5 Ways to Stay Healthy for Work During Cold and Flu Season

It’s that time of year when you might see your colleagues taking sick days at work and perhaps you’ve missed a day or two yourself. It’s cold and flu season and for every day you might miss because you’re sick, there are several other days you go in when you’re not feeling well, and when you’re ill you are unable to work at peak performance.

To excel at work, we need to pay attention to our health. Consider implementing these five ways to improve your health, boost your performance at work, and keep you healthy during cold and flu season.

Get a flu shot. Many workplaces offer the flu shot for free and provide an opportunity for employees to receive the shot at work. If your employer offers this make sure you get in line. Not only will you protect yourself from the flu, but you’ll also decrease the chance for others to get sick by being in contact with you.

Get adequate sleep. Getting adequate sleep provides many health benefits and studies have indicated that getting 7-8 hours of sleep reduces stress, increases creativity, improves memory, and sharpens attention, among other things. On the other hand, sleep deficiency has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke.

Meditate. A brief, daily practice of meditation can result in significant health benefits such as reduced stress, better sleep, and perhaps even improved immune functioning. Meditation can also help you focus on positive and encouraging thoughts, which can lead to more joy and greater focus throughout the day.

Drink water and avoid alcohol. Staying properly hydrated is important to provide energy, strengthen muscles, improve skin, and keeps your gastrointestinal tract functioning healthily. As we’ve all heard, our bodies are mostly water and we need to drink enough daily to avoid fatigue, headaches, and other issues. Frequent alcohol consumption has many negative consequences and alcohol is a depressant; if you struggle with depression it can exacerbate it. To be at your best limit your alcohol intake.

Exercise or move 30 minutes. Our bodies are made to move, and we need to ensure some basic level of movement daily in order to stay healthy and strong, and to avoid illness. You don’t need to train like a professional athlete or body builder to see results. Get out and walk two miles on your lunch break, or bike in the morning before work … or, better yet, bike to work. Schedule this time every day just as you would any other important meeting. You’ll soon find that you have more energy and accomplish more throughout the day.

See your doctor. This is something that men often struggle with more than women. To stay healthy and to deal with an illness before it becomes more serious, be sure to see your physician for an annual exam. 

  

These basic strategies will help you feel stronger, and more energetic, and keep you healthy and on the job during cold and flu season.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Coping in a Toxic Work Environment

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Coping in a Toxic Work Environment: "As difficult as a toxic work environment may be, never allow yourself to become less than who you are meant to be out of anger or spite for your current employer.  Always conduct yourself with integrity and always put in your very best effort toward the job you were hired to do."

• What Not to Do After a Job Interview: "Your interview could have gone spectacularly overall, but focusing on one or two things you could have done better will cause you to feel like the whole thing was a failure."

• 5 Smart Ways for Busy People to Stay Healthy: "Even little changes, like upping your daily step count by taking the stairs or parking further away from the entrance to your building, can improve your general health. The mentality that a workout has to be intense to matter is dangerous. Focus instead on fitting small, active bursts into your day."

• 5 Reasons Older Founders Are Generally More Successful: "the experimentally creative do not reach peak inventiveness until their mid-50s and have more than just that one eureka moment."
• Simple Ways Anyone Can Be More Creative:"No matter if you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned pro, sometimes the best source of creative inspiration comes from others. Creatives often look to the best within their industry—the experts—to learn new techniques and come up with new ideas for their own work."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Why So Many Employees Quit Within The First 6 Months

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Why So Many Employees Quit Within the First 6 Months: "when managers take an active role in onboarding, 'employees are 3.4 times as likely to strongly agree their onboarding experience was exceptional'."

• 9 CEOs Share Their Favorite Interview Question: "This helps me get at what really motivates people and how passionate they are about the work they do."

• How to Know Which Ideas Your Company Should Pursue: "our method might not make it easier to pick great ideas, but it should make it easier to avoid picking bad ones. It helps to prioritize ideas or consider which ones should be more thoroughly evaluated."

• 4 Tips for Prioritizing Your Health: "We make it a team commitment to be healthy. Lunches are catered at work, and we hold each other to picking the healthier options. Every hour on the hour during the work week, we do a short round of exercises."
• 4 Tips to Achieve Work-Life Balance:"In many cases, I would delegate something and then grab it back if I started to see a problem. Thankfully, I eventually learned to simply oversee the process and help freelancers bring their output up to my standards."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Tips to Stay Healthy at Work

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 4 Tips to Stay Healthy at Work: "Did you know certain foods improve your presence, energy and work focus?  Stock your desk with healthy snack items such as raw almonds, or dried fruit."

• 14 Effective Ways to Make Time for Your Side Gig: "the trick to freeing up time for working on other business ventures is to make it feel like one of your hobbies. This works especially well if your side hustle directly relates to one of your passions."

• How to Harness Your Hustle & Make it Work For You: "Working smarter, not harder is the key to startup success. Here are three strategies we’ve implemented at my company in the last two years to help us (and our clients) do that."

• Master These 5 Skills to Network Effectively: "Work on being a good, active listener by maintaining eye contact, paying attention, and responding with insightful, relevant questions."
• Stop Lying to Job Candidates About the Role:"Too many hiring managers avoid telling candidates the truth about a job. Their logic is that if applicants find out how hard they will work or how boring the core of the open jobs are, they will walk away. This is a mistake."

5 Steps to Becoming Healthier in Our Work Lives

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, most workers spend over 40% of their workday sitting or standing, rather than engaged in some physical labor or movement. Of course, this percentage is much higher for those who spend much of their day in front of a computer screen.

It has become increasingly less likely that our jobs will support our physical health and that is why it is so important that we take an intentional approach to our work and our fitness, instilling good habits into our work lives that make us healthier.

If you don’t have a specific plan in place, here are five steps to start.

Move in the morning. Develop the habit of getting up thirty minutes earlier and engaging in some physical activity and movement. Make it something fun like jumping rope or going for a quick bike ride. Perhaps recruit a neighbor to join you for a brief run. You’ll be more likely to pay attention to your health when you start the day with some movement.

Drink water. At many workplaces you can drink unlimited pots of coffee throughout the day. Avoid this, especially if you’re feeling anxious or if you’re having difficulty sleeping. If you must have coffee, limit it to a cup or two and drink it black or sweeten with honey rather than sugar. Stay hydrated by drinking water throughout the day and stay away from sodas and other unhealthy drinks.

Bring healthy snacks to work. Your colleagues might like to build team spirit by picking up some donuts for everyone on the way into work, or there might be a treat area for people to grab munchies throughout the day. Mitigate the chance that you’ll get caught up in unhealthy snacking habits by bringing in your own snacks from home. Consider bring in some fruits like bananas, apples, or oranges, or vegetables like carrots or celery. Nuts also make a delicious and healthy snack.

Walk to grab lunch. Don’t sit at your desk to eat lunch. And don’t eat alone. If possible, invite a few colleagues to walk over to a nearby restaurant for a healthy meal that will help fuel your afternoon. The time outdoors will give you energy for the rest of the day’s activities.

Take a break every hour. If it’s possible with your work structure and responsibilities, develop the habit of working for shorter periods of time, around 45-50 minutes, followed by a brief break. Go for a quick walk, meditate briefly, and practice some breathing exercises. This time allows you to break up the monotony, get refocused, and give some attention to your physical well-being.

If you implement these healthy steps you’ll likely find renewed energy and productivity at work and at home.