FUD, Wellbeing, and Nutrition

Welcome to Edition 29 of Skills for the Future of Work! We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we do producing it.

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Same format as ever - a tip you can use to help you be more productive in this ever changing work environment, a key insight we've discovered through our work, and our favourite new thing.

Let's dive right in!

The Tip - Managing FUD

Video Length: 2 mins 2 seconds

You might have heard of FUD - fear, uncertainty and doubt, but if you haven't, you just discovered a new TLA (three-letter acronym)!

All of us suffer from FUD now and then - it's a core part of what makes us humans - but it can also be a real challenge. This week, animated Paul looks at what to do when FUD strikes to help mitigate its impact.

The Insight - Keeping well in 2023

If you hang out on the Internet at all, you might have come across a list of causes of death in London from 1632. If you have, it probably surprised you to learn that 38 people died from "King's Evil", and 13 died of "Planet".

These lists are not made up. They were actually kept as part of the London Bills of Mortality and were published weekly from 1603. Looking over them is not just a reminder of how far medicine has come over the last 400 plus years, but also how the basic act of keeping well has changed.

Even in 1900, the things that most often killed us off were very different than today. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, back then, the number one killer was influenza/pneumonia, followed by tuberculosis. Diarrhea was a huge killer back then as well.

As we sit here in 2023, the list is very different, and continues to evolve. The fact that it does means that when we think about keeping well, we have to consider not just what has historically mattered, but what matters today, and what will matter more tomorrow. Our environment massively affects our health, and the environment in which we live is wildly different from even 20 years ago.

Just how has our environment changed? Well, here are a few things to consider.

• Most of us sit far more than we used to, something that work from home has only increased
• Most of us spend far more time in front of screens than we used to. We aren't just watching tv any more. In fact, many times the thing that distracts us from our work screen is another screen.
• Most of us engage far less in meaningful face-to-face interactions with other people - we have fewer deep interactions and more shallow interactions.
• Most of us compare ourselves with others far more frequently. We've gone from comparing ourselves to our neighbours when we see them buy a new car, to comparing ourselves hourly to friend updates on social media.
• Most of us are exposed to negativity far more frequently. This in part comes from doomscrolling through comments on social media, but also written communication at work tends to be more negative than verbal communication.

Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. In this same time there have been major medical advances, and the opportunity for us to gain access to information faster than ever before. But here we are focusing on the threats to wellbeing, because many of them are different and new. And they are changing morbidity and mortality already with significant increases in disorders that can be linked directly to sedentary lifestyles and changes in how we engage with others.

If you want to stay well in 2023, what should you be focusing on? A great way to start is to look over the 8 dimensions of wellbeing, and come up with a plan to address each of the dimensions for you. But if you are not ready for that yet, then focus on how you will adjust your wellbeing routine to counter the threats listed above. A simple plan that will help most people involves standing and moving more, disconnecting regularly from technology, and focusing on meaningful social connections with friends. On the surface, these seem like small changes, but the data is increasingly showing that they will have an outsized impact on your overall health over time.

Our Favourite New Thing

Of course, another major factor in keeping well is paying attention to nutrition. We've spent some time looking into whether work arrangements affect what you consume each day, and it's a complicated picture - for some people who are working from home more, it has a positive effect, as they are less tempted by office snacks. But we've also seen quite the reverse - tempting food and drink choices are typically much closer when you work from home - often just a few steps away.

There is also another factor. For many people, eating and drinking habits changed for the worse during lockdown, and many people haven't fully returned to their previously more healthy ways. It's probably time to start fixing that.

We'd never recommend a diet book - there is far too much evidence that diets generally don't work and are often counterproductive. But it IS worth educating yourself on some simple strategies you can use to help you eat a little better each day. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has produced exactly that - it's called 10 simple tips to help you get (and stay) healthy in 2023 - you can reach for it the next time you are just a second away from making a poor food choice.

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