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Water. You know that liquid we all need to live. If you’re anything like me you too are probably guilty of not drinking enough h2o and can probably go a few hours between sips.
So how do you drink more water? Especially when working from home or a home office? I;ve come up with a list of 30 below. So which of these is the most important? And exactly how much water do you need to drink per day? Keep reading to find out more.
It’s worth mentioning although this post is focused towards people who work from home/work remotely, they can still apply to everyone regardless of if your office is based or not!
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Have water one meter away from you at all times
I’ll be honest. One of the reasons I don’t have water is simply because I’m too lazy to go into the kitchen and port myself a fresh glass of H20. By simply keeping a cup/glass tumbler or even some of the bottles we will talk about later listed can really help, especially if they are only an arms length away.
So what do I suggest for a good water bottle? My suggestion would have to be the Simple Modern Water Bottle which is not only BPA free but is also vacuum sealed meaning you can store hot drinks like tea ( yes i’m british) in there too. What’s even better is that the first gives away 10% of their profits every year to chiartiable courses. You can grab it here.
Do three workouts per week
Exercise is easilly, one of the best things you can do if you want to drink more water. Not only will you be moving around and getting your blood flowing, but you will also make yourself super thirsty.
Hiit in particular or high intensity interval training is great as it usually can be done in short bursts but really gives you the best bang for your buck. You will definitely be reaching for the faucets when this is done, especially if you do this a few times per week.
Educate Yourself
Like we mentioned earlier on there are some severe consequences of not drinking enough water, I think we all know in the back of our heads that we need to but it’s always worth keeping that in the forefront of your mind, As such I recommend reading Water for health, for healing and for life
Stick to the pomodoro technique.
For any frequent readers of the blog you know that I love to bang on about the pomodoro technique, and for good reason it’s awesome. But I want you to use this for drinking water instead of for the productivity hack listed.
Essentially this will get you to drink a glass of water every 25 minutes, for 3 times and then give you a 30 minute break. By doing this you’re almost turning drinking water into a process and it will become as easy and breathing.
Set a calendar reminder every hour
So if the pomodoro technique sounds a little bit too complicated we can always stick to good old google.
Simply go to your calendar block in an event and then copy it over to every hour. You will then get a notification 10 minutes before telling you to sip up and should get you well on your way to your 2 litres.
One of the things about google calendar is you can set up your calendar so the task repeats every day, week or month so you can block out your diary well in advance.
Utilise Facetime and Whatsapp
No not for the sake of it, but to hold yourself accountable. By getting your friends involved and behind you to drink more water you can utilise them to hold you accountable.
For example, getting them to face you every few hours to watch you drink is a surefire way to keep your water levels up – there is nothing like peer pressure!
Remove Sodas and sweet drinks from your house
Unfortunately the sugar content of your favourite soft drink is often crazy. One can of coke has 39 grams of sugar in it – that’s 156 calories.
Sodas and fizzy drinks also easily take you beyond your daily caloric goals and if left unchecked can lead to obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
On top of this these drinks often leave you more dehydrated than when you first started. By kicking them out the house your left with nothing but good ole’ water to drink down
Seriously try drinking nothing but water for one week and you will notice a huge difference. For me the biggest change was just waking up and not feeling tired anymore, huge plus if you ask me!
Eat more soup
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Now I’ve got that out of my system, soups have huge water content because,you know, they are liquid. As such this could be a quick way of upping your water content.
A good place to start is by swapping out a standard lunch once a week to a soup. To really up the health factor you might want to consider things like chicken or bone broth soup which sound disgusting but tastes delicious.
Eat more fruit and vegetables
Fruit and veggies are loaded with water and so are definitely worth adding to your diet if you’re not doing so already. Any fruit or veg will do to be honest but if you want the best bang for your buck I’d suggest the following:
- Watermelon
- Cucumber
- Zucchini
- Honeydew
- Any kind of melon
- Mango
Now if your curious about their water content I’ve included this below too:
| Fruit | Water content |
| Watermelon | 92% |
| Cucumber | 95% |
| Zucchini | 94% |
| Honeydew | 90% |
| Eggplant | 92% |
| Mango | 89% |
Feheds top tip would be to add the veggies in a salad and down the fruits in the smoothies first thing to get your tastebuds rolling.
Speaking of which smoothies can be a surefire way to drink more water without the taste of water which I know throws a lot of people off.
