If working a 9-to-5 job in an office cubicle is slowly driving you crazy, remember that you've got options.

There are lots of ways to supplement your income from a "regular" job with a side gig that lets — nay, requires! — you to roam free in nature. Computer eye strain be gone! Here are 12 side jobs for lovers of the great outdoors.

SEE ALSO: Why you shouldn't quit your job to become a full-time entrepreneur

1. Waterkeeper

Imagine a job where you get paid to paddle a beautiful natural waterway. Waterkeepers, or riverkeepers, do precisely that, scouting for polluters and testing for water quality along the way. They are the protectors of our rivers and lakes, working to keep these natural resources pristine.

Ask riverkeeper Hartwell Carson his favorite part of patrolling North Carolina's French Broad River Trail, and he'll tell you this: "Getting in my canoe around sunset and paddling upstream, trying to be all stealth."

2. Wilderness instructor

In some schools, nature is a subject of study no less important than reading or math.

Taught by experts in food foraging and shelter building, these classes school children on the interconnectivity between humans and nature, something often overlooked in this age of smartphones and tablets. In addition to schools, church groups, Girl Scout troops, and neighborhood associations sometimes employ wilderness instructors for workshops.

3. Trail blazer

At $10 an hour, you can build a hiking trail deep into the Tennessee wilderness, erecting signage and mending weather-worn safety features as you go. No loafers. No desk. Just a backpack full of tools and a wide-brimmed hat.

At the Beijing Auto Show Monday, Volvo showed off its new blissfully luxurious interior concept from the not-yet-existing S90 Excellence sedan.

After looking at these pictures, I can almost feel the comfort from my desk.

In case you forgot, this is what the normal S90 sedan looks like on the outside. Sternly Swedish.

But the concept that Volvo provided is being used just to show off the interior.

For this concept, Volvo aimed to make an interior that was comfortable, relaxing, and that also had a better sense of openness.

Financial technology, better known as "fintech," is exploding in the UK right now, with startups popping up all over the place, doing everything from crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending to bringing blockchain technology to the banks.

British fintech startups raised $962 million (£676.9 million) in investment funding last year, according to KPMG. London alone accounting for $743.7 million (£523.3 million) of that.

Business Insider has been covering the sector closely and has rounded up the 40 most exciting people in the scene right now.

We looked at who's done cool and interesting things in the past year, including companies that have raised money or grown rapidly. We've also tried to include some of the less obvious names — the people doing great things behind the scenes — as well the faces out front.

The list spans entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, regulators, hackers, and investors. Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments. Now check out who made the cut below.

Additional reporting by James Cook and Rob Price.

40. Kevin Beardsley — Elliptic, Head of Business Development

What company does: Bitcoin and blockchain analysis tools for financial services and law enforcement.

Headcount: 9.

Funding: $7 million (£4.8 million).

Why they’re cool: Elliptic started out trying to get financial services interested in bitcoin by offering analysis and custodian services but has since morphed into offering tools to law enforcement to help them catch criminals that are using bitcoin — but it still has finance customers.

Beardsley is helping to drive the startup's expansion and the company recently bagged $5 million (£3.4 million) from investors including Santander InnoVentures to drive growth. In a past life, Beardsley co-founded Beija, a super-premium brand of Brazilian spirit cachaça.

39. Mulenga Agley — Monese, VP of Growth

What company does: Mobile-only bank account designed for migrants.

Headcount: 22.

Funding: $5 million (£3.4 million).

Why they’re cool: Former ad man Agley left clients like BMW, Coca Cola, and Natwest to join mobile banking startup Monese after being wowed by founder and CEO Norris Koppel's vision.

As VP of Growth, Mulenga is charged with getting people interested in the app, which lets migrants easily open bank accounts in the country they're going to via their mobile. He's having great success, with a waiting list of 50,000 and 35,000 downloads of Monese so far.

38. Alick Varma — Osper, CEO and founder

 What company does: Pre-paid money card for kids.

