Tip: Don’t call, text or email. Talk to people face-to-face instead.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I’d give this Move More tip a go to see if I could make it part of my working day. If I needed to talk to someone in my building, I would generally get up and go and speak to them but this isn’t possible if, for example, I wanted a quick chat with a colleague in another building as I couldn’t justify a half hour round trip for a 5 minute chat. I didn’t think this was a tip that would be suitable for me to try as I thought it would be impossible to achieve but rather than fall at the first hurdle by not even giving it a go, I thought of a way I could ensure I talked face-to-face with at least one of the people I have to work very closely with. This is the view I have of my manager:

As you can see, the top of her head is the most I get to talk to unless we bob up and down like attentive meerkats whenever we need to converse; I don’t know about you but I find it very difficult to hear and/or understand what someone is saying to me unless I can see their lips moving. As the whole point of Move More is to try and encourage people to move a bit more in their everyday lives, this was my chance to spread the word about the little things that can make a difference to your activity levels (I should mention here that my manager is a regular runner and has already completed the Brighton marathon so you could argue that she doesn’t need any encouragement. However, as office workers are all too sedentary during their working day, any little movement helps, no matter how active you are outside of work). So here’s what we agreed: we would both stand up in order to talk over the top of our monitors rather than staying seated and ‘bobbing’. When we needed to speak more confidentially, one of us would walk round to the other one’s desk.

As I have already mentioned, I thought about implementing this tip a couple of weeks ago so you may be wondering whether it was a one week wonder or whether we are still doing it. Well the answer is, yes, we are still doing it and we are up and down like a couple of yo-yos! We sometimes fit in a little bit of bending and stretching too and have both been known to demonstrate the odd plank or two. I don’t think I notice anymore how much I do get up out of my seat but I sure notice when I don’t; my back becomes quite stiff and sore and I sometimes can’t feel my bottom. This usually happens when I am in the office by myself, headphones on and head down beavering away at my data work. The time just passes without me realising I haven’t moved away from my desk and only when that dull ache creeps in and my bottom is completely numb do I force myself to move.

Time for me to practice what I preach, methinks, and go back to using the stickers on my computer screen that are a reminder to move every hour………….

Ceri Spain
Statutory Returns Officer
Planning Office