Staying Healthy When Working 12 Hours a Day? 204
dwija asks: "I just got a new job where I just sit in one place all day and work for 12 hours at a stretch. This goes on for 4 days a week and I get 3 days off. The journey to and from my office takes up about 3 hours of my day. I am a little worried now cause i am becoming really weak and I am not as healthy as I used to be. I want to ask others on Slashdot about the kinds of weird times in which they work and what they do to take care of their health and stress."
Quit and find a new job (Score:5, Insightful)
And I bet your hourly pay sucks.
And it could be worse than that... if it takes years off your life, you could be "working" more than 168 hours a week.... arbitrarily more.
What you are doing is something that you are simply not designed to do. Some people may be able to do it, neither you nor I are one of them. Stop it, or pay the penalty, collected by Reality, the least lenient loan shark of them all.
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:5, Informative)
It's the three-hour commute that's killing him.
For a lot of the last 10 years, I've worked a 3-on, 3-off, 2-on, 2-off schedule with 12s. It really isn't bad.
Look at it this way, with his schedule, he's working less than 50 hours a week. Most people work at least 9 hours a day. The employer takes an hour for lunch leaving you 40 hours. If you ever work a weekend or stay late more than twice a week, then you have gone over 48 hours.
But that commute...
It's simple: Live where you work. Get an apartment close to where you work and live there. If you have a family and are not willing to move, then quit.
Another idea is to get a hotel close to work once a week. If the pay is good enough to offset a $60 hotel room, then try it. Staying in a hotel the 3rd night of your week will feel like a dream.
What you really need to do is get some 15lb dumbells and start using them.
Do 10 pushups every other hour. Aim for 50 the first 2 weeks and add a few more each week after. Shoot for 20 pushups at a time and 120 per day.
Same with situps. If you work buisness casual, a towel will keep your shirt clean. Get a sit-up bar for your feet or just hook them under the edge of your desk.
Do curls, squats, upright rows, military presses, and other creative exercises with the dumbells. Agian, no more than 10 or 20 at a time. But you will be doing them throughout the shift.
It'll keep your metabolism high and make you feel a lot better.
Get some alcohol, talcum powder, hand lotion, and a clean rag for your drawer.
If you feel sweaty, use the rag doused with some alcohol to clean the sweat. Use talc to prevent sweat to begin with. Hand lotion is for your hands; push-ups and dumbells can wreak havoc on girly-hands.
Anyway, good luck.
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:3, Funny)
Forget the rest!
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:2)
It's the three-hour commute that's killing him.
Bring a sleeping bag to work.
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:2)
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:2, Informative)
cbd.
Re:Quit and find a new job (Score:2, Informative)
He means if the job makes you feel that bad, you'll feel bad at work and at home. 168 hours per week.
Take solace... (Score:2)
Seriously, though, the only thing you can do is to try and eat healthily and find time a couple of times a week for the gym. If you can get to cycle to/from work some of the time, it is a big help
Re:Take solace... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Take solace... (Score:2)
I get up, bike 5 hours to work, work for 12 hours, bike 5 hours home, eat dinner, sleep for 6 minutes, get up, shower, sleep for 5 more minutes, and im off to work fresh as a daisy!
Re:Take solace... (Score:5, Informative)
And sometimes it's pretty comparable. Occasionally in LA I've had to drive to meetings in the morning where it would have been much faster to pedal (I'm a pretty strong cyclist, but even if I weren't it would be comparable and more pleasant). From my house to downtown LA is more than an hour at rush hour by car, but I could probably do it in less than 45 minutes on a bike. In group it would be a lot less than 45 minutes.
One option that I've seen people use occasionally is to drive partway and bike partway-- find a safe parking spot about 10 miles from the workplace, and bike the last 10 miles (or whatever is comfortable). Or park about 20 minutes by foot away-- even a brisk walk like that twice a day can help a lot. Especially if it breaks up what would otherwise be 15 hours sitting on your butt.
Re:Take solace... (Score:2)
He worked from home 4 out of the 5 days and would drive in most of the way on Fridays to work but would park about 10k away and run the last bit there and back.
Re:Take solace... (Score:3, Informative)
It's really got to be something that you enjoy doing and want to do anyway. If you want to do it, you can make the time.
Re:Take solace... (Score:2)
Most likely but not necessarily. It could be extreme traffic that is taking up a good portion of the drive.
