Tag Archives: health and wellbeing

Five ways to incorporate movement into your working day

Most of us know that moving and exercising more during the day is good for our health, but struggle to get out of the chair when we’re ensconced in work. In this post, Rosie Tate suggests five ways we can move more and sit less.

There are no two ways about it: the work of an editor involves a lot of sitting down. But as much as we may love our work, a sedentary lifestyle isn’t good for our physical or mental health. Human beings evolved to move – to walk, run and rest in positions like squatting that don’t involve sitting on a chair in the exact same position for hours on end.

Numerous studies have shown that we should sit less and move more. While sitting for long periods has been linked to being overweight, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer, this can be offset by doing more exercise. A recent study shows that one in 10 early deaths could be avoided globally if everyone did just 75 minutes of exercise per week. Not only is exercise essential for our health but it also makes us feel good. Who doesn’t feel better after a walk, a run or a workout? Movement is one of the pillars of wellbeing and happiness. In this post, I suggest five ways to move more during your working day.

1. Have a movement break every hour

It’s easy to get so absorbed in our work that we spend hours in the same sitting position – often hunched over a screen. If your work involves sitting down all day, take a movement break every hour. Walk around the block, or if timings don’t allow for this, take a few steps in your workplace. Do a few stretches, squats, push-ups, sit-ups or star jumps, dance to a favourite track or move in any other way that makes you feel good. Even just one minute of movement away from your screen every hour can make a world of difference.

2. Shift positions while working

Whether we’re working, eating, watching TV, reading or travelling, we are usually sitting down. In Western countries – unlike in some other countries that favour squatting or sitting on the floor – sitting on a chair is the default resting position. It’s worth trying to switch rest positions, as sitting in a chair for long periods of time places strain on our back and pelvis and, over time, can lead to bad posture or repetitive strain injury. Try to switch positions throughout the day. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Use a standing desk to alternate between sitting and standing. Standing desks don’t have to be expensive: you can improvise one (search online for ideas) or buy a standing desk converter that sits on top of your regular desk.
Try squatting! This improves ankle mobility and gives your back a break from sitting. Try it for a few minutes a day and then extend it to longer periods.
Put your laptop on a coffee table and sit on the floor.
While sitting in a chair, try doing some chair yoga exercises.

3. Walk and talk

Meetings can be a great opportunity to incorporate movement into your day because it’s possible to ‘walk and talk’ rather than ‘sit and talk’. Granted, some meetings may not lend themselves to walking. If we’re talking to a client and they ask us to look at a convoluted sentence on page 37, we’d rather not be strolling through a local park.

But we can look out for meetings where we don’t need to be glued to our screens and take the opportunity to step outside. If there’s an agenda for the meeting, you could have this on your phone and refer to it when needed. This is a great opportunity to get some sunshine – or if it isn’t shining, some natural light at least – which leads to better sleep, boosts vitamin D levels and regulates hormones. Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in his Confessions: ‘Walking has something in it which animates and heightens my ideas: I can scarcely think when I stay in one place; my body must be set a-going if my mind is to work.’ Who knows? You might find that your most productive talks happen while you’re walking.

4. Move more

Often, we see movement as something that must be done within a specific time frame and called ‘exercise’. We set time aside for our daily or weekly sessions and we don’t move very much the rest of the time. In reality, we don’t need a designated exercise session to move more. Movement can be incorporated into our daily activities if we look for opportunities to do so. And when we start looking, the opportunities abound. Here are some ideas.

Take the stairs instead of the lift or escalators.
Where possible, walk or cycle instead of taking public transport.
While watching TV, do some gentle exercises or stretches. There are plenty that you can do while still looking at the screen – a quick online search offers plenty of inspiration.
Try using text-to-speech software to move around or stretch while listening to text instead of sitting down to read it, such as blog posts, long emails or even perhaps the first read-through of a developmental edit.
Stand while on public transport instead of sitting down.

You can also use your lunch break to move more. Try eating mindfully while walking or doing an online exercise class (the Better at Home app offers hundreds of free online classes for all levels).