Cut down on your salt
This is just great life advice. Although salt makes you more thirty it also dehydrates you. I mean have you ever had a late night pizza or fries and your lips end up tingling afterwards? That’s the salt doing it’s bidding.
Try to cut down on your salt and you won’t have to drink as much water to keep you hydrated throughout the day.
Eat more spicy food
Unlike salt, spice can actually go a long way. Having spicy food will automatically want you to drink more water by way of not wanting your tongue to feel like molten lava.
The only downside to this is traditionally spicy food like Indian or Mexican isn’t the healthiest so try to find healthy alternatives that will keep you healthy but reaching for the water.
Use a monitoring app
There are loads of great water monitoring apps out there like Daily water or Water minder. For me though I like to use the water tracking feature in myfitnesspal.
Tracking your water per day can be a lot easier than doing it manually, I mean how easy is it to forget to log things when using a pen and paper? Simply whip out your phone whenever you down a glass and you will be flying.
Invest in a high tech water bottle
Who knew that you could do even more with a bottle then just drinking out of it?
So I have a lot more detail on the products I recommend on my resource page but having a smart water bottle that tells you not only how you’re hydrating on a daily basis, but also has an app is incredible.
My recommendation would have to be the Hydracoach 2.0 which you can get here.
The bottle also keeps your water cold for 24-48 hours and is of course SBP free meaning you won’t have to worry about harming the environment.
Reduce your coffee and tea intake
Although there is nothing wrong with coffee or tea ( in moderation) in my opinion the best way to drink more water is by throwing out any other liquids you consume.
I know what you’re thinking, you need the caffeine? Well believe it or not, water does hold it’s own ground.when you wake up and opt for the water instead, you don’t have to worry about any nasty side effects but like withdrawal headaches but you still get the benefits like increased alertness and the reduction in coffee breath
Set yourself a SMART challenge
Smart goals are specifically measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.
By setting yourself small goals and working up you will find the whole process of drinking more a lot easier, and these work a lot better than traditional objectives.
Let’s say you only drink about a litre of water a day, well then going up to 2 litres might be a bit of a struggle for you.
If you were to set yourself a SMART goal Instead of drinking 1.2 litres and then every day increasing it over time, you’re much more likely to hit your daily water goal.
Improve your water taste
No this is not me going back on what I just said about sodas, but there are things to do to make your water taste nice. Let’s face it not everyone likes the taste and it can be a real struggle for some folks.
How then? Well you can opt for putting fruit in your water to start off with or water flavouring drops which don’t add too much bad stuff but can go a long way in improving the taste.
Drink water with every meal
Another simple step, would be just to make sure you have a glass of water next to you when you drink. Nothing better than washing your food down with fresh water and by having dedicated time to eat means you can also build the habit of having dedicated time to drink water too.
When we eat we’re actually just thirsty instead of hungry, so you even might find yourself eating less overall which is awesome for your waist
Invest in a water filter
Water filters like the zero water jug can be quick easy ways to improve the taste of water, ther relatively inexpensive and you can just pop them in the fridge if you really want the fresh taste.
Also, in case you’re thinking about just buying bottled water, filtered water also contains less contaminants than that too, whilst tasting the same.
Invest in a tap filter
Tap filters are slightly more expensive than water filters,but these also have the bonus of getting rid of arsenic, lead and other contaminants directly from your tap.
In our office we have one of these and they go down a treat getting rid of any discussion about which part of the country has the best tasting drinking water.
My recommendation would be to go for Britta’s water filter
Drink one glass of water per hour
Another super easy thing would be to just drink one glass of water per hour. I know we talked about this a little bit earlier with the calendar. if you were to drink one glass of water an hour by the time your workday was done you would have had more than enough water for the day. On top of that studies have shown that drinking a lot of water can keep your breath fresh as the day goes on
Just keep in mind that you might end up peeing … a lot.
Cut out the junk food
Junk food has way too much salt and oil and like we mentioned earlier, foods with more salt end up dehydrating you more.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying cut this out all together you can still have these every once in a while, but if your eating pizza and burgers every day try to get rid of some of these meals and replace them with this with more fibre or even better wear dense food like fruit salads
Drink your water between 6 and 10 in the morning
One hack I learned a few years ago is if you have anything difficult to do,do it first thing in the morning.. I think the theory behind it was you only have a certain amount of willpower in the day so you want to use it for your most important tasks first.
If you aim to drink as much water as you can between 6-10 it means you only have a little bit left for the remainder of the day giving you one less thing to worry about.