My last job I would take a bus downtown. People couldn't understand it until I pointed out that due to the bussing system here in Ottawa it takes as long by car to get downtown (sometimes longer if the weather is crap) than by bus and saves me a fortune in parking. However I live along the main bus feed. If I was off, this wouldn't be true.
This is true a
Change Jobs (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you can talk to your employer and see if you can work out a compromise. Work is like a rubber ball, if you drop it it'll always bounce back. Your health is like a glass ball, drop it too many times and it'll crack or shatter.
Re:Change Jobs (Score:2)
but the problem really for me would be that 24-15 is just 9 hours. there's not anything you can do in that but sleep.
but this guys _REAL_ solution is to excersise for like 10 minutes per hour, flex out in front of the desk or whatever. there's very few jobs that would really require you to not get up at all and get some walking around in it... maybe work in a 30 min break, run around the factory or whatever. he'd be in
Re:Change Jobs (Score:2)
True, any exercise is better than none but ideally he should be breaking it up to allow the body to recuperate a day before doing it again. He could break up the exercises to isolate during the 3 days off but by the third day the DOMS would be a serious bitch.
He should see if he can get an extended lunch and get a workout done in there at least once or twice during the 4 days on.
Re:Change Jobs (Score:4, Funny)
I resent that.
Health on the job (Score:5, Insightful)
The solution was to find a job closer to home and spend no more than 45 hours a day at work. The rest, diet, exercise, etc. became easy after I got away from the pressure cooker.
Re:Health on the job (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know if I'd consider you cured of a workaholic lifestyle...
Re:Health on the job (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Health on the job (Score:2)
Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:4, Interesting)
Even though both caffeine and carbs provide a short-term energy boost, I find that avoiding them completely makes me much more alert and energetic overall. The crash when the caffeine or insulin levels swing knocks me out cold.
Unlike you, my job has me running all day long, so I don't usually run into trouble until the drive home. If I've kept an even blood-sugar all day, I'm usually just fine. On days when I've had to grab a burger (or worse) for lunch, I sometimes have to stop on the side of the road and catch a short nap to stay safe. Sleeping on the side of the road, even in a well-lit rest stop, is a health risk in it's own right...
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:5, Informative)
Did you mean avoid high-sugar foods? You might have something there. Eat complex carbs, not sugars. Eat cereal for breakfast, for example - the carbs will slowly break down giving you energy throughout the day, rather than a quick burst of energy that leaves you feeling worse once it wears off.
If you really need a quick burst, eat something sugary (dextrose sweets are designed for just such a time) and some more complex (a sandwich, for example) at the same time (well... one after the other is fine... they might not mix well). That way once the sugars wears off the carbs will kick in.
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:3, Informative)
A PB&J sandwich would work. The jelly/jam should have some sugar(either added or from the fruit), then you have some protein from the peanut butter(you will likely have some sugar in there as well depending on the brand), and the complex carbs from the bread.
Actually, crackers and jam/jelly would probably work as well if you want a bunch of bite size snacks. Just make yourself up a plate to snack on.
Rice/Corn Cakes with PB & Jelly/Jam also work if you
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
If this is true, why don't Atkins dieters drop dead due to (energy) starvation, and why do so many of them report increases in energy levels, in ways that can't just be their imagination?
I've heard theories like yours, but they predict things that don't happen in reality. Therefore, I find myself unable to put mu
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:5, Informative)
Point the second: It is not a fad diet. The atkins diet has been used for ages to control seizures by reducing the amount of glycogen in the brain. It just wasn't called that.
Point the third: Atkins is based on the idea of a fairly well-known state of the body called ketosis in which the brain is run on ketones (actually more efficient than running on glucose) and during which the body does not store fat. It is often confused with ketoacidosis, a state in which ketones build up in the body, and which sometimes afflicts those with diabetes. They are not the same thing.
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
ROFL. None of them (Atkins, typical US folk) look like they are starving _far_ from it - which is the problem.
Diets high in protein appear to make most people feel full, that's the biggest benefit - they stop eating because they _feel_ like stopping.
Whereas the carb diets make many people feel peckish or hungry, or even _starving_ after the blood sugar spikes and then dips/crashes. Sure you lose weight on both type of diets, but pick the one that d
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:3, Interesting)
As for the whole carbs thing - the extent to which they'll spike your blood sugar will vary a lot. White bread will be converted to sugars much more quickly than brown bread. Stick to the less-processed, high fibre stuff and you'll be fine.
