Hustle culture has made it a badge of honor to be perpetually available for work. But this approach to your job — combined with work-from-home or hybrid environments that may negatively affect work-life balance and office ergonomics — can affect mental and physical health in several ways.
Fortunately, once you identify these unhealthy work habits, there are simple doctor-approved ways to ditch them and adopt better ones.
1. Eating While Working
Lunch breaks are meant to be a rest period. If you eat while working, your body never gets the opportunity to feel safe or relaxed.
“The vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to the gut, activates digestion only when it registers safety,” says Aimie Apigian, MD, a board-certified physician specializing in the effects of trauma on the nervous system in San Diego. “When we eat while multitasking, our nervous system logs that meal as ‘while under threat,’ and the body responds accordingly.”
You also may miss the opportunity to connect with the people around you. “In most cultures, sharing time while eating is a strong way of learning about one another and building camaraderie and trust,” says Richard Safeer, MD, the medical director of employee health and wellness at Johns Hopkins HealthCare and a fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. “When we feel connected to our coworkers, it creates a sense of belonging and lowers our stress level,” he adds.
How to fix it: Set aside 20 to 30 minutes for a distraction-free lunch, and be sure to step away from your desk to let your body shift into rest-and-digest mode, suggests Daniel Torrent, MPH, MD, a vascular surgeon at Longstreet Clinic and an ambassador for the Society for Vascular Surgery in Gainesville, Georgia.
2. Staring at Screens for Too Long
Using devices like your computer or phone for long, uninterrupted periods can lead to digital eyestrain, which can impact eye health and function.
Digital eyestrain can also affect how you feel in other ways. “Our nervous system relies on visual scanning to assess safety,” Apigian says. “When we stare at a close-range screen for hours without looking into the distance, we deprive the nervous system of the ‘I am safe in my environment’ signal it needs.”
This leads to not just eye fatigue, but also tension headaches and afternoon brain fog, she adds.
How to fix it: Every 20 minutes, look out a window or across the room (aim to look at least 20 feet away) for 20 seconds, Apigian suggests. It may also help to reduce glare on your screen with a monitor visor or glare guard and position the screen 10 to 20 degrees below your straight-ahead gaze; you shouldn’t tilt your head when looking at the screen.
3. Responding to Pings Immediately
Most jobs come with constant notifications: calendar reminders, instant messages, and emails. Responding to every notification as it arrives takes a toll on your health.
“Frequently responding to notifications and constantly task switching triggers repeated sympathetic, or fight-or-flight, stress responses, leading to spikes in heart rate and blood pressure and promoting the narrowing of blood vessels,” Dr. Torrent says. “Over time, this pattern can place sustained strain on blood vessels and reduce heart rate variability.”
How to fix it: To reduce task switching, Torrent recommends silencing nonurgent notifications and checking messages and notifications at set intervals throughout the day, rather than every time they pop up.
4. Forgetting to Drink Water
When you’re focused on work over a sustained period, your nervous system tunes out internal cues like thirst to prioritize external demands like deadlines, Apigian says.
Over time, that disconnection between your nervous system and your body becomes your go-to pattern, which can play a role in unexplained fatigue, mood shifts, and less body awareness, she adds.
Of course, there are also the more obvious physical symptoms of forgoing water. “Not drinking enough water is one of the more common causes of headache and constipation,” Dr. Safeer says. Being dehydrated may also lead you to use food to compensate, making you more prone to overeating, he adds.
How to fix it: Keep a water bottle in your line of sight throughout the work day. Apigian also recommends pairing hydration with an existing action, like opening a new browser tab or finishing a meeting. Over time, these small cues can retrain your nervous system to tune back into physical signals like thirst.
5. Prolonged Sitting
Sitting for too long, especially if you cross your legs, can impair blood flow back to your heart and contribute to issues like varicose veins and less circulation over time.
The health risks of a sedentary life go on: Research shows that six hours of uninterrupted sitting significantly lowered blood flow and circulation in the lower legs, decreasing the blood vessels’ ability to dilate properly (important for delivering oxygen and nutrients to muscles).
Excess sitting can have effects that go beyond the inner lining of blood vessels, affecting deeper muscle tissues that control how blood vessels open and close, increasing heart disease risk in the long run.
How to fix it: Every day, review your schedule to identify times when you can work or have meetings while standing. Try to spend one hour standing for every one to two hours sitting. And rest assured that you don’t need to invest in a standing desk: “Plenty of offices now have counters that are the right height or, with the use of an inexpensive plastic height adjustment platform, can accommodate this healthy practice,” Safeer notes.
6. Hunched-Over Posture
Poor posture in office settings (due to factors like poor ergonomics or repetitive movements) is one of the most significant risk factors for developing musculoskeletal disorders, especially in the lumbar spine.
Poor posture can also impact your mood by what it tells your brain. “A hunched, collapsed posture physiologically communicates ‘in protection mode’ to the brain, which then amplifies fatigue, low mood, and shallow breathing,” Apigian says.
How to fix it: Set up your desk to support healthy posture: Position your monitor at arm’s length, adjust your chair so your knees are level with your hips, and keep your wrists straight with your hands at or below elbow height.
7. Excessive Mouse and Keyboard Use
Clicking away at your keyboard or moving your mouse for hours on end can lead to pain and stiffness, most commonly in the neck, lower back, shoulders, and wrists.
The effects can extend beyond physical pain. “Muscles that stay contracted for hours without release send a constant danger signal to the nervous system,” Apigian says. “The body reads sustained tension as ‘still under threat’ and responds with more cortisol, inflammation, and fatigue.”
How to fix it: Every 45 minutes, Apigian recommends dropping your shoulders, opening your hands wide, and gently shaking out your wrists for 10 seconds.
8. Stress Snacking
Even if you take a break for lunch, you might find yourself snacking on sugary or salty foods to manage stress or fight off fatigue.
When we mindlessly reach for sugary or salty snacks, it’s often stress that drives us, not necessarily hunger, Apigian says.
How to fix it: Before reaching for a snack, pause and check in with how you’re feeling, Apigian suggests. If you’re tense and restless, try a slow exhale that lasts longer than your inhale — activating the body’s relaxation response in a way that a snack cannot. If you’re feeling mentally foggy or low on energy, a two-minute walk or a change of scenery will do more to restore your focus than a sugar hit, Apigian adds.
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