How To Stay Active While Working From Home [Part 2]
[Improve your health and overall performance]
Challenge – Article 12
“You don’t have to be fit and healthy to start, but you do have to start to be fit and healthy.”
Introduction
This is Article 12, the third of three articles designed to get you excited and motivated for our 30 Day Moving Challenge which starts next week. You know by now that the primary focus of the 30 Day Moving Challenge is physical activity though you can also build a personal secondary objective such as nutrition, weight or smoking into your challenge if you want to. One question we have been asked a lot over the past few months is how do you stay active while working from home and in doing so produce results which will improve your health, work performance and career opportunities?
Yesterday in Part 1 – Article 11 [click link here] we covered the following topics:
- Defining Physical Activity
- Are You An Active Couch Potato?
- Benefits of Exercise & Moving
- Mindset About Moving & Exercise
- Your Motivation To Succeed
Today in Part 2, we provide “Six Key Actions For Success” and the “Results You Can Expect” if you implement these actions.
Six Key Actions For Success
- Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
Making a plan is a simple concept but much easier said than done. The truth is, if you don’t have a plan, you’re much more likely to fail. That’s why you need to create a plan with a built in project or challenge which will motivate you to start, execute and finish.
Do this and you’re much more likely to succeed. This gives you the structure, timeframe and organisation, most of us need to achieve results.
Example: Let’s assume your plan is to take on our 30 Day Moving Challenge to increase your physical activity from both your moving and walking steps. In order to accommodate people at different stages of their activity journey, we have produced 3 challenge options:
- Level 1 – Starters
- Level 2 – Intermediate
- Level 3 – Advanced
2. SMART Goals
Your plan should have a clear vision of the results you want to achieve in the short, medium and long term. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, accountable, realistic and timed goals. These are the ingredients of successful goal setting.
Example: Your goals should build up during the 30 days, leading gradually and progressively to the following results at the end of the challenge:
3. Execute Your Plan
It sounds ridiculously obvious but when it comes to exercise, showing up or not showing up, is half the battle and a big reason people fail. But that’s not an issue with moving while working from home as you’re already sitting at your desk. So take advantage of the many opportunities you have to execute your plan.
Example: To keep this simple, the example will focus on moving only. Take at least 3 time outs while working at home to make up for your morning and evening commutes and the lunch break you’d normally have working in your office:
- Morning – short walk before you start working for 5/10 minutes.
- Lunch – longer walk for 15/20 minutes.
- Evening – short walk after work for 5/10 minutes.
Let’s assume you exercise in the morning before work, so on those days you don’t have to do both.
4. You Are Accountable
This is one of the five ingredients of SMART Goals but because it’s so important, we’re going to deal with it separately.
Ultimately you’re accountable for your own actions or non actions. You can make life much easier by getting a friend, family member, group or team to join you. So get involved and find a buddy or partner and hold each other accountable! Tell everyone what you’re doing and it will be much harder to throw in the towel.
Example: Agree with a group of work colleague to take on our 30 Day Moving Challenge together. You can hold each other accountable but we’ll work hard too to hold you all accountable.
5. Manage Your Time
Managing your time is a fairly broad topic so let’s focus on the opportunity you have to “kill two birds with one stone”. Sorry feed two birds with one scone!
Example: You can do these with or without your work colleagues:
- Get into the habit of getting up and walking every time your phone rings.
- During scheduled work meetings agree to walk when you can. Record the call if you need to take notes.
- If you’re meeting friends for coffee, get a takeaway and walk.
6. Have Fun & Celebrate
Whatever you do, remember to have fun and celebrate your successes along the way! You can do this daily, weekly and at the end of your challenge.
Example: We’ll remind you to do this throughout the 30 Day Moving Challenge.
Results You Can Expect
1. Your new routine of planned physical activity, while working at home, will significantly improve both your physical and mental health.
2. Your work performance will improve as will your performance at other things you do.
3. By improving your health and performance, your organisation will increase its performance and profitability. This is a double win for you and a big win for them!
Your Comments
Your comments and questions are very important to us. If you have any questions about the 30 Day Moving Challenge, in particular, let us know as we plan to discuss these in our next podcast.
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Hi guys. I don’t use Zoom but will keep in touch on FB.
Keto diet still going really well. No sugar cravings at all!
Thanks Eileen
Hi Eileen thanks for message! Pity about Zoom but that why we have Facebook Group so there are options! Have you sent request to join FYCFG?