That's one of the things that annoys me about the Atkins diet - it's generated this popular idea that carbs = bad.
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
Well really most "brown bread" that you purchase in the US is just that...brown bread. It has the same nutritional content as white bread, but has been given a brown color during processing.
To really find a bread that doesn't cause such a severe spike in your blood sugar levels you'll want to find something that is high in fiber like whole wheat bread. Sadly, many of the breads that we refer to as wheat breads are just those whi
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:3, Informative)
1) You don't starve just because you don't have carbs - see Inuits.
2) Given the quantities popularly consumed - it doesn't matter even if protein and fats are inefficient energy sources as the OP claims.
The main issue in the USA seems to be people are consuming way too much.
The Atkins diet is just one of the less evil diets for the typical US folk given the quantities they've grown accustomed to eating.
I suspect that if a typical obese US American went on a "Japa
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
It's true that sugars and processed starches are the worst, but it's not true that fat is somehow worse than carbohydrates for you - unless it's a trans fat, ala hydrogenated stuff.
The only difference betwe
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
Re:Avoid caffeine & carbs (Score:2)
But, you still have time to post on slashdot. You are a machine!
But seriously, have you considered getting an apartment 5 minutes from work? You'd probably end up saving money once you take gas and depreciation into account. No to mention giving you an extra 20 hours a week to do normal human activities, like
That's bad... (Score:4, Informative)
If you want to stick it out, though, I'd say keys are:
balance (Score:3, Insightful)
Quit before you die (Score:5, Insightful)
Find something easier, lest you burn out and become useless. If you feel you are doing the work of two people, it's because your company is too greedy and short sighted to hire someone else. Once they ruin you, they'll just hire some naive college graduate and ruin them too.
How about you or someone else reveal the company name as 'anonymous coward' if need be, to save the souls of others, who should not be harmed needlessly.
Re:Quit before you die (Score:5, Insightful)
To help with my health I workout every morning for about 45 minutes and it gets me going for the day. I'm worried about getting diabetes and so I choose to do something about it, exercise daily (M-F), quit drinking soda (& caffiene), and limit my calorie intake (~2000 cal/day). I've lost about 45 lbs and have 20~25 to get to my college/poor person weight. Not to mention I will be fit again when I get there. If I can do it anyone can. Quitting caffiene was hard for about a week (3 days of headaches and 4 days of craving sodas) but I sleep better and wake up without needing my alarm. I used to drink about 3-4 liters of soda so 90% of my days calories were coming from there.
And like the other people said, you can always find another job.
Re:Quit before you die (Score:2, Informative)
Quick tip: if you taper off caffeine, ending with circa 1/2 cup of soda per day for a few days, you can generally avoid the headaches.
Also, one of the best things I did for my health was to stop using my alarm clock most of the time. That forced me to go to bed on time.
Re:Quit before you die (Score:2)
It has to do with how much a person abuses themselves in general, and some people are inherently more susceptible to that abuse.
Re:Quit before you die (Score:2)
Your chance of getting diabetes has nothing to do with your calorie intake, it's all to do with the amount of sugar you eat
You are being VERY broad there.
Wikipedia has as good a breakdown of the types and possible causes of Diabetes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes
Re:Quit before you die (Score:2)
You may argue chicken-and-egg, but it's a futile debate: Diabetes and obesity are linked: "Overweight teens getting adult diabetes" [irishhealth.com]. Eat healthy (mostly by eating less) and both problems are addressed simultaneously.
Being overweight is bad for you.
Re:It's not weight (Score:2)
You are wrong.
- Not all diabetes is caused by insulin resistance.
- Obesity contributes to insulin resistance.
(See NIH article below)
Eating too much food IS harmful.
True, excess sugars, coke, pepsi etc are unheathy, especially when one does not excercise. The answer is eat less of those, cook at home, excercise more. Unfortunately, a lot of
Sitting?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Be sure to get out on your days off. Don't think that three days of no work equals a three day weekend where you can game for 24+ hours at a time. Take advantage of the extended time off that most of us, with jobs, dream about and go places, do stuff, and be active!
zerg (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, you can't be working 12 hours straight, because if you don't get up to walk around for a minute every ~45 minutes, you'll go blind. Anyone who tells you otherwise is begging for a visit from OSHA.