5. Get into and stick to good habits

The most crucial point of all when it comes to working movement into your day is to get into – and stick to – good habits. As anyone who has ever set new year’s resolutions knows, it’s all too easy to start with the best of intentions but fail to put them into practice. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear gives lots of tips on how to make good habits stick. A couple that stuck with me after reading his book:

Use the ‘two-minute rule’: you can break down habits into small tasks that fit into two minutes or less. When trying to move more during the day, you could start by doing this in one of the ways listed above for just two minutes each day. Do this for one week and work your way up to longer periods from there.
Make the habit obvious by using cues. If you want to spend some time at a standing desk each day, make sure it is set up so that you’re more likely to use it. Set an alarm to take a movement break each hour. Leave your yoga mat out in plain sight if you’re planning a lunchtime session on your mat.

You don’t need to make drastic changes: incremental steps will do just fine. Start small and work movement into your day little by little over the course of a few weeks. Even a few more minutes of physical activity and varied movement a day can make a huge difference in the long run. By building this movement into your day – moving more and sitting less – you should get to the end of the year feeling a bit more energetic and less achy without having put aside long periods of time each day specifically for exercise.

I’d love to hear your thoughts or other suggestions on how to move more in the comments below.

About Rosie Tate

Rosie Tate is co-founder of Tate & Clayburn, a London-based company that offers editorial and language services to clients worldwide. A first-class Oxford University languages graduate with an MA in Documentary Filmmaking, she’s an experienced editor, writer and producer, having worked for Oxford University Press, the BBC and Save the Children.

About the CIEP

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) is a non-profit body promoting excellence in English language editing. We set and demonstrate editorial standards, and we are a community, training hub and support network for editorial professionals – the people who work to make text accurate, clear and fit for purpose.

Find out more about:

Photo credits: header image by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels, man walking outside on a call by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Pexels.

Posted by Eleanor Smith, blog assistant.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.

Working through the (peri)menopause

5 Replies

Recently I put out a call in the CIEP forums for people to submit their experiences of working through the menopause, and the perimenopause (the years leading up to the menopause). This post is a collection of those responses, with some links to helpful resources at the end.

Coping with menopause

Menopause is a subject that’s being talked about increasingly in the context of work: in the media, and by employers and the government. It’s a major change to go through, and for many people – both those to whom it is happening, and their family, friends and colleagues – it presents significant challenges that require lifestyle adjustments.

The contributions I received are published here anonymously. The public conversations that are happening now are obviously a good thing, because they help to remove the stigma surrounding menopause, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that some of the symptoms can make aspects of full-time working more difficult. It’s clear that for now it’s still easier to discuss menopause confidentially in a professional context – none of us can afford for our clients to think we’re giving anything less than our best.

The responses below share some common themes. There are physical symptoms, as well as mental and emotional ones – with some better known and understood than others. All can make work more challenging. For those of us who work for ourselves, we at least have the option of managing our time differently to cope, to some extent. But more understanding of the difficulties faced at this time can only benefit all of us. It’s also refreshing to read of the positives that can arise from this life stage … and of course, some are lucky enough to suffer few negative symptoms at all.

After the testimonies, there are links to sources of more information on (peri)menopause.

Personal experiences

The effects of ‘emotional disinhibition’

I’m having quite a late menopause – I’ve just turned 58 and was still having regular periods until about a year ago, which of course was in the middle of the pandemic. So it’s really difficult to disentangle the physical and psychological effects of increasing age (including lingering pension-age-change trauma), hormonal changes and lockdown stress. In relation to work, the biggest combined impact has been on my energy levels, my ability to concentrate for long periods and my motivation. I’m working very much part-time and I haven’t accepted any full-length books for well over a year because I know I just can’t manage them at the moment (whether this is temporary or permanent, I do not know); luckily, though, I’ve been getting enough shorter jobs to get by on.

Another change I’ve noticed is what you might call ‘emotional disinhibition’, which I suspect can be put down to hormones. This has caused constructive chaos in some specific pre-Covid overcommitments in my personal life, but, so far, no clients or colleagues have been exposed to it. I suppose that might eventually happen, but I am inclined not to care: whoever provokes it is likely going to deserve whatever they get.

