Health and Productivity Advice: Get Out of Your Chair
When working from home you have to ensure that you have a comfortable chair to work from. But that is not enough: you also need to get out of your chair: you need to stand, you need to walk and you need to exercise.
1. The Problem of Sitting Too Much
80% of the adult population experience back pain at some point in their lives. At any moment of time over 10% of white collar workers in the US and 15% in Western Europe suffer from back pain. This makes back pain one of the most common diseases in western civilization. In fact, back pain is the most common cause of work incapacity and accounts for over 10% of the reasons employees are not able to work.
So if back pain is such a major problem. Why is this happening?
The reason is that office workers are spending on average 12 hours per day sitting: they sit 7 hours at work, sit while commuting, sit while eating and sit while watching TV, playing games or surfing the net.
When people work from home the situation does not get better, but in fact becomes worse. People continue to sit while working and do not exercise any more than they did while commuting to work.
2. Back Pain Prevention
But working from home offers unique ways to prevent back pain and at same time become healthier and more productive:
2.1. Comfortable chair
A comfortable ergonomic chair can help prevent back pain and is therefore worth every dollar invested in it.
2.2. External screen
Even if you are working on a laptop you should get an external screen. That screen does not have to be attached directly to the keyboard, as with a laptop screen, but instead can be further away and on the level of your eyes.
2.3. External keyboard
Second best to an external screen is an external keyboard. With an external keyboard you can place your laptop at a higher level so that the screen reaches the level of your eyes and then use a keyboard at the level of your arms.
2.4. Standing desk
More important than working from a comfortable chair and with an external screen or external keyboard is working while standing.
The most common way people do this is by having a standing desk. However, this is not required.
I personally work a large part standing without having a standing desk for two reasons: First, a standing desk takes at least 30 seconds to adjust in height. While 30 seconds does not seem like a long time, I have noticed that I often work sitting and telling myself I should stand up. But then I put the height adjustment off, since those 30 seconds would interrupt my work. So for me it is important that I have an instant option to work while standing.
Second, I am a digital nomad travelling by plane with only one small suitcase. So all I can fit in it is a keyboard but definitely no standing desk.
So how do I work standing while travelling and without an adjustable desk and without having to spend time adjusting? I use a simple solution. I just put the chair on the table and my laptop on the chair. This works in 80% of the cases. If for some reason it does not work because the legs of the chair are wider than the available table, or because the chair is too heavy, I just purchase a 3 USD plastic stool and put it on the table.
2.5. Exercise
Besides standing while working it is important to keep moving. This is easy in case you are working remotely from your home or hotel room. You just take regular 5 minute breaks and use them to do pushups or run around the block.
2.6. Walk
Besides exercise in short intervals during the breaks, you want to try to do part of your work while walking. This is hard to do in case you have to write something. But in case you are checking emails, reading information, or participating in a call, you can very well walk at home or even better walk outside in the fresh air.
Personally, whenever I have to read a long blog post, article or book or when I have to take a phone call, I go out into nature. Of course reading while walking outside does not work in case there is traffic and noise, but if you are lucky enough to live close to a quiet area, getting your work done while walking is a great way to have more fun at work, be more productive and stay healthy.
2.7. Rotation
As you have seen I try to not only sit while working but also stand, walk and exercise in the breaks. Also important is that I try to change my state at least every 60 minutes. So I go from sitting to exercise to standing, to walking, to sitting, to exercise, etc.
3. Summary on Back Pain Prevention and Productivity Increase
To summarize the advice on back pain prevention and productivity increase:
● Get a comfortable chair, external monitor or external keyboard
● Exercise in between work sessions, during your breaks
● Spend at least 50% of your working time standing or if better walking
● Rotate frequently between sitting, standing and walking