Re:zerg (Score:2)
Quit your job (Score:4, Interesting)
Move to another city, state or country. Don't put yourself any artificial constraint. There are lots of places on earth where you'll get a decent life. Move.
Re:Quit your job (Score:5, Insightful)
Move to another city, state or country. Don't put yourself any artificial constraint. There are lots of places on earth where you'll get a decent life. Move.
I was going to mod you up, but I wanted to expand on your comment.
The biggest problem with corporations is they can burn you out if its cost effective. Workers are not treated as human beings, they are treated as cattle, if they can make money by working you harder and getting away with it, they will do it.
Thats the problem, people think that corporations will follow the rules, try to make the best working environment they can. Thats not true, the have a responsibility to make money for investors, period. This is why unions where formed for the back breaking and dangerous jobs, to give some sort of safe working environment to the workers.
No forward 40 years, now people are working in an office. Its not back breaking, so the want longer hours, no OT, and if you are lucky your benefits will include the counseling you need when you loose your family due to divorce. Don't think your wife will put up with it..
Seriously, how many hours should a person be working? How many hours for that is commute time? You give up your vacations because you have a deadline? You working longer hours for crunch time? You think that 2 dollar an hour more is worth your family time?
Doesn't make sense you would trade your health for a short term job, because you will burn out.
But, if your 18 or just out of college these jobs look attractive, good pay, good beneifits, and hey, you work for a fortune 500 company... Be careful..
Also, hey, if you do burn out, they have insurance right?
Excersize at work (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, exercise like a bastard on your days off.
Re:Excersize at work (Score:3, Insightful)
When I went into the office (before I started telecommuting) I'd park in a lot on campus (worked at a large university) that was close to a mile from my building. In the morning, that was mostly a downhill walk; likewise an uphill walk at the end of the day.
So, 1.9 miles of brisk walking I wouldn't otherwise take at the cost of maybe 10 minutes each way.
Next, I stopped using the elevator for getting to my 4th floor offic
Re:Excersize at work (Score:3, Interesting)
I stopped using elevators a few years ago. I do hands-on tech support in an 8-story building, and the only time I push a button to change floors is when I'm carrying something heavy or pushing a cart. It hasn't turned me into Charles Atlas, but I'm
Re:Excersize at work (Score:4, Interesting)
Walking stairs downwards is actually a lot heavier on the knees than walkign them upwards, especially if you have a pre-existing condition (sports injury) or are overweight (larger forces on the joints). I'd therefore tend to reccomend that people that are hopelessly out of shape start out by taking the stairs when going up, and the lift when goign down.
Re:Excersize at work (Score:2)
Buy a rowing machine (Score:5, Insightful)
Rowing is low-impact, aerobic, and you can start
as slowly as you like. 30 mins a day while you
listen to the radio, watch TV, or just ponder your
latest bug.
The unit I mentioned above is suitable for
beginners through elite athletes.
Definite nerd appeal with a USB connection and
a wireless heart monitor. Lots of builtin
stats and uses a plug-in memory card.
Regenerative power means a D-cell lasts years.
I'm on my 2nd rowing machine (the first was
a competitor but it did last a dozen years
and thousands of kms). I'm about to hit 1000
km on this one.
No other $800 piece of exercise equipment will
dissipate enough energy (without self-destructing)
to give you a decent workout. You'd have to
drop more than $3K to get a treadmill anywhere
neare as durable. And getting on your feet to
walk/run requires a lot more motivation than
sitting down on the rower.
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:3, Interesting)
A rowing machine (most often called an erg), is a lot more than just a piece of exercise equipment. Many work very hard on achieving certain goals, such as 1 million meters, or rowing a marathon. At the university level, we
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
rowing. I never set any speed targets.
I assume you mean 2km at 4-5 min/km. Or do you
mean 2km in 5 min? I don't know about a real
shell, but with the Concept II's calibration,
that's impossible.
I didn't say you have to go fast. How 'bout 8
min/km? Or plug in the heart monitor and ignore
the speed.
My point is that you can sit on the rower and do
anything between nothing more than sitting and
an olympic performance. It all depends on how hard and how often you yank on
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
not to say we shouldn't exercise at the level we
are able.