Physically, apart from energy etc, and the odd hot flash, I’m just dealing with the fact that my periods are currently entirely unpredictable in all respects. In that context, and overall, I’m really grateful at this point that I am working at home and managing my own time. I just stop when I need to and transfer to the sofa via the kettle. I can’t help thinking of some of my previous jobs in which this whole process would have been much harder to cope with.

Enjoying the pleasant warmth!

I noticed not the slightest difference … all I had (and we’re looking at 20 years ago, now) was the occasional warm flush (very pleasant indeed) and no other effects that I was aware of. So I just carried on as usual. 🙂

Living with disturbed sleep patterns

I started experiencing symptoms of perimenopause around five years ago. The most significant symptom – and the one that had the greatest effect on my work – was insomnia. Although I usually didn’t have difficulty falling asleep, I would keep waking at 2am, heart and mind racing, often drenched in sweat, and be unable to get back to sleep again. The next day, exhaustion, brain fog and sometimes a throbbing headache would make it difficult to concentrate, and my efficiency and accuracy in editorial tasks suffered as a result.

The two GPs I had during this time offered no support, dismissing me as being ‘too young’ for menopause (meaning under 50) and suggesting that I should improve my sleep hygiene and perhaps try antidepressants. I resolved to educate myself as much as possible about how best to manage the menopause transition. Fortunately, I could take advantage of the burgeoning number of books, websites, videos, podcasts, blogs etc in the past few years that provide evidence-based information about the perimenopause and menopause. Often, just knowing I wasn’t alone in having myriad ‘weird’ symptoms was a great comfort.

Although none of my clients knew anything of what I was going through, I had to make various adjustments to my work schedule. For example, I used to do an hour or two of editing in the evening, but have since cut that out; now the hour before bedtime is reserved for ‘winding down’, such as doing gentle yoga, meditating and listening to music. The elimination of evening work has forced me to become more efficient and focused earlier in the day, which is a benefit overall. I have also become more choosy in the kinds of jobs I accept, opting for those with greater flexibility – such as more journal articles and fewer books, more proofreading and less substantive editing – and trying to negotiate more generous timeframes for projects where possible. This has led to a decrease in business income for a couple of years, but I needed to respect what my body and mind could cope with at the time; besides, taking on the same volume and types of work as I did pre-menopause would almost certainly have meant lower quality of output.

Now postmenopausal, I have found a gynaecologist who is willing to trial hormone therapy with me, and it is working quite well to alleviate the insomnia and relieve other symptoms including hot flushes, water retention, skin itching and joint pain. The prescription costs are significant but worth it for the much-improved functioning and restored productivity. I am aiming to gradually scale up my workload as I feel better physically and mentally.

Finding ways to cope with a range of symptoms

My experience with working through the (peri)menopause is very recent, and started with a bang and not a whimper. I was on my daily walk, back in March, when I was suddenly breathless, my heart was racing, and I thought I was having a heart attack. After months of tests, observations and specialists, we have come to the conclusion that my racing heart is the by-product of hormonal fluctuations – perimenopause.

Looking back, I did have other symptoms, which I discounted as regular steps in the ageing process: sore joints, itchy skin, tinnitus, hot flushes, extreme tiredness, forgetfulness, trouble concentrating and breathlessness when exercising. I found out my body – a woman’s body – has oestrogen receptors all over, in my ears, eyes, skin, other organs (heart) and gastrointestinal tract. Oestrogen also plays a role in maintaining the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, and regulating bone density, brain function and cholesterol levels. So when oestrogen levels drop, it can play havoc with almost every system.

The symptoms that most bother me are the racing heart, and the forgetfulness and trouble concentrating. I’ve taken a multipronged approach to dealing with these symptoms. I take medication that slows my heart rate (which unfortunately also makes me more forgetful), and I have started hormone replacement therapy to deal with the heart and the other symptoms. I have also stepped back to part-time work so that I can go to the gym and exercise for one to one and a half hours each day.

It is early days, but I think the combination of medical intervention and exercise is starting to help.

