Personal leadership · Every phase
Where do you start with working healthily?
In a few minutes you'll know where your weak spot is, and what your first step is.
Does this sound familiar?
- I know perfectly well what's healthy. I just don't know where to start.
- I go to the gym three times a week, and I'm still shattered every afternoon.
- I once tried to sort everything out at once, and three weeks later I'd stopped doing any of it.
- I'll get round to living healthily when things calm down.
Who it's for, and when
For anyone who has less energy than they'd like and doesn't know where to start. It matters in every phase. Building a company is a long haul, and if you're running on empty you make worse decisions and don't last as long.
Self-test
Twenty-one short questions across six areas: sleep, stress and recovery, breathing, eating and drinking, moving through the day, and strength and fitness. They're about what you actually did over the last two weeks, not what you're planning to do. You'll see how each area is doing, and where to start.
Sleep
How many hours did you sleep on a normal work night over the last two weeks? Actual sleep, not time in bed.
How much does the time you get up differ between work days and days off?
When do you have your last coffee, energy drink or cola?
What does the last hour before you sleep look like, and your bedroom?
Stress and recovery
How often did you manage to properly leave work alone in your free time, in your head as well?
How did you usually feel at the start of your working day?
How often did you get up during the day and step away from your screen?
Did you notice signs such as poor sleep, irritability, worrying or trouble concentrating?
Breathing
Over the last two weeks, how often did you deliberately take a few minutes to breathe calmly?
When you were tense, before a difficult conversation or facing a full inbox, did you notice how you were breathing, and do anything about it?
Without exertion, did you feel short of air, sigh or yawn a lot, or have tingling fingers or dizziness?
Eating and drinking
On how many days a week do you eat vegetables with two meals, plus one or two pieces of fruit?
Apart from coffee and tea, what do you drink on a working day?
How many alcoholic drinks do you have in a normal week, after-work drinks and the weekend included?
What do your lunch and your afternoon look like?
Moving through the day
How many steps do you take on a normal working day? Check your phone or watch, or make a guess.
How long do you usually sit in one go before you get up?
How many minutes a week do you move enough to get warm and breathe faster: brisk walking, cycling, taking the stairs?
Strength and fitness
How often do you do something that makes your muscles work really hard: weights, squats, press-ups, heavy lifting?
Has what you do got harder over the last few months: more weight, more reps, a tougher variation?
How often a week are you so out of breath that talking gets hard: running, hard cycling, a ball sport, running up the stairs?
The model
Working healthily rests on six things: sleeping, recovering from stress, breathing, eating and drinking, moving through the day, and strength and fitness. They're connected. Sleep badly and you crave snacks and don't feel like exercising. Move more and you sleep better. Never switch off from work and you sleep worse.
So you start with the area that scores lowest, not the one you most fancy working on. If you eat well but sleep badly, start with sleep. An extra gym session won't do much if you're sleeping six hours a night. If two areas score equally low, sleep comes first: everything else rests on it.
And you start with one step. Change your food, exercise and sleep all on a Monday and you'll have stopped by Friday. Take the first step from your results, keep it up for two or three weeks, then take the test again. You'll see whether that area has gone up, and which one is now lowest.
This is a self-test, not a medical check. It looks at behaviour, not at your health. If you have symptoms that don't go away, such as tiredness that rest doesn't fix, chest pain when you exert yourself, or months of poor sleep, see your GP or the company doctor (bedrijfsarts).
The six areas follow the Dutch guidelines where they exist: the Physical Activity Guidelines 2017 and the Dutch Dietary Guidelines 2015 of the Health Council of the Netherlands (Gezondheidsraad), the Schijf van Vijf (the 'Wheel of Five', the Dutch food guide) from the Netherlands Nutrition Centre (Voedingscentrum), the Dutch GP guidelines (NHG-Standaarden) on sleep problems and on overstrain and burnout, and for sleep duration the consensus of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2015). The sources for each area are in its own lesson.
Stress and recovery
Being busy isn't what wears you out; too little recovery in between is. Switching off from work, and taking breaks.
Stress and recoveryBreathing
A small tool against tension: a few minutes of calm breathing every day, practised first while you're relaxed.
Breathing calmlyEating and drinking
Vegetables, fruit, wholegrain, water. Less meat, fizzy drinks and alcohol. A lunch you don't skip.
Eating and drinkingMoving through the day
150 minutes a week, around 7,000 steps a day, and getting up at least every half hour.
Moving through the dayStrength and fitness
Something heavy for your muscles twice a week, and now and then getting so out of breath that talking gets hard.
Strength and fitnessWatch and read
Neuropsychologist Erik Scherder on how movement, sleep and recovery together keep your mind sharp. In Dutch.
Watch on YouTubeGP Mike Evans shows how one small habit, half an hour of movement a day, feeds into everything. It's the idea behind starting with one step.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Laat je hersenen niet zitten
Erik Scherder · 2017 · ISBN 9789025307219
Scherder on what movement, and with it your whole lifestyle, does for your brain. In Dutch, in plain language. The books for each area are in its own lesson.
View the bookApply it
- 1
1. Take the test
Honestly, about the last two weeks. Download your results if you want to keep them; the app doesn't save them.
- 2
2. Choose one step
The first step from your results. Put it in your calendar, or tie it to something you already do every day.
- 3
3. Read the lesson for that area
It covers what the research says and how to build on it.
- 4
4. Again in three weeks
Take the test once more. If the area has gone up, move on to the next one. Put the date in your calendar now.
Examples
A founder who wanted to start with the gym
He wanted to go to the gym four times a week. The test showed his eating and movement were fine, and sleep was his weak spot: five and a half hours a night, and email until midnight. He started with a fixed finishing time for work and a wake-up time that stayed the same at the weekend. Three weeks later he was sleeping almost seven hours, and the gym went better after that without much effort.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
4 situations. You need 3 of 4 right. You can try again at any time.
1.You eat well and exercise twice a week, but you sleep five hours every night. Where do you start?
2.Someone wants to tackle their food, exercise, sleep and drinking all at once, starting Monday. What usually happens?
3.Your self-test says everything is fine, but you've been tired for months, even after rest. What do you do?
4.Why are the six areas in one learning path rather than each on its own?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- Sleeping better · You know how much sleep you need, what disturbs it most, and what you'll do differently tonight.
- Stress and recovery · You know the difference between stress that comes with the job and stress that won't go away, and you build recovery into your day.
- Eating and drinking · You know what the guidelines actually say, where it goes wrong on a working day, and what you'll eat or drink differently tomorrow.
Not sure where to start? Take the growth scan