Looking after your health is an all-day activity

It might sound a bit strange to say that we can look after our health when we are working with documents. After all, looking after our health is about taking regular exercise, eating well and considering our mental health as well. How can working with documents help with any of that?

We’re often told how bad it is for us to have a sedentary lifestyle, and that office based work is a bad thing because we sit at computers for many hours a day. Well, we don’t have to be sitting at a computer to be productive with documents. 

Speech to text software can free us from our chairs. 

When you are talking to your computer, instead of typing at a keyboard, you can turn the tables on a number of aspects of the sedentary working lifestyle that are seen to be bad for our health:

• Sitting down/standing up. People using speech to text software dictate using a microphone. For many people this means using a wireless headset. You can stand up, walk around, even go quite far from your desk and still be within wireless range. You can do little exercises – some stretching for example, while talking. 
• Eye health. Staring at a screen for long periods is less good for us than looking around, making our eyes do some work focusing on different distances and our brains do some work understanding more of the world around us. You don’t need to look at your screen while you are dictating text. 
• Hand and wrist health. Typing at a keyboard and using a mouse can aggravate repetitive strain injuries, arthritis, carpel tunnel syndrome and other conditions. When you are dictating, your hands are free from a keyboard and mouse. 

While these factors relate most directly to physical health while working with documents, there are additional benefits. 

Speech to text is faster than typing – up to three times faster. You now have time to take a lunch hour away from the desk instead of sneaking lunch while finishing off a report. You can finish work early and go play some sports, go out with friends, go to the cinema, or do other activities that are good for your mental health, life-work balance and physical health. 

So, working with documents can help us look after our health, after all.