I am also changing how I work, to address the issues of concentration and editing accuracy. I’m updating and expanding the checklists that I use when editing and proofreading, to make sure I don’t forget any steps in my editing process. I’m using software tools and macros more frequently in my editorial practice. For example, I use PerfectIt at the start and at the end of an editing job, to help make sure I pick up on any inconsistencies in the documents I’m editing. I also work for shorter periods of time, 45 minutes to an hour, and then take a 15-minute break, and I work shorter days. I don’t get as much work done each day, but I am more confident that the work I do complete is of the professional standard that I expect of myself.

I’ve heard that perimenopause can last for years. I’m prepared to continue changing my approach as my hormones continue to change. I do hope though that once they settle down, it comes as less of a shock than when it started.

Understanding menopause as a process of transition

The further you go into the perimenopause the more you realise it’s a transition. By necessity, you must change your previous habits because they probably won’t work for you any more. For me, gone are the days when I could keep 20 things in my head at once. After having kids, I thought I was exhausted, but at least I could work for hours on end, given the chance. Now I am too tired all the time to do that. I also have to make sure I have back-up, mostly in the form of detailed lists, so I don’t forget things. I have to take longer breaks from work during the week, and have a proper weekend. I really can’t take too much on, and this is a change from before.

Fifteen years ago, I could exercise for long periods. I gave that up as I realised that my body wasn’t springing back from the exercise I was doing. I was getting injured. My joints were suffering. I had resigned myself to brisk walking for the rest of my life, but just recently I’ve discovered that a really short run every day perks me up but doesn’t injure me. (So far.) I’ve also started taking a dip in the sea now and then, and I’m hoping to make more of a habit of this, because the shock of the cold (and it is cold) resets your body for a time. When I go down to the beach it’s mostly ‘ladies of a certain age’ that I see in their swimsuits, and I’m just beginning to grasp why. You find new ways to be. You do what helps.

So it’s a cliché but you have to listen to your body and you have to look after yourself. It’s no good fighting it. Work with it and watch to see what you’ll become. I felt grief when I realised my young self was gone, but being older makes me feel more connected to other people and makes me appreciate the smaller, everyday things.

Dealing with sudden menopause

Thank goodness the menopause conversation is finally public. It felt like the last big taboo only two years ago. And I’m glad to see this discussion in editorial circles – I hoped it would come soon.

Before I started my editorial business, I had left full-time employment and started some part-time casual work while deciding on my next move. Once I’d decided on proofreading and editing, I joined the CIEP and started training and getting editorial experience. So far so good …

Unfortunately, I was advised that I needed an emergency full hysterectomy in the early part of the pandemic. It turned out that this was absolutely the right decision, so phew. The flip side of this was, of course, being propelled into surgical menopause. So I had no perimenopause to speak of – just a very sudden onset of various physical and mental issues, which I’ve had to tackle without HRT for medical reasons. My recovery from surgery was fairly straightforward. The difficult part was after those first few weeks. My biggest and most persistent problem is poor sleep – this affects my mental focus, decision-making and energy levels, and means that I can’t progress individual editing projects or my business or my training as fast as I would like. It is very hard to accept a certain level of reduced output each day, but I have no choice. It’s an ongoing battle to build and sustain a sense of myself as a new business owner, a new freelancer, a new editor, and a woman newly coping with menopause. Lots of emotional stuff. Some days I feel very lost, negative or angry; some days are middling, just plodding along OK; other days there are rewarding highs when I feel confident, liberated, and that I can actually do this.

What helps me to cope? First and foremost, a supportive partner and enough funds between us to weather this – I have no idea how I’d be surviving financially if it wasn’t for him. (And I doubt I could still function in my former full-time job, either.) I’ve also got family and friends who I can talk to openly, and I had good support from my NHS surgical team. Beyond that, I’ve had to find resilience at much deeper levels than I’d been aware of previously. I’ve read carefully chosen, reliable sources to learn about menopause. I’ve had to get much more practical and concrete about self-care. I take daily non-prescription supplements approved by my surgeon. The privacy and flexibility of freelancing from home has certainly made some things easier and less stressful to manage. Being a member of the CIEP has been a supportive lifeline in so many ways. On a more fundamental level, I am motivated by enjoying the learning and the work – because I still feel I’ve chosen the right new profession for me.

For anyone who’s not yet at this stage in their life, I would encourage you to learn about menopause now so you’ll have some idea of what’s going on and be able to plan your life accordingly. And for those who won’t personally go through it, learn about it so that you’ll understand your loved ones’ experiences.

