To Improve Productivity Tell Your Team to Go Take a Hike

Recently, productivity and most importantlyprofitabilityjumped at our company by 30 percent. How?Six months ago we started requiring everyone take two 15-minute“walkies” every day -withouttheir phones - in addition to regular breaks.We attribute the improvement in our resultsto our concerted effort to get more exercise during the workday.

What started as an experiment has become a habit among the staff. Many report the extra exercise hashelped them think clearer,get more done and generally feel better.

Research finds walking benefits productivity.

We didn’t just make an educated guess that walking would lead tp better productivity. Instead, we did our homework and looked into research about the benefits of exercise in the workplace.

Astudyby the Foundation for Chronic Disease prevention in the Workplace found improvement in thepsychological well-being 752 employess in the US and UK who began walking 10,000 steps per day. The improvementsincluded their concentration, self-esteem, confidence and a great reduction in stress.This enhanced sense of well-being was directly correlated to higher productivity.

A large percentage of the employees who participated in the study lost weight and reduced their body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure. That indirectly improved productivity by avoiding time lost to illness and lethargy associated with being overweight.

Our brain is a muscle. It needs rest periodicallyto reboot and recharge. When you give itmental downtimeat regular intervals, it comes back and works even harder for you. It's presonallyhelped me with different failuresI've had in my life.

Empirical proof.

Once we conducted our own experiment by doing the two 15 minute “walkies” per day for 30 days, nearly 100 percentof our own staff concurred with the research findings. We attribute the 30 percentincrease in productivity to employees completing tasks more accurately and almost a day quicker than before.

I feel better when Igetup from my desk and out into the fresh air. Instead of scrolling through my phone and dealing with countless emails or social media, I’m moving and engaging in real conversationswith my staff. It keeps me in the loopand is an informal way to share ideas andaddressquestions.

The walks providea way for everyone to socializefor a few minutes whilefocused on something other than their work. 58003 During this time we even started our very popular inspirational financial quotes that we put up on a daily basis. This has attracted 30,000 new people to our site, and we've signed more than 600 new clients.

Making work a source of creativity, not stress.

While we all face problems at work, itshould not be an environment ofconstantstress. Yet, the American psychological Association (ApA) findstheworkplaceis the second most common source of stress for the majority of people, after concerns over money.

Encouragingemployees to step away for a few minutes is something substantial we are doing to address workplace stress.Science tells us that movement and exercise gets the endorphins flowing, making us feel good and, in turn, stimulating the brain to be creative. The team here has all felt that boost. That’s why we are have upped our productivity game by leaps and bounds.

I want everyone to enjoy the time they spend in the office. After all, we need to be here so might as well make it healthy, fun, and creative. We do thatby powering through those “walkies” together!