You Could Be Sabotaging Your Job.

Your work is important, but your health is more important. You know that when you don’t get enough sleep, eat too much junk food, or skip a meal to squeeze in extra time finishing your project, you do not always deliver your best work. Nobody wants the look of disappointment from their boss because they weren’t able to be on top of their game at work.

According to Brigham Young University Professor Ray Merrill’s study  unhealthy habits are causing substantially higher levels of lost workplace productivity. More specifically the study found that employees who have unhealthy diets were 66% more likely to have a loss in productivity. More shocking, employees who weren’t able to exercise during the day were 96% more likely to have productivity loss. (Source T. Hollingshead)

A few tips that will help keep you from suffering from productivity loss:

• Start by getting a full nights rest 6- 8 hours. Your mom always warned you about not getting your full 8 hours of sleep and she was right.

• Trade your junk food for a healthier option- all of those trips to the snack machine for those chips and candy bars adds up to extra pounds, slowing you down physically, and according to the BYU’s study, slowing your productivity as well. Solution: instead of eating from the snack machine opt for packing a healthy snack that fills you up.

• Drink more water- I know you have heard this before but how filling is that can or bottle of pop really? It’s not, and it doesn’t quench your thirst. Drinking water will help to hydrate your body and water is free from the drinking faucet, unlike the pop bottles you would have been buying.

• Exercise - sitting at a desk a lot harder than most people would think. Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day is a lot of strain on your back. If you took a few minutes to get up from your desk to do a few stretches to strengthen your back you could help to improve your posture while you sit. Incorporate a workout after work or just take those extra few minutes at lunch you have to walk around to circulate your blood stream.

These simple additions to your day could make all the difference in your overall health which can help to decrease yours chances of being less productive.

Try these tips and let us know if you’ve noticed a positive change in your productivity and overall health. Do you have any additional tips that you would like to add?