The author of the original article stated that he
was feeling weak, which leads me to believe that
he should start slow and celebrate his achievement,
not compare himself to elite rowers. If he feels
that 15 mins is a better duration for a start,
that's 15 mins better than nothing. But 30
mins, several times a week, is what I think
he should plan for in the long run.
He also said that he didn't have a lot of
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
I am inexpert in on-water rowing. I've been unable
to find any 2000m results in the 4:00 range. Could
you please point me at some?
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
your original post: "one will be hard pressed to
row for more than 2K (4-5 min, (even six, if a
woman)"
Did you mean hard pressed at 4-5 min/500m? That'd
be pretty slow, but I'm sure that a number of
people would have to start at that pace.
OK - I don't really think you meant that. I
think you meant hard-pressed at 4-5 min/km, and
I agree. 6-10 min/km is a more realistic start
for your average couch potato.
And, yes, the Concept II does indeed report
time/500m so 6-
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
Typo. Should be "6-10min/km is 3:00 - 5:00".
Sorry to add to the confusion.
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
And I'm suprised at the lack of ConceptIIs in the UK. When I rowed in London, our boat house was full of them. Maybe his club uses WaterRowers?
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
(which for me consume roughly equal energy for
the same time/distance).
You would be very optimistic to expect the average
untrained person to run 5km in 30 mins. I would
recommend to such a person to walk for 30 mins at
any pace, and start with 15 mins if 30 is too much.
I'm basically transferring that advice to the
rower. Sit on the thing and keep moving for
30 mins at any pace. You'll have a natural
urge to increase the pace. That's fine, so
long as you're still
Re:Buy a rowing machine (Score:2)
Get excercise! (Score:3, Interesting)
The two biggest things to remember are:
When it goes off, I go run up and down an eight story staircase [ofdoom.com] a couple of times before going back to work.
It's worked out pretty well for me over the years.
Re:Get excercise! (Score:4, Funny)
It was called "cigarette break" or something similar. Whether you smoke or not, it was a great time to get up and move around while the computer had a smokey-treat.
Practical tips (Score:5, Insightful)
Use any excuse to get up and walk around. Walk around the office to talk to people F2F instead of IMing them. Walk to the bathroom. Walk up any stairs that may be around. Any excuse to move is a good one. Offer to help new people move their desks, etc.
If practical, bike to work. If necessary, park a few blocks away and bike in. I can't emphasize physical activity enough.
Assume that during those 4 days, you do nothing but work. Get enough sleep, take the time to cook all of your meals, and work. That's all you have time to do, really, before you have to start eating fast food and being sleep deprived. Any movies will have to wait for the weekend.
On your days off, exercise a lot. Devote one of your days to Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Climbing, Frisbee golf, swimming with your kids, or whatever, but you have to require yourself to spend the day being active, preferably outside, preferably with the people you care about.
Get sunlight. This can be the hardest thing if you work in the middle of an office building, come in before the sun comes up and leave after it goes down, but adequate lighting has a tremendous influence over mood. Add more lights to your desk and work area, and take your lunches outside under the sun. Open all of your curtains at work and at home.
Take up different projects or responsibilities at work. If you work on the install routine for banking software, help the office setup an intramural softball league. If you are engineering a new print head for a new type of hybrid lazer / inkjet printer, help the marketing people write promo material. This will help stave off burnout, and let you go through the necessary periods of dicking off without guilt. Studies have shown that a workforce produces the most in total if it is offtask "wasting time" for roughly 10% of their worktime. If you're working 12 hours a day, that's about an hour and fifteen minutes. And because you're working extra long, you will need extra time off of your primary task.
Move closer to work. If you can't do that, talk to your boss about telecommuting 2 days of the week. Invest some time getting to know the roadways between your home and work really well, and risk a few speeding tickets. I managed to shave 2-hours off of a 4-hour commute just by learning which highways and roadways were abandoned when, and which stretches the cops wouldn't bat an eye about speeding until you were over 150. I also avoided 6 dollars in tolls.
Find things to do in the car. Create a life diary on tape for future generations. Get lots of audio books from your local library. Carpool with interesting people. Learn to speak a foriegn language. The more intellectually engaged you can be in the car, the less the footprint of such a long commute will be.
Good luck!