Headcount: 22.

Funding: $11.2 million (£7.7 million.)

Why they’re cool: Varma was given responsibility for managing hundreds of pounds at a young age by his accountant parents, charged with buying his own school clothes and drawing up budgets. That experience inspired him to set up Osper, a per-paid money card for kids that lets parents monitor their children's spending and set up regular pocket money payments, among other features.

Varma trained as a maths teacher but worked at with Kenyan mobile money company M-Pesa and Spotify before setting up Osper.

Apple reported pretty terrible second-quarter earnings Tuesday night, with revenue down 13% to $50.6 billion and earnings per share down 22% to $1.90, below expectations.

On Wednesday morning, analysts on Wall Street say ... they loved it!

The main theme from notes to investors on Wednesday is that the bad news about the iPhone — declining units sold this quarter and maybe throughout the rest of the fiscal year — is now priced in and quantified. So they are looking further ahead to the launch of iPhone 7 in autumn, which they believe will kick-start sales growth again.

Many analysts thus have a buy rating on AAPL right now, even though the stock flopped by 7% overnight and sits at about $104.35 a share before the opening of the New York markets.

Here's a look at who is saying what.

Morgan Stanley: BULLISH. Apple could do more M&A at a higher price than the $3 billion it paid for Beats.

Katy Huberty and her team:

We expect the company to launch more subscription services, potentially through acquisitions, which Apple sounds more open to. We think the company has both the appetite and financial flexibility to spend more than the current record of $3B for Beats. We note that we have no knowledge of any potential deals.

Raymond James: BULLISH (but with a note of caution). "If the company continues to see declining trends even with the iPhone 7 introduction, we believe the market could rate AAPL shares as though it is a declining tech company."

Tavis C. McCourt and Mike Koban:

This is what it sounds like when bulls cry.

Deutsche Bank: HOLD. "iPhone unit declines now seem inevitable in FY-16."

Sherri Scribner and team:

Our concerns about slowing smartphone market growth and elongating refresh cycles were reinforced by iPhone units, which declined 16% Y/Y in the Q.

Emaar, the Dubai developer of the world’s tallest skyscraper, is trying to get the people in London to buy properties in the United Arab Emirates' city.

It is doing that is by transforming the second floor of the world famous department store Harrods in London into a "mini Dubai" to showcase what they can snap up for a surprisingly low price.

You'd be forgiven to think that the massive marketing suite is aimed at the richest people in London, considering it's located in Harrods, but Emaar is showcasing properties for as little as £184,135, a cost that equates to £260 per square foot.

It could reel in a lot of fed up Londoners that pay on average £524,000 for a home, according to the Office for National Statistics, or an average of £2,000 per square foot for Prime Central London properties, says Emaar.

Business Insider took a a quick look at what Emaar has to offer:

The second floor of Harrods was transformed into a 'mini Dubai' to try and showcase what the UAE city has to offer in terms of alternative properties to London.

Emaar is a global property developer and built the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. It has delivered 40,000 residential units in Dubai and other global markets.

It is giving the public until August this year to see intricate scale-models and visuals of Dubai City to see if they want to snap up a property for as little as £184,135.

A top official at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says the effects of Britain leaving the EU would be akin to a "tax" on British citizens.

In a speech at the London School of Economics on Wednesday, Secretary General Angel Gurria said: "Brexit would, rather like a tax, hit the wellbeing and the pockets of UK citizens.

"Unlike most taxes, however, this one will not finance the provision of public services or close the fiscal gap. The “Brexit tax” would be a pure deadweight loss, a cost incurred with no economic benefit. And this tax would not be a one-off levy. Britons would be paying it for many years."

The OECD is the latest in a growing line of major international institutions and figures putting their weight behind Britain remaining in the EU.

Earlier this month, the IMF said that Brexit could cause "severe regional and global damage" while last week, President Obama argued that the "UK is at its best when it's helping to lead a strong European Union. It leverages UK power to be part of the EU. I don't think the EU moderates British influence in the world, it magnifies it."

