How Hiking And Walking Can Help Your Productivity
Exercising is good for your health. Did you know that exercising is also great for your career? Well, the late Steve Jobs and current CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, conducted walking meetings. Want to know what a walking meeting is? A walking meeting is a meeting that takes place during a walk instead of a boardroom or office. Simply put, walking meetings help to eliminate the habit of sitting too much while working or deliberating ideas. Want to know how hiking can help your productivity? Read on!
Exercising is good for your health. Did you know that exercising is also great for your career? Well, the late Steve Jobs and current CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, conducted walking meetings. Want to know what a walking meeting is?
A walking meeting is a meeting that takes place during a walk instead of a boardroom or office. Simply put, walking meetings help to eliminate the habit of sitting too much while working or deliberating ideas.
Want to know how hiking can help your productivity?
Here are the top 5 benefits of hiking to your productivity.
1. Boosts Your Creativity
Walking helps to boost creativity. According to a 2014 Stanford study titled “Give Your ideas some legs, “researchers found that walking boosts creative thinking. In the study, four experiments helped to demonstrate that walking improves creativity.
The participants in the study completed tests of creative divergent thinking. What they discovered is that 81% of participants creativity increased on the creative divergent thinking test.
To boost your creativity, we recommend taking a walk indoors or outdoors. For instance, you can walk on a treadmill or take a short walk around the park.
2. Heightens Your Focus
If you lack inspiration while at work, start taking small walks. This is also true if you have several problems and can’t solve them. According to a 2013 study, workers who took a walk and exercised four times a week improved their level of focus.
Taking a walk regularly acts as a cognitive enhancer. As such, it improves a worker’s focus in healthy ways. Here is how hiking can help your productivity. Walking combats your stress levels. This increases the levels of serotonin depleted by stress and anxiety.
Secondly, walking improves your ability to shift and focus attention. Last, taking a walk helps to stimulate the growth of new cells in the hippocampus. This improves your memory.
3. Makes You Happy
A happy employee is a productive employee. Scientists have proven that people who exercise or take a walk are more energetic and confident. This is unlike those who spend much of the day sitting down.
In a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, researchers found out that people who walked three times a day felt happier. They also felt more enthusiastic, less tense and were more relaxed.
The researchers also found that a 30-minute walk each day enabled employees to cope better with their workload. So, the next time you are feeling down, drop everything and take a brisk walk.
4. Preserves the Health of Your Brain
Low impact exercises such as walking help to improve your attention span. Taking a 30-minute walk every day helps to forge new connections with brain cells. This stimulates the growth of neurons. As such, it helps to pump up your brainpower.
In a study, researchers sought to find out the positive effects of walking to workers attention span. What they found out is that walking longer every week preserves the health of one’s brain. This is in comparison with those who walked less.
To sharpen your brain power and improve the health of your brain, take a walk outdoors during coffee breaks.
5. Increases Your Energy Levels
Scientists have proven that sitting for more than 5 hours kills productivity in the workplace. This has the same health effect as smoking cigarettes (a pack). Also, working non-stop creates and increases stress. This impacts your productivity in the workplace. How?
You will lack the motivation to complete tasks. Also, your creative juices will not flow as required. This makes it difficult for you to come up with solutions for problems. To get the creative juices flowing and increase your energy levels, take a 30-minute walk during your break.
Physical activity even for 30 minutes, promotes fat burning. It also increases blood circulation. This ensures nutrients get to reach all parts of your body. To impart more benefits, we recommend that you do some stretching during your walk.
Making Your Free Time Work For You
From the many studies we have come across, one thing is clear. A 30-minute walk each day can improve your productivity levels. How? By reducing your stress levels, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Walking also helps to boost your memory, heightens your focus, makes you happy and increases your energy levels.
What you need to know is that there are steps which can help to ensure that your free time works for you. To ensure that your brisk walk does not become a source of unneeded calories, avoid junk foods. It’s very easy to end up eating junk food from food stands during your walk. For nutrition, pack healthy snacks in your Farpoint backpack.
Second, have a point of interest. Walking idly is not beneficial but if you have a point of interest, it provides more rationale and incentive. Last, we recommend having a little bit of fun. Combining physical activity and fun increases the level of satisfaction and improves productivity.
Best of luck!
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