Smart commuting and exercising. (Score:5, Informative)
Secondly, find out how to commute smarter. Those 3 hours involve only you behind the wheel, then it's going to take a toll on you -- mentally and physically. Be creative on how to commute. For example, in the DC metro area, there's a growing phenomenon called slug lines [slug-lines.com], which are "unofficial meeting places where commuters catch free rides with drivers who need additonal riders to use high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. [commuterpage.com]" If you don't have to drive, you can at least use that time for personal enrichment, like reading the paper, book, or listening to music or audiobooks, or you can do some work if you have a laptop, etc. That's 3 hours that you can have to yourself. If you buy an Archos AV340 [pricegrabber.com] and have a ReplayTV (or a networked TiVo) at home, you can even catch up on your favorite shows during the commute -- it makes the workday more bearable.
Re:Smart commuting and exercising. (Score:2)
But it's reason enough to keep me *out* of the DC Metro area, even if it means less money (although the traffic where I live now sucks, too....but it's certainly not as bad as the Springfield Interchange).
Simple solution (Score:2, Interesting)
Quit your job and join the military. Plenty of fitness, decent pay, they usually pay for a whole lot of crap you normally would (housing, education, some meals, etc).
Not only that, you could find a liking for something you didn't consider during your elementary/high school years. I found a liking for aviation when I was planned for a CS career. Now I'm looking forward to many great years of flying.
Re:Simple solution (Score:2)
Man, he's trying to get AWAY from working 15 hour days. After 4 years of intermittently dragging 40lbs of ammo and/or radios (or sitting in a truck listening to radio static) 12-18 hours a day, sometimes for weeks straight, I was damn near used up. If a regular desk job is killing him, a thankless military term might just finish the job.
Quit (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're unhappy or unhealthy, and if you can't make it so you are happy and healthy (by juggling schedules or whatever), then quit. Life's too short.
Pay attention to sleep (Score:2)
Mentally, read everything thats non-tech if youre in the tech business. Since youre working mentally, at the end of the day youre only tired mentally and can still run on a treadmill or swim... make that a priority. At the minimum goto the gym one day a week, and spend 2-hours exercising... even that m
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Go to the gym (Score:4, Informative)
Now, before you give the standard nerd excuses like "I'm not a gym guy" or "I don't want to get all big like those guys" let me tell you that there are a lot of other things you can do there besides lifting weights. There are tons of classes, swimming, sometimes there's a heavy bag to hit, etc. I do lift, personally and recommend lifting over those other things, but that's my preference. As long as you exert some energy and leave there at least a little beat, you are doing a good thing.
ft
3 hour drive? Move closer... (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe your computer can actually help (Score:2, Interesting)
Hourly (Score:2)
take a walk
Up some flights of stairs if you can find them.
This has helped for me on some of the past few weeks.
But seriously, this much time on your ass is going to have some serious affects on your health. If you can't get a solution, you probably really should consider some alternatives. But it's not for us to tell you go somewhere else someplace else for work.
But my point would be to run some plan for hourly exercise, however modest, just to get moving around a bit. I would also consider checking
Use "Lunch." DON'T SIT THERE (for too long) (Score:5, Interesting)
Jog for 5 minues at soon as you get up and before your shower. Even if it's just around the block. Wake. Throw on shorts (or sweats if it's cold), some old socks (why dirty a new pair?), and a sweater. Go outside and run around the block or down to the corner and back. Then shower and have a good healthy (it can be quick!) breakfast. Bring the CD-R you prepared the night before with an automatic script full of the latest podcasts, TTS news, or random selection from your audio collection - hop in the car and drive. Pick up a friend, coworker, or slug on the way if you can.
Go for a jog around the building when you get to work (after your drive) and before you leave. It can be quick. They'll laugh but you're not the one with the weak legs for weekend activities!
Make good use of your lunch break. Have a sandwich while climbing the stairs to the top of your building.
Promise yourself 20 crunches and 50 pushups before the day is over (how long does it take to do 10 pushups and don't tell me you can't take 5 short breaks over 12 hours...). Set a timer.
Find some pipes in the utility closet and do 5 pullups a day for 2 months. Each month after add 2 more. Do these on a piss break.
Eat Fruit. No heavy lunches. Bring yogurt (if you're into that kind of thing - cold plain vanilla w/ sugar sprinkled on top - delish!) Eat nuts (yes - something _other_ than peanuts).