Managing mood swings

Over the last three years, the peri symptoms I’ve grown most concerned about are the mood swings, irritation and anxiety that get worse in the final half of my cycle (or they did until my cycle started skipping months). I didn’t want these symptoms to adversely affect my clients or the people I teach and tutor online, or my family and friends. My doctor suggested meditation first thing in the morning, and yoga in the evenings as well as anti-anxiety medication.

I keep a daily work diary and mark off the ‘danger’ weeks that come once I notice the signs of ovulation. I use Post-it notes as they can be moved around the diary or to the edge of my computer screen: WATCH 4 SNARKY. They may need to become a permanent fixture now.

The positives of menopause

I am unreservedly happy to have menopaused. I don’t mean I’m glad I’m past that time that’s called the menopause or perimenopause. I mean I rejoice in the knowledge that I need never again have to menstruate or worry about contraception. I feel free, and well, in a way I never did before.

I don’t remember what work I was doing when I realised that unless I came off the pill I wouldn’t know when my periods would have stopped. I know that that concern, and dealing with it, didn’t affect my work. Earlier in my life, period pains had most definitely affected my concentration.

Finding renewed purpose

Looking back, I’m convinced that I’ve been experiencing perimenopausal symptoms for the last few years (I’m in my mid-forties), but I’ve only been fully aware that’s what they are for about the last 18 months. I got very depressed, and like so many people, I was initially put on antidepressants. Gradually I began to realise, with the help of my partner, that it might be menopause-related (waking up every night covered in sweat was a major clue), and I asked my doctor for HRT. Fortunately, he prescribed it for me straight away. I know I was lucky. I was able to come off the antidepressants after that.

Since I started taking HRT I have tried various doses and types, and now I seem to have a combination that works. I have few night sweats, not many hot flushes, and my moods are more stable. (Until we got the dose right, I was still suffering from terrible, black moods in the week or so before my period, and immense tiredness.) As well as the HRT, I eat quite healthily, don’t drink alcohol, have reduced my caffeine consumption, and exercise regularly (walking, running and yoga), which all seems to help a bit. I can completely understand why so many relationships falter around this time. Mine almost did, but my partner has been really supportive.

Cutting back on work is not an option, and won’t be for the foreseeable future. I am fortunate in that I have not yet felt the need to do that. The symptoms so far have affected my personal life much more than my working life, although at certain times I must remind myself not to take perceived criticism of my work personally. I do have more problems with memory than I used to, but it’s unclear how much this is to do with menopause and how much is to do with ageing in general, and also the collective trauma we have all been through in the last couple of years. The memory problems tend to be about remembering what I went upstairs for rather than anything that affects my editorial work, which I am thankful for.

In terms of work, I am really happy that a more positive conversation is happening about the menopause. People going through the menopause might suffer some debilitating symptoms, but in so many other ways they are at the height of their powers, professionally speaking, with decades of experience to draw on, and often a renewed sense of purpose and energy. Personally, I feel more at peace with myself than ever, and like I have so much to offer. In some ways I feel as if I am just getting started.

Resources

NHS – Menopause: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/menopause/

British Menopause Society: https://thebms.org.uk/

CIPD – The menopause at work: https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-being/menopause/printable-resources#gref

Talking Menopause: https://www.talkingmenopause.co.uk/resources

About Liz Dalby

Liz has been an editor since 1998, and freelance since 2008. She runs Responsive Editing, offering editorial services to publishers, businesses and other organisations, as well as academics and self-publishing authors. She also works on the CIEP’s information team.

About the CIEP

Find out more about:

Photo credits: clouds by eberhard grossgasteiger, beach by Rachel Claire, yoga by Marcus Aurelius, all on Pexels.

Posted by Harriet Power, CIEP information commissioning editor.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.

What’s e-new?

1. Help! How do I fix my computer?

I suspect this may be something we will all come up against sooner or later. The good news is that there are lots of good resources that can walk you through common problems. Even if your PC or Mac is down you can search on a smartphone and hopefully get yourself running again. Sites like wikihow.com; helpdeskgeek.com; dummies.com; techrepublic.com and Microsoft’s own answers.microsoft.com and support.microsoft.com are all helpful.

