Hydration: the most vital and the most neglected key to success at the workplace
Getting a job and securing your employment in a well-known company has been getting very difficult since the 2008 global recession. Companies demand motivated, focused, and active employees to grow their productivity and profit. They lay off lazy and dumb employees swiftly in the name of recession.
Your boss needs you to be innovative, supercharged, and mentally focused. In short, you have to become productive. However, to become full-fledged productive, you need to be well hydrated.
Fact: An adult body is 60% water and our blood is 90% water
Hydration is the most overlooked part of offices’ strategy. Even the top multi-national companies often neglect the importance of keeping their employees hydrated. Let us discuss the importance of balanced hydration at your workplace.
Why is proper hydration important in the workplace?
Hydration affects your body as well as your brain’s function. An adequate amount of water in your brain keeps your memory sharp, thinking clear, and motivation intact. It increases the functioning of the brain and helps you tremendously in your problem-solving skills. Hence, sufficient water intake is one of the most important driving force behind your work performance.
A fully hydrated body can work actively and effectively, whereas dehydration can cause you to lose focus and become lazy. Due to water shortage in our brain, the brain activity is affected, which cause our performance to suffer.
Before we talk you through the benefits of hydration at the workplace, let us explain water's importance for the brain.
Fact: A majority of the adult brain is about 80% water
More than half of our brain is water; therefore, it is an essential nutrient for us. Our brain depends on water to attain optimal functioning. When our brain lacks water, we suffer from loss of concentration and memory. Moreover, a dehydrated mind can cause brain fatigue, headaches, and insomnia.
A well-hydrated brain can help us in the following ways:
- It can improve our concentration. Water charges our brain cells and makes them regain focus and attention. It helps us to concentrate on our work and complete our tasks within time.
- Research has proven that dehydration influences our mood. There are numerous toxins and dead cells in our brain, which cause mood disturbances. Proper water intake stabilizes the brain's temperature and helps us get rid of toxins and dead cells.
- Water is also proven beneficial to balance our brain's chemical process, regulating stress and tension. It decreases the level of anxiety and calms our body and mind. Water also helps our brain in blood flow and oxygenation, which give relief from headaches and calms our brain enough to sleep peacefully.
Fact: The World celebrates National Hydration Day on 23 June every year
Thus it’s not a debatable speech that our brain needs sufficient water to work actively and properly. Now let’s have a look at the numerous benefits of proper hydration at the workplace:
Benefits of Proper Hydration at the Workplace:
Proper hydration at the workplace ensures the enhancement of the cognitive skills and mental performance of employees. Hydrated employees are active, and they prove to be more skilled and efficient in their work.
- Increase productivity:
Only properly hydrated brains are capable of being productive. When our brain is fully hydrated, our mind becomes more productive. Even a 1% drop in dehydration leads to a 12% drop in productivity.
- Stay alert and focused:
The molecules in water activate our brain cells and make them focused. Optimal functioning of your brain helps with concentration and performance.
- No pending work:
Who is happy to see pending work on our desk or table daily? No one, right? Keep your mind well hydrated and it will let you stay active for hours and make you able to finish your work on time.
- The surge in creative ideas:
To stay in your boss’s good graces, an employee needs to bring in innovative ideas. Believe me; nothing can make your boss happier than the creative ideas that can increase the company's profit margin. Stay hydrated and let the blood surge in your brain give birth to pioneering ideas.
- Happy Mood, fewer controversies:
The balanced supply of H2O can stabilize the chemical properties of the brain that can prevent mood disturbance. The water regulates the chemical process and kills the toxic thoughts, which calms our body and brings out positive energy.
- Healthy environment:
When our brain is dehydrated, it becomes sensitive and pulls in negative emotions like anger, rudeness, and mood swings, etc. The well-hydrated staff is less moody and keeps the office environment healthy through their positive attitude.
- Retain information/Memory:
When our brain lacks proper hydration, it becomes harder for us to remember things and infer information. We compromise our memory by not drinking water properly. Since even mild dehydration can have adverse effects on short-term memory, it is significant to drink enough water daily to maintain proper memory function.
Fact: Dehydration can decrease your reaction time and can cause car accidents
Hence, the company's primal need is to keep its employees hydrated; otherwise, dehydration can hurt companies' productivity and profit.
Well, there are numerous ways to keep yourself hydrated at the workplace. However, the ubiquitous nature of water makes us forget its significance, and we often find our body and brain deprived of an adequate amount of water. Keeping in mind the following ways you can remain hydrated during your job and enhance your working ability,
- Always keep a water bottle with you and remember to refill it from time to time.
- During lunch, eat juicy fruits. Fruits are full of water.
- Drinking water is not the only solution to keep ourselves hydrated. We can also drink electrolytes, which can be found easily in any sport or energy drink.
- Caffeine is the leading cause of dehydration. Therefore, limit your coffee intake to a maximum of 4 cups a day.
- Keep the room temperature lower to prevent sweating. High temperature can produce severe sweating that can cause water loss from the body.
- Furthermore, offices can use humidifiers to retain water loss due to dry temperature in the rooms.
Fact: Water is your body's principal chemical component and makes up about 50% to 70% of your body weight.
Remember, it is more vital for you to keep yourself hydrated at the workplace than at home. Work stress, longer shifts, mental activity, long commute, and dry atmosphere in the offices make your body lose water more quickly.
Water certainly is the essential nutrient that our body needs to perform physically as well as mentally. Henceforth, drink sufficient water and keep yourself hydrated to ensure optimal brain activity. A hydrated body will optimize your intellectual level and boost your energy. Being adequately hydrated, you will be ready to tackle all the difficult tasks your boss throws at you and secure your employment in the end.