Secretary General Gurria spoke alongside the launch of a new OECD report, titled "The Economic Consequences of Brexit: A Taxing Decision"— which looks into the effects that could come if Britain were to choose to vote to leave the EU.

The report is a 35-page monster, filled with economic analysis and a whole heap of charts focusing on everything from trade impacts of Brexit, to how it would affect corporate bonds, and how GDP growth might react.

Here are some of the most important charts from the OECD's report — showing, it says, the benefits of Britain being in the EU, and the risks of Brexit — as well as analysis from the OECD.

Financial markets are already taking a hit in the run up to the referendum.

"The risk of Brexit is increasingly reflected in financial asset prices. The cost of insuring UK public debt against sovereign default has been rising since 14 October, when the President of the European Commission first warned about only limited progress in negotiations with the UK. CDS spreads remain low relative to the financial crisis period, but their increase since mid-October is significant and higher than for peers." 

Uncertainty about Brexit means that UK growth is slowing.

"Uncertainty about the referendum has begun to hold back UK growth, and concerns are rising in European economies.

"Businesses have started to defer investment projects, with UK business investment declining by 2% in the last quarter of 2015. Some recent surveys of chief financial officers of the UK’s largest companies indicate rising risk aversion, soaring uncertainty over business conditions, falling hiring decisions, and reduced capital spending intentions, with the UK’s upcoming EU referendum considered to be the top risk to business prospects. Economic policy uncertainty has been growing over the recent months, more in the UK than in the EU, which has occurred in parallel to an easing in monthly estimates of UK GDP growth by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research."

It should be noted that earlier today, numerous economists argued that Brexit is not the only reason for slowing UK growth.

A Brexit would create more uncertainty — as we've already seen, that's not great for markets.

"The aftermath of a vote for leaving the EU would result in considerable additional volatility in financial markets and an extended period of uncertainty about future policy developments.

"Moreover, negotiations over UK withdrawal from the EU would need to take place over 2016-18, followed by trade negotiations with the EU in 2019-2023, which is likely to contribute to enhanced uncertainty for an extended period.

"Past experience indicates that greater uncertainty, whether reflected in the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for the UK or greater stock market volatility, would be associated with higher corporate bond spreads."

Daniel Markham should get a father of the year award.

Every week, he and his son, Lincoln, make a YouTube video for their channel, "What's Inside?" The concept: Smash stuff to see what it's made of.

It all started with Lincoln's second-grade science project, where he and his dad cut sports balls in half to see what was inside them. The videos got so much attention, they told the Deseret News, that they decided to make it a weekly endeavor.

That was back in January 2014, and Lincoln is now 10 years old. The duo is still cranking out videos, though, and now have more than 2.3 million loyal subscribers.

Here are 12 of the coolest things they've found out what's inside.

Sometimes, the smashing part is the most fun to see. Like with this projection TV they vigorously dismantled via baseball bat.

Other times, the exciting part is finding out what's actually inside stuff you've never cracked open, like a Magic 8 ball. It doesn't look so magical in pieces.

The two use any tools necessary to open objects up, from baseball bats to saws. They used a turkey baster to remove some of the insides of this lava lamp.

Many of Hollywood's most familiar faces kicked off their careers by starring in TV commercials as kids.

These celebs sold anything from BBQ sauce, to Porsche sports cars, and video games.

Scroll below to see 13 of the most surprising celebrities who began their careers playing roles in commercials they would probably never agree to now.

SEE ALSO: 16 famous people who surprisingly started their careers in advertising

One of Leonardo DiCaprio's first jobs was in this Bubble Yum commercial.

Watch the full ad here.

A hyper-active 13-year-old Mila Kunis starred in a Lisa Frank commercial in 1996.

Watch the full ad here.

In 1992, Elijah Wood starred in this baffling commercial for Cheese.

Watch the full ad here.

