Health Hacks for your office - How to stay healthy in a studio environment

When working in a studio environment, which heavily uses technology to produce products, such as websites, Logos and brands, you'll often find yourself spending long hours in front of screens. It’s not uncommon to be spending up to six hours of the day sitting in front of a computer with only small breaks to get lunch or go to the toilet.

Ping Pong 3rd runner-up Champion - Kenneth Rees

When working in a studio environment, which heavily uses technology to produce products, such as websites, Logos and brands, you'll often find yourself spending long hours in front of screens. It’s not uncommon to be spending up to six hours of the day sitting in front of a computer with only small breaks to get lunch or go to the toilet. The day can pass by quickly when you’re busy, leading to you becoming quite sedentary. Working day in, day out like this over weeks and months can build up and create quite an unhealthy working environment.

That's why at PixelHaze we try to encourage a culture of being more active in the work environment in quite subtle ways. Our ethos is that the simple small things that don’t take much effort will build up into positive healthy habits and keep the staff healthy. Furthermore, if the working environment we create is fun and encourages us to be active, not only will the staff be healthier but also happier and enjoy coming to work.

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Creating an active environment

We’ve tried to create an environment that encourages you to be active during working hours. For example, we have created our break room (our new Apollo room), in which we have our breakouts, brainstorming sessions, workshops, and client meetings. During lunch hours, we'll corrugate in the break room to discuss ideas that we are currently working on or problems that we're stuck with. The centre of the room is a large desk which, of course, doubles up as a ping pong table. We’ll often find ourselves having a few rounds while discussing ideas, it puts you in a different frame of mind, allowing you to approach a problem from a fresh perspective. We can hash out ideas in a more energetic way rather than being glued to a screen all day. Often we come up with the best ideas when we’re not really thinking about them. A famous example would be when Einstein had his famous Eureka moment in the bathtub.

One of the main features of our studio is our chalkboards which we’ve painted on almost all the walls. If we're stuck for an idea or want to explain an idea properly to another member of the team, we’ll all get up, fetch some chalk and go straight to the wall. This allows us to easily visualize our ideas for everyone whilst not being stuck at our desk. At PixelHaze, we’re actively encouraged to draw on the walls, which was strange to start with as it’s something that you would normally be told off for doing!

Outside the workplace

Alongside incorporating activity into the workplace, we've also created a series of clubs for us to attend after work hours. One example of this is Roots Rugby, which we attend every Tuesday. This is a social and physical activity and is mandatory for staff to attend as it helps with team building and de-stressing after a long day's work. We’re also slowly building up an after-work running club, which we will attend a few days a week to let off some steam after a long day stuck to a chair.

We tend to add a competitive edge to some active pursuits. For example, our entire team has Apple Watches or similar fitness wearable technology. We’ve introduced some light-hearted competitive challenges such as step challenges and calorie burning challenges between colleagues. This encourages a friendly competitive spirit to try and win the competition with the added benefit of increasing our activity levels to keep us healthy.

The simple things add up

We encourage activity in the office in minor ways. We’ve introduced a pull-up bar which is installed in a doorway that we walk through regularly. This encourages us to have a play around with hanging from the bar or trying a few pull-ups. Quite often we don’t move our upper body much at work, so this allows us to get our heart rate up a little bit or have a good stretch out. We also have a few basketball hoops set up along the doorframes which encourages us to shoot some hoops while sitting down and discussing ideas in a playful manner.

Further ways we attempt to stay active include parking further away from the building entrance rather than parking right down by the Groe car park. This means that every time we arrive and leave work, we have to walk an extra 500 metres or so, which adds up over a series of weeks or months and really helps with our step count.

We’re encouraged to get up and walk around throughout the day, even if it’s just having the kettle and our snacks in a different room to ensure we have to walk a few extra steps in order to get a drink or something to eat. Getting an extra 50 steps in every time we take a break adds up over time.

Eating healthily

One of the main issues we struggle with is food. Quite often, we’ll grab snacks to eat at our desks which are convenient and not necessarily the healthiest choices. PixelHaze is stationed right above the Strand Cafe, so it's very easy just to go and get a burger and chips or something quite unhealthy and heavy in calories. Around Builth, there are lots of tempting cafes and food outlets like Breadsticks and Burger King, which are always appealing, especially on a Friday, but when you may not be as active in this job role compared to other jobs, we have to try and avoid these.

Fortunately, as we know the Strand Cafe quite well, we've come to an agreement with a set menu for ourselves, which contains low calorie and healthy options including homemade curries, baguettes and lasagnas. For the Strand’s support with our food prep, we will exchange their services for design work on their website and menus.

Mental health

Being physically healthy is important, but it’s also good to keep on top of your mental health. Working on fast-paced deadlines with clients can be stressful, and it’s important that we manage our stress to ensure we do the best job possible. As well as the mental health benefits that come from our extra-curricular activities like Roots Rugby, we also have games to play like our VR headset that we can do fun activities on or physical activities like boxing. This adds a great team atmosphere to the studio and helps de-stress. Furthermore, one of the staff has a guitar in the break room and often strumming a few chords or trying out a famous song riff can be both fun and relaxing to help switch off.

The best way we find to stay healthy is to implement small habits that build up over time. Working long hours in front of a screen sitting down can lead to it becoming increasingly easy to slack off and become unhealthy, but through regular habits increasing our step count and encouraging activity in the office, we have found ourselves feeling healthier and happier. That extra 200 steps from the car into the studio and back every day builds up to 2000 a week and 8000 per month! Making these small steps is the key to staying healthy in the office.