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Every 30 minutes try to get out of breath with some exercise

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Just getting up and moving every 30 minutes can undo a lot of damage, but aim to get out of breath. If you’re working from home, this is easy – you can do squats, push-ups, burpees or sprints on the spot, or use kettlebells or some other piece of equipment for a short burst of vigorous activity. If you’re in an office environment and feel a little self-conscious about exercising in front of others, you could walk quickly or run up two or three flights of stairs. Even 30 to 60 seconds of these more vigorous activities activates protective genes and increases blood flow and oxygen to your brain, while burning up stress hormones to bring our bodies and brains back to a natural equilibrium (called ‘homeostasis’).

This is all about working smarter and not harder, and making sure that we have mini-breaks throughout the day to regenerate our bodies and especially our brains. When we work constantly throughout the day, levels of the stress hormone cortisol tend to rise, and that can make us feel tired and irritable and have a negative impact on our cognitive function.

The clever way to work is in short bouts of focused work interspersed with short, high-quality breaks. Professor Cal Newport has written a lot in this area, including a great book called Deep Work. He suggests a number of different strategies, and my favourite is the rhythmic approach, where you chunk your work into certain time blocks and get rid of distractions, such as phone and email, to do short periods of deep work. I’m a particular fan of the pomodoro technique, where you do 25 minutes of focused work and then take a five-minute break