Effect of Poor Sitting on Productivity

Numerous studies suggest that a incorrect posture can harm our energy levels, hormone release and overall productivity. Keeping a poor posture during work and habitually adopting the same posture all the time can and will lead to various negative effects on an individual’s health.

If we are working in a sedentary job, we might have already experienced one of the side effects such as stiffness in the back. As it is, being in a desk job means that we are stuck in one place for a long time which can induce considerable stiffness, but that can hurt as manifold if we maintain an improper posture.

Holding an incorrect posture for a extended period of time can cause pain in the body and make it hard to focus on work. If it doesn't get corrected, one's health can deteriorate over time and even working in a normal work schedule becomes very challenging.

While working, we all tend to slouch, lean forward, be hunched over the keyboard or rest our heads on one of our hands. All these actions may cause back pain, strained neck as well as general muscle fatigue.

As long as one pays attention to his/her posture, it can help resolve the issue and also protect the spine. Hence, it is important that we try to look for ways to help improve our posture and productivity.

Here in this post, let's discuss how incorrect posture can affect performance. Also, let's understand why our work output and productivity go down because of bad posture.

Sitting up the right way likely won’t fix posture problems. Slumping though will certainly make them worse. A study bore testimony to the fact that sitting up incorrectly meant bad health and consequently lesser productivity. It also can affect one's mental health.

The study further found that compared to respondents who sat in an incorrect way, those that didn't experienced lesser fatigue and more enthusiam. Additionally, participants sitting upright were able to speak more words in total during the stressful speech task. It demonstrated that participants who sat upright had more energy, experienced lesser negativity and showed lower signs of depression.

When the body is properly aligned, it performs even the most strenuous tasks more efficiently. Many studies and medical professionals concur that standing straight with the spine in alignment helps improve one's mood, breathing and blood flow in the body.

All the above-mentioned factors have also been related to productivity. Thus, improving posture & alignment and physiological improvements will help us in boosting our productivity.

When we maintain bad posture, it severely affects the way others view us and how we assert ourselves at work. When working in larger teams, this can lead to perceptions that are far removed from reality. We also tend to take on more work to show that we are over-delivering which is again a mirage.

When we overwork, ironically our productivity decreases. Because, as per a study on productivity, there are only diminishing returns where overwork yields worse results than only tackling the volume of work we can reasonably perform well.

Poor posture does not only diminish our assertiveness but can also affect our confidence. High self confidence is known to directly influence productivity. Higher the confidence, more can be accomplished.

Bad posture can cause lingering health problems and reduce productivity levels

Bad posture can lead to a lot of health conditions such as back pain and headaches and exacerbate vision problems. Improper body alignment can negatively impact oxygen intake and blood flow. It may result in high blood pressure as well. Over time, these factors contribute to reduced productivity.

Poor posture can lead to several health and body problems. It is easy to understand how those factors could cause us to miss more time at work due to illness, injury, or even doctor appointments, as a result, end up being less productive at work.

There are various productivity-boosting techniques and applications available. Regrettably, many of us will overlook or simply neglect the significance of posture. However, by understanding the above information, we can now make meaningful changes and invest in an ergonomically designed office chair to improve our posture and hopefully, increase our productivity.