A family travels for 21 days on a boat that eventually lands on Ellis Island. They gaze at the Statue of Liberty before they are shuffled into lines. Before they start their new lives, a staff of American doctors must check them for any contagious diseases at the island's hospital.

For many immigrants, this was their first impression of the US during the first waves of immigration in the 20th century.

Roughly 1.25 million people (usually of lower economic status) — 10% of Ellis Island arrivals — passed through the hospital from 1901 to 1924. The rest were quickly diagnosed as healthy enough to enter the US and start their lives in New York City.

Beginning in 1924, it served as a psychiatric hospital for soldiers. It was later turned into an internment camp for an estimated 8,000 German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during WWII. The building was abandoned for decades after that, but started undergoing a $6 million restoration in 1990 thanks to nonprofit donations. It finally opened to the public in 2014.

I recently toured some of the wards with the New York Adventure Club, an organization that hosts tours of hidden places around the state. Ellis Island's Immigration Museum also conducts tours, but the club gave me a rare look inside the contagious disease wing.

Here's what it was like.

To reach Ellis Island, we took a ferry from the southernmost tip of New York City. The hospital is a massive complex consisting of 11 pavilions. Even in daylight, it looked ominous.

When we arrived, we met our tour guide, John McInnes, and put on hard hats. The Ellis Island hospital opened in 1901 and welcomed immigrants from all over. "This is your last chance to turn back," he said.

The hospital is a maze of hallways and wards where patients were organized by disease, including measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, mumps, and whooping cough. There were approximately 450 beds throughout the hospital, with 14 in each room.

Many analysts are now more bearish on Twitter after the company's disappointing first-quarter results on Tuesday. 

To recap, the social network reported stronger-than-expected adjusted earnings of $0.15 per share. But revenue missed estimates, even as they grew 36% year-on-year to $595 million.

Twitter's guidance for second-quarter revenue was also light, at a range of $590 million to $610 million versus $677.6 million expected.

Unlike previous earnings results, Twitter beat on monthly-active user growth, up 310,000 versus 305,000 in Q4 2015.

Twitter said its revenue was at the low end of its forecast because brand marketers that advertise on the social network didn't ramp up spending as quickly as it expected.

And now, a number of analysts are concerned that competitors like Facebook and Snapchat will eat Twitter's lunch. 

Before the market open, the company's shares were down 14% to about $15.18. 

Here's a roundup of some of the analyst commentary (all emphasis is ours):

Morgan Stanley: NEUTRAL

Rating: Underweight

Price Target: $14.50

Comment: "We see this steep deceleration [in core on-platform ad revenue] continuing to pressure the multiple investors are willing to pay for TWTR as we now see TWTR's core on-platform ad revenue growing at a slower rate than GOOGL's Website business and Facebook's ad business in 2016, despite TWTR being 1/30th and 1/12th the size, respectively. Note too that for now we are assuming TWTR's ad business re-accelerates in the back half (due to the NFL, presidential election and the Rio Olympics)... which, if advertiser demand doesn't improve, still could be aggressive."

Deutsche Bank: BULLISH

Rating: Buy

Price Target: $23 (cut from $25)

Comment: "The commentary around the macro advertising market validates our thesis that 1Q trends are slowing, and that pockets of weakness are emerging, even if TWTR is seeing worse trends than others (GOOGL/FB). We are trimming our revenue and EBITDA estimates for 2017 by around 10%. At $15, or $11B in market cap, we think there is strategic asset value at TWTR. The only catalyst to get TWTR shares turned back up is stabilizing revenue growth, which we see showing up in 2H16.

Pacific Crest: NEUTRAL

Rating: Sector Weight

Price Target: NA

Comment: "Macro commentary is worrisome for the space. Twitter's comment about a relatively healthy overall ad environment, but a slowdown in tech ad spending, is somewhat worrisome on the back of similar comments from Yahoo!. This very well may be the weak performers in the space pointing fingers, but we were watching for the potential impact on the end of VC welfare on ad spending.