A carefully thought-through Google search will often be the best approach. For example, ‘Word 365 normal template’ gives good answers as to why Office 365 keeps flagging the normal.dotm as corrupted. It contains the version of Word and the specific item that is causing the issue. If your computer is giving a fault code or description, include that in the search too.

I’ve written before about backing up, spring cleaning and virus scanners, and all these tips and tools are still relevant. I’ve recently been pointed towards Microsoft’s Safety Scanner, which is an additional, occasional-use virus checker. It is good if you suspect you have a virus, as you can download and run a clean copy of the scanner (if you do have a virus, that may have compromised the scanner on your system).

Finally in this section, Microsoft Word itself is a prime cause of the air turning blue around my workspace. Again, Microsoft’s own support pages can be really good – support.office.com. Our own forums are also a good source of support (forums.ciep.uk), with many experienced word-wranglers being regular contributors. One of my favourite sources of help to answer ‘how to’ issues in Word is wordribbon.tips.net/index.html, and it is well worth subscribing to their newsletter.

2. Managing your time

While I’m at home I find I am facing two opposite problems with managing my time. The first is that it can be difficult to focus and stick at what you are doing. The second is the polar opposite of that: using work as a distraction and spending too long nose to screen. But we can use technology to help in both cases to nudge us in the right direction. I’ve written in the past about approaches based on the Pomodoro technique, which encourages you to keep going for a fixed amount of time, or conversely take a break from work after a fixed period of time. The suggestions here are two examples on that theme.

Forest is an app that tries to help you focus by making a game of focusing on a task. You set the timer for as little as 10 minutes through to 2 hours. Each time you start a stretch of work the app plants a virtual tree. Complete the stretch and you start a forest. Quit and your tree dies. It’s a simple idea and strangely addictive. You could use this either to build up your focus or to remind you to take a break.

Workrave is aimed at helping people recover from RSI, but is also a useful tool to encourage you to take breaks from the keyboard and mouse as you work. It produces gentle reminders, which you can configure, to take frequent microbreaks and longer breaks to step away from the computer, and you can even set a daily maximum.

3. Staying fit

Keeping healthy is one of the key things we are being encouraged to do, and there is a massive number of resources that have been made available in response to the lockdown. YouTube is a particularly good resource, and all the suggestions below can be found there.

Normally I’m a keen swimmer and cyclist, but am not getting very far (yes, pun intended!) with either at the moment. However, the Global Triathlon Network has a number of very accessible workout suggestions, despite the elite-sounding name.

If you have kids at home (or even if you don’t), Joe Wicks’s The Body Coach TV channel has a regular PE-with-Joe session. He also has a range of other home workouts that need little or no equipment and cater for a range of abilities.

Yoga is another home-friendly exercise, and I find it also helps undo the damage done by sitting in front of a computer for long periods. Yoga with Adrienne and Five Parks Yoga both offer a range of sessions, from basic, short beginner sessions through to longer, more advanced sessions. Headspace have also put a series of Move Mode sessions on YouTube, which are not traditional yoga, but more a meditative approach to movement.

Finally, I’ve really got into meditation as a way of having a break from everything. Headspace, Mindspace and Calm all have a range of shorter (10-minute) meditations freely available on YouTube. I am particularly enjoying some of Headspace’s Meditations from the American National Parks where you are encouraged to focus on sounds or colours instead of your breath.

I hope that is helpful to you. Stay safe, and we’ll hopefully get back to some more techie stuff next issue.

Andy Coulson is a reformed engineer and primary teacher, and a Professional Member of CIEP. He is a copyeditor and proofreader specialising In STEM subjects and odd formats like LaTeX.

‘What’s e-new?’ was a regular column in the SfEP’s magazine for members, Editing Matters. The column has moved onto the blog until its new home on the CIEP website is ready.

Members can browse the Editing Matters back catalogue through the Members’ Area.

Photo credits: Forest – B NW; keyboard – Christian Wiediger, both on Unsplash

Proofread by Liz Jones, Advanced Professional Member.
Posted by Abi Saffrey, CIEP blog coordinator.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the CIEP.