Do at least an hour or two of non-staring_at_the_computer_screen work if you can help it. Plan. Use a notepad and pencil. Make calls. Write a letter to your congressman or old friend or mother or grandparent or serviceman [grose.us].
10 jumping jacks every 71 minutes. Set a timer.
Go see Jane or Mark on the other side of the building to say hi - find an excuse. Take a walk to the next building or volunteer to take things to the post box. Be back in a timely fashion.
Keep a bottle of water nearby, fill it religiously and get yourself lots of piss breaks. WATER IS GOOD FOR YOU. PASS IT THROUGH. EXERCISE THOSE NEPHRONS [harcourtschool.com]. Get a Brita (a BIG one) for your desk or buy those large 2 1/2 gallon jugs at the supermarket. (Spring over distilled - you lose the minerals with distilled). Water will keep you from feelingl like crap from sitting there all day, force you to get up, and keep you hydrated for all the running and stair-climing you're doing. Water is your body's oil. ESPECIALLY if you drink coffee - drink lots of water. Keep ahead of the diuretic effects. See if you can down a quart and a half of plain water three times a day (sure. go it all at once -- no pussy footin' around. Chug it!)
Take your vitamins.
Find some guys to play pickup basketball or ultimate.
Ask your boss about taking an hour to go to the gym. Give him a guilt trip about your health. Or go at lunch after eating at your desk @ 11a and having an apple and nuts when you get back. You'll probably be more productive if you actually have a chance to get up and be active.
Find a stretch regimen and commit to doing it twice a day.
Park your car not at home but down the street next to a well-lit bike rack. Ride there, drive to work. Drive back, ride home.
Have lots of sex on your 3 days off!
Re:Use "Lunch." DON'T SIT THERE (for too long) (Score:2)
And if you're a soda drinker, try adding Gatorade powder to your water. Made my transition from Mountain Dew more pleasent.
Re:Use "Lunch." DON'T SIT THERE (for too long) (Score:2)
stand up (Score:2)
Alternative approach? (Score:2)
It looks like a roundtrip to work, for you, is three hours, so that does give you time to take a short half-an-hour to three-quarter-hour jog/walk around the block (take the wife/kids along, if any) after you get back or before you go, depending on the hours.
Do something at work, too, stand instead of sitting if possible (burns about 300-500 calories
sleep and schedule (Score:2)
Investment Banking (Score:5, Interesting)
Ride to work (Score:2)
Let me get this straight... (Score:4, Insightful)
Assume you need abouyt 6-8 hours of sleep a day. Boy, I'm surprised you lasted this long.
You'd better sit down with your boss and have a heart-to-heart. This is going to kill you. You can't do this. Either you have to get a raise so you can move closer to work, or you have to cut back on the hours to a more reasonable 8. Humans aren't machines. We need far more care and uptake and downtime to remain in peak condition.
Boeing did some interesting studies during WWII on maximizing productivity. Guess what they found? 8 hours a day for 5 days a week is the optimal number. That's why throughout the 50s and 60s the jobs were all 9-5. You get more done than 8/6 or 9/5, or what ever you are doing (12/4?) Even firefighters spend a great deal of time sitting around and relaxing and doing non-work things.
Seriously dude. You need to take care of yourself. There's only one of you and if you screw up your body, you don't get a replacement. You die.
get off your *** (Score:2)
If that is to extreme for you, then you need to take the initiative to get off your butt and take breaks. Its your life not your bosses. Ask about te
10-12 hrs / day 6 days/week @ 43y.o. (Score:3, Interesting)
This does not mean that I do not get exhausted at times. I'll take the odd two or even three day weekend if I need to recharge -- on my schedule. I can come in at 10 or 11 or later or whenever I like, for the most part (unless I have an important meeting scheduled) -- my hours are flexible, so if I happen to sleep in an extra hour or 90 minutes, it's no disaster. Yeah, there are the times when I work until 2-3 A.M., or even all night (about 3-4 times a year), and a regular 8 hour day after that.
My commute is better than yours though: only 45 minutes one way.
The thing is that I have control over when I work those hours and that makes all the difference in the word. 4x12 hours a week on the clock would probably be far worse.
What do I do to relax? I take quick frequent breaks at the office, sometimes 5 minutes every 15 to 30. While I'll often be oblivious to the fact that the lunch and dinner hour have passed, I'll go and eat when I feel hungry, regardless of the time (it's rarely noon and 6:00 PM).