Luxury real estate photographer Evan Joseph fell in love with New York City in 1992, when he moved there after graduating from Vassar College and made his first venture down into an underground record store on 8th Street. 

Now, more than 20 years later, Joseph is flying high above the city in a helicopter, capturing sweeping aerial images of the beloved skyline.

His newest book, "New York From Above", is an ode to One World Trade Center. Completed in July 2013, the newly finished structure was for Joseph — and many New Yorkers — a form of healing after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

"When One World Trade was finally completed, I felt that the city had been restored in some meaningful way, and I wanted to capture all-new cityscapes that featured this 'new' New York," Joseph told Business Insider.

Ahead, 13 photos from the book that celebrates Joseph's cherished city. 

SEE ALSO: What New York City's most famous buildings would look like in the middle of nowhere

Joseph has been flying above New York and capturing its fantastic views for over 10 years.

When the weather permits, he'll fly multiple days in a row.

His favorite time of day to shoot is at sunrise. "It's just sublime ... so still and full of anticipation," he said.

Disney just updated its movie schedule through 2019. After the success of "The Jungle Book," expect many more live-action adaptations of your favorite childhood fairytales.

With Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar, Disney is the movie studio to beat right now. It's on track to have its biggest year ever at the box office.

The studio's lineup of movies includes a mix of animated films, superheroes, reboots, sequels, and multiple trips to a galaxy far, far away.

Here is everything you can expect to see from Disney from now through 2019.

Picking up where "Age of Ultron" left off, "Captain America: Civil War" follows the new team of Avengers led by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).

A major incident results in a huge rift between Rogers and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) when the government wants superheroes to begin working with them.

We'll be introduced to a few new characters including the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

When it comes time to plan their luxe vacations, many celebrities are turning to Airbnb, perhaps for the extra privacy they'd get over a hotel. 

Here are some of the ritzy homes celebrities have recently chosen for their vacations.

SEE ALSO: 10 of the most luxurious vacation homes you can rent in the US this summer

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Honolulu, Hawaii — $4,000/night

Rented by Emma Stone

Not only does this luxury villa seem like the epitome of indoor-outdoor living, but it's also a SMART home that’s controlled by iPads mounted in its walls.

See the listing »

See the listing »

Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica — $4,100/night

Rented by Shay Mitchell

Sitting on the beach where the iconic "Underneath The Mango Tree" scene was shot in the James Bond film, this is one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated estates.

See the listing »

It's not easy to amass a cult following.

But some brands have managed to cultivate tremendous loyalty from their customers.

Bizarrely enough, others looking to emulate this sort of success look to actual cults for inspiration, cult expert Rick A. Ross told Business Insider.

Cults depend on strong ideologies, differentiating worldviews, and iconic leaders to hook their followers.

These brands have managed to figure all that out. There's one brand on this list, though, that recently lost its formerly loyal following a major crisis.

Danielle Schlanger and Kim Bhasin contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: SoulCycle and Harley Davidson will always have this in common

SoulCycle

The brand got a shout-out on a Harvard Divinity School document called "How We Gather," crediting the brand for creating a strong community. 

SoulCycle acolytes wait until the clock strikes 12 on Mondays to sign up for classes. There's even an entire culture built around "earning" your way to the front row of the class.

"People talk about SoulCycle as a cult. My feeling is that SoulCycle makes you feel great," the fitness chain's founder, Julie Rice, told Los Angeles Magazine in an interview in 2014. "When we feel great, we become obsessed with what makes us feel great."

CrossFit

Founder Greg Glassman explained to Business Insider that the brand amassed the following and community incidentally. The fitness company was featured in Harvard Divinity School's "How We Gather" list, which pointed out notable groups that fostered strong communities. Glassman even spoke at the Harvard Divinity School last November.

CrossFit's social aspect is very strong and is certainly crucial to its success. "The social level is a vital part of what's happened, and it is why you might think this is a cult — you might think it's a religion," CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman said in an interview. "The values are simple though, and we believe they are salient lifestyle choices that will make a profound difference in your life."

