Today I wanted to sway away from the topic of tech and talk a bit about GitHub culture. You may have noticed that there was no Fun Friday post this past week and the reason for that was that all of GitHub was off on Friday as part of our Wellbeing Day initiative. This fiscal year all GitHub employees are granted a certain amount of days off on top of our already very generous time off policy to give employees a chance to relax, breathe, decompress, and spend time with their loved ones.
Taking time off can be challenging as there are so many deadlines and commitments. On top of that we are still in the middle of a pandemic and there may not be that many exciting things to do outside of work. However, taking time off is important for your physical and mental wellbeing. We are humans, and not machines after all.
I want to therefore encourage you to reassess your own personal wellbeing today: Do you feel overwhelmed or overworked? When was the last time you took time off work? If you can’t afford to take time off at the moment, are there other things you can implement into your daily life to increase wellbeing such as meditation, exercise, healthy eating, or more sleep?
omg finally ok i dont know if u r even the rifht person but currently have a sitch where as i am being attacked thru edge via jquery and scizle or whatever it is
Being an active-duty Infantryman in the U.S. Army, I don’t get much time off. We’re always training and making ourselves better to defend the country. For myself, what I like to do to increase well-being is read books (or online articles), exercise at the closest gym, or software development; I try to do each as much as I can. I’ve found that I feel overall better if I’m making progress and keeping myself busy with something I love to do. While it may be hard to find time to do these things during certain periods of the year, I cherish the time I do get
Great post @ossanna16 - I hope you enjoyed your well-deserved time off!
Looking after your well-being is a must. I’ve been joining lunch-time meditation sessions and they’re a great way to spend just 10 minutes during my workday. It makes a huge difference to my body & mind even if I just close your eyes, mute all sounds, be still, and do some deep breathing exercises (time to reset, especially if you spend lengthy periods looking at a monitor like I do)!!
One of the biggest changes I’ve made recently that I felt has made an impact on my wellbeing is taking a 45 minute walk when I first wake up in the morning. I don’t look at my phone until after I complete this walk and I don’t listen to any music either. It is quite meditative and nice to spend some time with myself before the day begins!
I have a very long drive to and from work. I found myself sleepy at times while driving and on arriving at work.
One day, I was filling my truck with gas and as I was leaving, a car stalled in the gas station driveway. I helped push the car up the drive to a pump. I was pumped from the exertion. It lasted all day.
Since then, I do deep squats every morning before the drive. I am never sleepy now and pumped all day. Started out slowly, two squats at first. Added 1 squat per week until I got to 10. I had done that for a year when a new co-worked told me about starting on a treadmill due to a heart condition. I dropped to five squats in the morning and five at night. Each week I added one squat until I reached 10 again. After four months, I added one more squat. Gain doesn’t take pain. Be safe.
BTW - I do not drink coffee or caffeinated drinks.
Totally agree! Thanks for sharing @rayjos - squats are a great way to help pump the blood around the body. Working remotely, I turn my heating off during the day to save valuable £££ on energy bills and periodically do squats to keep warm, especially when waiting for the kettle to boil .
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