Consider a water cooler
Okay so I know this blog is focused on people who typically work from home or have their home office, but if you can’t go to the water why not bring the water to you. A simple water cooler can be put in the corner of your room, just a few steps away when you need to keep your mind free to focus on things.
My personal favorite water which is simple enough to use and doesn’t break the bank has to be the Avalon which you can find here.
Sip a glass every time you go to the toilet
I’m sure some of you might have read this as sip the toilet ….eww.
You’re going to be getting up every few hours to pop to the loo soone way to increase the amount of water you’re drinking in your home office is just to grab a glass on your way to or from the washroom.
Sounds simple but if you do it on every journey, your water levels will soon add up!
Use Ice to your advantage
As we all know the freezing point for water is 0 degrees Celsius. As such you can actually fit more water in then you might have anticipated into your glass by adding a few ice cubes.
What’s even better about ice is you can do this right now with the amount you’re already drinking and you might find yourself feeling more hydrated simply by drinking more.
Have a gallon jug nearby
So the average person needs to drink about half a gallon of water per day or about 2 litres. As such, why make life difficult for yourself and keep taking your 300 ml glass to the kitchen every time you need to refill?
Instead invest in a big gallon jug that you can fill up halfway and keep next to you. For my recommendations it would have to be the Buildlife which comes in a variety of colours and has motivational messages written on the side. You can grab it here.
Consider sparkling water
If still tap water just doesn’t cut it for you and you really are just quenching the taste of something fizzy have a look at sparkling water.
It definitely tastes different to normal water and can give you a quick fit. Also if you’re doing something like intermittent fasting that can actually help save off the hunger pangs for a little bit longer then just trying to wing it by yourself.
Cut out alcohol
So I’m well aware it’s very easy for someone like myself who doesn’t drink to tell you to quit the alcohol all together but the reality is often it leads you much worse off than you need to be.
Alcohol has been known to dehydrate so you really aren’t doing yourself any favours.
Consider having a little less on the weekends and you will see a huge difference.
Use a marked water bottle
Similarly to keeping a gallon water bottle next to you a market water bottle can help you keep track of exactly how much water you’ve drank throughout the day.
One advantage is some of these come with motivational messages that can actually be quite funny and give you the boost you need especially when building new habits. Again the buildife comes out on top here which you can pick up from here.
Keep a water bottle in you car
So even though you might be working from your home office you will have to pop out eventually and go shopping, school plays or even to just avoid your family for a bit.
As such a great option would be to leave a bottle in your car so you can sip when you go for a ride.
One thing I would say however, please change this bottle out – there’s nothing worse that a bottle that’s been in your car for 6 months, I mean I’m surprised if you can even call that water at this point!
Invest in straws
Straws aren’t just used for milkshakes
Drinking through a straw actually allows you to drink more water in a faster time scale. On top of that, using a metal straw or paper straw can really make a huge difference.
If you were to add up all the time saved drinking through a straw vs drinking normally you might find yourself having significantly more water.
Reward yourself for hitting your goals
At the end of the day, the fact that you’re taking action and trying to make a better lifestyle choice is great and you should celebrate the small wins.
Let’s say if you drank one more cup then you did the day before – reflect on it, you did that and if you do struggle in the future you have some ground to stand on.
Exactly how much water should you drink every day?
The human body needs to drink 2 liters or half a gallon of water per day to function. This can increase to as much as 3 litres or 0.6 gallons per day when exercising or during hot days.
This does not include the fluid from food which would take this up much more
Why is it important to drink water in an office environment?
Not drinking enough water is a massive problem globally. Almost 75% of american don’t drink enough and in Japan almost 10000 people year on year pass out from exhaustion, partly because of this.
So why is not drinking enough water super important? Well 75% of the human body is made of water. We need it literally for everything. Ensuring you stay awake, lubricate your body, reduce inflammation as well as a host of other benefits.
A few studies have shown that even something as small as a 1% loss in water can lead to poor concentration and mood swings but also poor brain function, and cognitive ability.
One of the reasons in particular drinking water is so important in the workplace is the link between low water consumption and low productivity – something people who work from a home office already have a negative stereotype about. I mean lack of productivity caused by dehydration is so bad that some have linked this to a $2.5 billion cost annually.
So not drinking enough water is not only causing you to be less healthy and productive, it’s also costing your organisation/your employer a lot of money… Yikes.
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.