Apple

You don't have to look much further than the hoopla surrounding every Apple product's release to recognize that Apple has a very loyal following.

One way to amass a loyal following is to create a demon which the community can unite against.

"If you paint a picture of a threat from the outside — you demonize a local god or you demonize a competitor like IBM — you create solidarity amongst your community because you have to unify to fight against an external threat," Douglas Atkin, author of "The Culting of Brands", explained to Business Insider. 

"I wish I would have saved more."

"I wish I started investing sooner."

"I wish I didn't take out so many student loans."

Do any of these sound familiar? If you're like me, you may have more than a few financial regrets from your past. But everyone makes financial mistakes at some point. We asked some top money experts to share their biggest financial regret, and here's what they had to say.

SEE ALSO: 5 things I gave up to pay off $68,000 in debt

Regret #1: Not doing research to make an educated decision

When it comes to you and your money, there's no greater advocate than yourself. However, money matters can seem complicated, so you may decide to get help from others, expecting that they have your best interest at heart. Unfortunately, this may not be the case.

Philip Taylor, certified public accountant and founder of PT Money, experienced this firsthand when he and his wife decided to purchase their first home together.

"We used a realtor for the negotiation. We ended up paying too much compared to other offers in the neighborhood, and it was at the peak of the housing bubble, which compounded things," he says.

What Taylor has learned since then is that you have to be your own financial expert and do your own research to make an educated decision when it comes to big purchases.

"One big regret I have is assuming anyone other than me can act in my best interest financially," Taylor says.

Regret #2: Not listening to your gut when things don't feel right

Investing is one of the most important ways you can build wealth and grow your nest egg. When you want advice, you may turn to an investment adviser to get on the right track.

But not all advisers are created equal.

"One money mistake I made was not listening to my gut when my husband and I were meeting with our first investment adviser," says Amanda Clayman, a financial social worker and financial therapist in New York City.

Clayman ignored her gut, while the adviser made bold promises of growing their accounts into millions of dollars.

"This was a person who did not have a fiduciary responsibility to us, and would use our meetings as a forum to parade salespeople for in-house funds, trying to convince us to invest in them," she says.

After feeling disempowered and researching other advisers, she eventually stopped working with this adviser and moved her money elsewhere.

"Now I make sure I understand the exact nature of our client agreement, the investment strategy, any fees we're paying and what we're invested in," she explains.

Regret #3: Not investing sooner

When you're young, it's easy to feel like you have all the time in the world to start saving and investing. Then before you know it, you're 30 -- then 40 and beyond. Life happens, and it moves quickly.

"My biggest financial regret is not investing earlier," says Jeff Rose, Certified Financial Planner™ at Alliance Wealth Management LLC and blogger behind GoodFinancialCents.com.

When he was young, a friend told Rose about the benefits of opening a Roth IRA, but he thought he could just save later. At the time, Jeff was in college and working 20 to 30 hours per week, but he still didn't invest.

"I'm thankful that I discovered a career in the financial services industry -- it inspired me to start a Roth IRA when I was 24 years old. But I still kick myself thinking about how much more I would have saved if I'd started six years prior," he says.

Not investing sooner is a common financial regret and one that Ebong Eka, coach and certified public accountant behind EKAnomics, shares with Rose.

When you're young, it's easy to feel like you can't afford investing, but Eka says everything adds up. "Every little bit counts, and I could have easily afforded $20 per month in an IRA or retirement account," he says.

Eka recommends you start thinking of the end -- in this case, retirement -- and work backward to make it happen.

When I met Dana Brownlee, the founder of corporate training company Professionalism Matters, we got to talking about time wasting habits.

It turns out that certain types of people are actually prone to ineffective time management.

Being the productivity nut that I am, I naturally probed a bit deeper on this one and asked Brownlee to describe her four personality types, and how to stop struggling if you have one of them.