Now, I'm not given that much work -- I take it on: trying my best to accomodate feature requests from those that use the software I produce (mostly test automation support tools these days) request (particularly when they are useful to a wider audience), even if they arrive, well, "informally".
I'm an asshole if you get on my bad side, but will bend over backwards to help anyone who's willing to contribute at least half the work. I must be doing something right if the number of "Rene went above and beyond the call of duty to help me" emails my boss (and his) gets are any indication: it's starting to get embarassing. My "self-assessment" on annual reviews is usually far harsher than my boss's -- I don't give a shit if I "exceeded" goals: they could always have been "exceeded" more, and to rest on one's laurels is a death sentence for a software dev. Heck, I code in C# on a .NET platform precisely because I knew nothing about it a year ago. I hold my own. Being a C++ expert gets boring after a while, ya know?
I'm not a "team player": I prefer to stay at work and code up a little utility that would help a bunch of people be more productive, rather than go on "morale events". If I died tomorrow, what would leave a better impact, if globally imperceptible, on the world?
In short, I have no one to blame for my work ethic than myself.
Perhaps that's the difference: I have control over the hours I work, and if I decided that I needed a 2-3 week break (I rarely take more than one week of vacation a year), no one would likely blink an eyelid. I suspect, however, if my hours were regimented, even if they amounted to 40-50 a week, I'd be miserable.
So, I wonder, if part of your problem is misery regarding your working conditions, and a lack of control over them. I don't think anything can really help overcome that, except looking for a better job. I've been in shops like that and utterly miserable too (and not particularly productive).
While I don't always like my job I love my work. Do you love yours?
Quality of Life (Score:2)
If you don't like what you do and are doing so for the money, unless it's 7 figures and you will be able to retire in a few years, then do it no longer and seek some ballance in your life.
Exercise, circulation, sunlight, diet, sleep (Score:4, Insightful)
In my case, I try to take 1-2 breaks a day to play ping-pong in our break room. I'm sure you could find something similar like stairs, basketball, flogging the dolphin, whatever.
I try to get outside for 15 minute breaks during the day. I'll take a code listing or an architectural diagram outside and work on it in the sun. Or go eat lunch outside. That 15-minute conversation you have with a buddy about ${local sports team}? Have it outside. A group of us used to take smoke breaks outside once in a while and none of us smoke.
Of course, watch your diet. Stop eating anything that comes out of a snack machine or anything that they bring in like doughnuts, pastries, pizza, etc. Buy a bag of carrots, grapes, etc. for snacks.
Sleeping is the hard part with your schedule but it's huge. Don't fall asleep reading or watching tv. That's supposed to reduce the restfulness of your sleep. Personally, I use half of an over-the-counter sleep aid pill from time to time when things are insane. It gives me about 4-6 solid hours of deeper sleep without the grogginess that a full tablet gives me. Not a great solution, but better than tossing and turning.
And here's one that'll probably set some people off. Pray. Let God run your daily calendar and you'll have time for everything you need to do.
Re:Exercise, circulation, sunlight, diet, sleep (Score:2)
Studies have definitely shown that praying helps people who are genuinely faithful about it. It's probably placebo effect, but whatever works, works. Just don't go the Christian-Scientist [sic] route and count on God to fix it for you without the use of actual medicine, psychology, time management, etc.
Excercise Daily, Don't Eat Out (Score:2, Insightful)
My train is my living room (Score:2, Insightful)
I try to use my commuting time as efficiently as possible. I always start my morning journey with a healthy home-prepared breakfast a
Re:My train is my living room (Score:2, Insightful)
12 hour days (Score:3, Insightful)
zerg (Score:2)
I know you don't wnat to sit on the bus or train w/ strange smelly people, but I've found that if you listen to music while mouthing the words, people will give you wide berth. And being able to play video games or read a book or something will make up for having to wait for the bus/train and having to walk to & from the station. At the very least, it must be less stressful than driving, right?
(I'l
Speaking of working long hours (Score:2)
Re:Ask your bank where to buy a car (Score:3, Insightful)
What people say on the internet is very useful, even if it's taken with a grain of salt, and that's how I realized i had asthma. I thought I was just out of shape, just wheezing and feeling like I was going to pass out for like a year, until one day when I was bored... I made my way to medline, webmd and some forums to see if it was anything in particular. It soon