suffers.
Your eyes become strained from the screen.
You may gain weight from not moving enough.
Then there is the environment. This can be more insidious because some view their office environment as a perk. Health challenges include:
Access to devices. The phone and computer where you work also grant you access to apps you use for socializing and entertainment.
Access to food. You may be steps away from high-calorie, hyper-palatable foods. You can control this more while working from home. But there are often treats, candy, donuts, desserts, etc. brought to offices to share.
Additionally, a combination of these issues - lack of movement, excess screen time, and too much snacking - can all negatively effect sleep.
Symptoms
If you extrapolate all of the issues I mentioned above, the default trajectory of the desk worker is to have:
Atrophying muscles
Neck, back, and circulation problems
Poor eyesight
Lack of focus
Weight gain
Yes, I’m presenting the extreme example. But the point I’m making is that knowledge workers have to think intentionally about the way you treat your bodies, because the default situation does not improve your health, but worsens it.
Obstacles
The environment can make it hard to address these problems. Digital work can feel always on because, unless you shut it off, it is always on.
A mixture of meetings and projects, plus a personal life can make it difficult to eat healthy and exercise.
Certain challenges seem unavoidable. For example, you have to look at the screen for hours to get your work done.
It all comes down to maximizing the positive impact of your environment, and creating enjoyable healthy habits you can sustain long term. I’ll share what has worked for me.
First steps
The first so-easy-it-sounds-silly step to improving your health as a knowledge worker is to use a bigger water cup. No surprise, you will drink more water if you use a bigger cup. More importantly, you will realize that small conscious choices can become big levers for improving your health.
Another crazy one: do calf pushups while sitting (AKA Soleus pushups). I’ll just leave this here for more information on this weird but potentially effective method for improving your health while sitting. (Starts at 4:45)
Buy a tub of protein powder that tastes good. There is an explosion of brands that make high quality options that taste like dessert. Finding one that tastes good to you is crucial. More protein will satiate you, meaning you’ll have reduced cravings and feel less hungry. Even if you change nothing about your diet but add more protein, you may feel better, have fewer cravings, and want to snack less during the day.
Find low or no calorie snacks you like that actually taste good. See the theme here? This stuff doesn’t have to be torture. A healthy lifestyle for knowledge workers is more pleasant and enjoyable if done right.
The research is in, and it is better to have sugar free drinks and snacks once in a while than to consume all of the extra calories you would have had by having the full version of these items. A warning here is that many commonly-perceived-as-healthy snacks contain nuts, which are some of the most calorically dense and easy to overeat foods available. Much of snacking is a habit for people. Which means you can get 80% of the benefit without the downsides by literally finding some things that you enjoy chewing. This can include rice cakes, carrots, celery, sugar-free gum, grapes. Or, drinks that are enjoyable to drink but have low or no calories, like black coffee, tea, seltzer, or water with lemon.
Find one short path you like for taking a walk. When you take the walk, look into the distance. Don’t look at your phone. This will help to relax your eyes and give them a break. Also, if you can do this walk when you first wake up in the morning, even better. This will help you get better sleep.
Next steps
I’m grouping these in “next steps” because they take considerable more time or money.
Get an adjustable desk. I’m not sure about calories burned or any other more drastic health changes that come from standing at a desk part of the day vs. sitting all day. But I can personally report that my energy feels higher, and my neck/back feel better when I switch between sitting and standing, thanks to adjusting the height of my desk. Try it out. There are reasonably price options on Amazon.
Get some basic home gym equipment. Fortunately, there’s one ultimate resource for finding equipment that meets your needs and budget. It’s called Garage Gym Reviews. Go there to find the equipment you need and that fits your exercise style.
Schedule your meals. Pick 3-4 times per day when you are going to have your meals. Even if you only stick to this 4 out of 7 days per week, you will be moving in the right direction. Doing this helps you to understand when you are actually hungry, what meals are actually filling for you, which foods make you feel tired, and more. Keeping this constant will help to raise your level awareness about your eating, and make you better informed about your own needs. For example, let’s say you are going to eat at 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 6pm each day. You may realize that are you not too hungry at 11am, but get really hungry by 3pm. So you might decide to eat something light every day at 11am, and eat something more substantial at 3pm.
More than usual this one is a reminder for myself
I put this at the top of the post, but it bears repeating. I’m not a doctor, a trainer, or a health expert of any kind. Why write this post then? Because much of the value in writing comes from collecting ideas I’ve learned from other people, reminding myself about these ideas, and learning about which ideas are useful to others.
The bigger point of this post is that our small daily habits plus our physical environments have a major influence on our life outcomes, whether we’re talking about health, work, hobbies, relationships, or any other area of life.
Go forth and take a walk, fellow knowledge worker.
15 minute NSDR in the morning and before lunch has been a game changer for me. I haven't felt the need to drink yerba mate since starting that routine.