SEE ALSO: Too many of us make the same mistake with our to-do lists — and it ruins our productivity

1. The fire extinguisher

This person has no real plan for their career or even the day ahead. All she can do is focus on the latest fire or the most recent request in front of them, with no organized system to manage all of her tasks. Brownlee says this time bomb approach explodes when something really important falls through the cracks.

2. The checklist checker

This personality is more focused on checking off items on his “to do list” than the real accomplishment of important items. Focusing too much on small tasks rather than the critical (and yes, daunting) ones is a dangerous approach because it gives the false illusion of achievement.

3. The manic multi-tasker

This personality is convinced that one has to do 2-3 things at a time to be efficient. This person often can’t distinguish what can be multitasked versus what can’t. This can set her up for negative consequences (e.g. quality lapses, errors) that result from lack of attention and concentration.

The stress, long hours, and sedentary nature of your modern office job are sucking the life out of you — literally.

And it's not just the tight deadlines, stress-eaten doughnuts, and sneezing coworkers that are doing you in. Even your keyboard can be out to get you. 

From the printer to your supervisor, the dangers presented in a typical office can have real effects on your physical well-being and mental health. Need a reason to overhaul your habits? Look no further.

Rachel Sugar, Vivian Giang, and Kim Bhasin contributed to earlier versions of this article. 

SEE ALSO:  The 17 highest-paying jobs for people who don't mind sitting at a desk all day

Sitting all day could shave years off your life

Sitting for lengthy periods is terrible for your body. Aches and pains are the least of your problems — sitting too much can lead to an early death. You face a higher risk of muscular skeletal disorders, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more, even if you work out regularly.

Around 86% of American workers sit all day at work. If you're one of them, Alan Hedge, a design and ergonomics professor at Cornell, recommends you change to positions every eight minutes, and take a two-minute "moving break" at least twice an hour. 

Regularly slouching in your chair can lead to long-term illnesses

If your job requires you to sit most of the day, it's best if you get a sitting device that allows you to straighten your poor posture. If not, you're "contributing to a pool of chronic, long-term ailments — including arthritis and bursitis."

Using a treadmill desk increases your chances of physically hurting yourself

Although a treadmill desk may help with the risk of obesity and heart disease, workers at these desks are also prone to increased typos and the desks might cause you to fall more often than merely sitting in a chair.

They say the early bird catches the worm, and research suggests there might be some truth to the old adage.

Waking up with (or before) the sun allows executives like Apple CEO Tim Cook and "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary to get a head start on the day, knocking out tasks before the rest of the world has rolled out of bed.

Those "extra" hours with less distractions and fresh energy also give them a chance to do some creative thinking, fit in a workout, and spend time with family. And it should be noted that waking up early doesn't necessarily mean losing sleep. 

Here are 21 early risers who may convince you never to hit snooze again.

Max Nisen, Aaron Taube, and Rachel Sugar contributed to earlier versions of this article.

SEE ALSO: From napping at work to clearing your mind before bed, Arianna Huffington just answered all our questions about sleep

Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up 3:45 a.m. and gets a head start on email.

The tech titan is known for getting up early.

According to a Time profile, "He wakes up at 3:45 every morning ('Yes, every morning'), does email for an hour, stealing a march on those lazy East Coasters three time zones ahead of him, then goes to the gym, then Starbucks (for more e-mail), then work. 'The thing about it is, when you love what you do, you don't really think of it as work. It's what you do. And that's the good fortune of where I find myself.'"

FLOTUS Michelle Obama is working out by 4:30 a.m.

While the president is known for getting very little sleep, he's got nothing on the first lady, who tells Oprah she starts her days with a 4:30 a.m. workout before her kids wake up. 

"If I don't exercise, I won't feel good. I'll get depressed," she says, noting that it's easier to pull that off at the White House, where she has "much more support" than the average person.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong starts his day at 5:00 a.m. but tries not to send too many early-morning e-mails.

