Changing work postures improves work efficiency

In addition to the Eisenhower method and Pomodoro's "tomato" approach, changing your posture is also an effective way to increase your productivity.

Body posture during work is more important than what you think. In fact, sitting straight or bending back has a certain impact on work performance. To understand why, let's look back at the evolutionary history of mankind. Millions of years ago, when lying or sitting, your body will be more relaxed and this also means the ability to become very high prey. Meanwhile, if you stand up or move around (stand up with two legs), adding a little bit of concentration will also make a significant difference between getting food or watching the enemy.

Max Vercruyssen - an expert in labor performance (research on physical and mental factors affecting people in working environments) - conducted surveys of previous studies and made judgments. , how you create and maintain your posture will make a big difference to every body activity.

According to Max Vercruyssen, office staff is fully capable of improving performance if they take advantage of the physical posture of the body and this adjustment takes only about a period of . 2 seconds.

1. Sit upright to "fight" with fatigue after lunch

There is an important change that occurs when you sit up or stand up, that is the heart rate will increase to about 10 beats / minute. This is very significant in improving the ability to react and increase attention. Therefore, if you adjust your sitting or standing up position when receiving an important task, your attention and concentration will also be greatly increased.

However, do not expect too much on this solution when you are performing well, because it only works best when you are in a state of fatigue or impaired performance, especially at the post-lunch period.

According to Vercruysse: "Thinking that changing positions will have a big impact on performance when you have worked at full capacity will make you disappointed."

2. Don't be too comfortable

Ergonomics (science subject to designing instruments and working environment suitable for dynamic speakers) is a research science that all focus on creating a balance between different factors to achieve the conclusion Best combination. Based on this, Vercruysse emphasizes comfort, the easier you lose focus, may even want to fall asleep. For example, sitting on a hard chair will make you more flexible than a soft, too comfortable chair.

You can also create this balance by sorting and planning work based on the difficulty of the task. If you find that you can stand uncomfortable when standing up or sitting upright for short-term efforts, take advantage of this time to complete the hard work.

In case you can't change your comfortable chair, you can promote brain flexibility and pull yourself out of the tired feeling after lunch by taking a few minutes to go to the toilet or Go get a glass of water.

However, before replacing your office chair with another "log", you need to be aware that there is a difference between mild discomfort and posture that can be so uncomfortable . painful pain."If the discomfort is too great, it will become the focus of your attention, so you can't concentrate as much as you are doing," said Bill Yates, professor of neuroscience and ENT. University of Pittsburgh said.

3. Leaning posture makes you sad

It is not surprising that when we feel frustrated or defeated, our bodies will become stagnant and tired. The surprising thing is that this effect can take place in two ways and simply letting go can also create negative thoughts and will generally make us worse.

In a series of studies, Erik Peper, a professor of health education at San Francisco State University, asked participants to sit in different positions and recall their negative thoughts and memories. positive thing. As a result, people with a sitting posture find it difficult to remember positive things.

"The physiological change actually occurs when you let your body hang down. Testosterone decreases, cortisol increases, enabling you to easily think of negative, hopeless thoughts ", Professor Peper said.

There is the fact that when you feel depressed or depressed, your body tends to hang and bend down. When sitting on a chair all day long, we will feel like we have lost our initiative, even disoriented.

The good news is that Professor Peper has also found a positive effect in the opposite direction: those who sit up straight easily remember optimistic memories. And just 30 seconds to lift people up, you can significantly improve the mood and energy source inside the body.

So from now on, if you want to improve your performance, try to sit up straight, arrange hard work, require much energy, "gray matter" when you can maintain this posture. , limiting sitting and exercising regularly, changing posture during work.