The former Google executive tells The Guardian that he's "not a big sleeper" and wakes up at 5 a.m. or 5:15 a.m. every day to work out, read, tinker with the site, and hang out with his middle daughter, who is also an early riser.

Armstrong says he tries to hold off on sending emails until around 7:00 a.m.

US Air Force Staff Sgt. Kenny Holston was named the 2015 Visual Information Awards Program (VIAP) military photographer of the year for his striking photos of military and civilian life. 

Holston's work was selected from among hundreds submitted by military photographers.

The Pentagon's annual competition is decided by a panel of judges at the Defense Information School in Fort Meade, Maryland.

We have included Holston's award winning photos below, alongside the photos of the VIAP runner up, Senior airman Jordan A Castelan, and honorable mention, Air Force Staff Sgt. Marianique Santos.

SEE ALSO: Here are the winners of the 2014 US Military Photographer Awards

Military Photographer of the Year Photo: "Dueling Demonstrations," by Staff Sgt. Kenny Holston, US Air Force

Dueling demonstrations clash as the Klu Klux Klan holds a protest rally on the steps of the South Carolina State House building at the same time as a New Black Panther Party rally coupled with other black activist groups, July 19, 2015, Columbia, South Carolina.

The KKK held the rally to protest against the removal of the Confederate Flag from the State House grounds which was taken down July 10, 2015.

The demonstration groups nearly went head-to-head as both rallies concluded and ended up face-to-face in the streets of downtown Columbia.

In this photo young African American men push past metal barricades which are the only thing between them and several KKK members as they shout at the Klan members to leave or die.

Military Photographer of the Year Photo: "Remembering A Legend," by Staff Sgt. Kenny Holston, US Air Force

A fan mourns the loss of Dean Smith the former North Carolina Tar Heels basketball coach as a memorial service for the legendary coach comes to an end at the Dean Smith Center on February 22, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dean Smith passed away on February 7, 2015. He was 83 years old. Smith retired from the University of North Carolina in 1997 after 36 seasons.

His teams won 879 games and had 27 consecutive seasons of at least 20 victories.

While those statistics are staggering many don’t know that earlier in his career Smith also served in the US Air Force and later coached the Air Force baseball and golf teams.

Roy Williams, the current North Carolina coach who spent 10 years as Smith's assistant, said Smith "was the greatest there ever was on the court but far, far better off the court with people."

Military Photographer of the Year Photo: "Chow Time," by Staff Sgt. Kenny Holston, US Air Force

US Air Force Combat Control trainees assigned to Operating Location C, 342nd Training Squadron, laugh with each other while sharing a meal ready to eat during a long day of training February 13, 2015.

Working as a team and keeping morale high within the unit is vital to each Airman’s success as they push through training. At the 342nd TRS both CCT and Special Operations Weather Team trainees go through four months of grueling tactical and class room training.

Giethoorn, a waterfront village located in the Dutch province of Overijssel, is home to more than 55 miles of canoe trails, with canal-side houses, museums, and restaurants that can be accessed via boat.

Its charming setting has earned it the nickname "Dutch Venice". We recently named it to our list of the small villages you should visit in your lifetime.

We've put together 18 photos that show what the picturesque village is like, as well as some of the best spots to visit there.

Whether you're sailing through its canals in the summer or ice skating down them in the winter, travelers are bound to enjoy exploring this village and its majestic setting. 

SEE ALSO: 30 places you should travel to this summer

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The idyllic village of Giethoorn is located in the Overijssel province of the Netherlands. It sits within De Weerribben-Wieden National Park, which accounts for its lush and charming setting.

Click here to learn more about Giethoorn »

The village is famous for its waterways, which replace roads to connect its various homes, attractions, restaurants, and even its accommodations, to one another.

This has given it the nickname "Dutch Venice", and activities like sailing are extremely common here. Canoes are another popular form of transportation, in addition to whisper boats, which have silent electric motors. Even the postman reportedly delivers mail via boat.

Source: Giethoorn Tourism