This is part one of multiple blogs posts about my standing desk and treadmill combo that I have planned for the forseeable future. Reason being the impact on my physical and mental wellbeing since i’ve began incorporating it into my daily working life.
In order to describe where I am at - I need to tell you about where I’ve been. Bear with me for the start of this article as it gets more interesting. If you want the TLDR - scroll to the results/conclusion below.
If you’re here for more nerdy content - stay tuned - I’ll be discussing my data collection and aggregation that I’ve been iterating on in future posts.
First a word from our sponsors
Just kidding - but seriously hardware and decisions like these have been weighing on my mind more and more as of late. I’ve realized I’ve been an over-consumer of things I thought would warrant better results. Both to productivity and general functioning in my day to day, only to go unused and wasted in some corner of the office/closet.
we’ve all see the person who owns a treadmill and uses it for piling storage and who knows what else on - and if this is you - maybe this can be a wake-up call or process that helps you evaluate the next purchase you think you might need to perform better.
Background
I think for many of us, working remotely has been an adjustment that the pandemic ushered in quickly. Having worked remotely since that time, there has been products that do improve how we function in these environments. I don’t want to paint a picture that all creature-comforts are bad, cause that’s not true.
That said, there are items that do provide substantial value to everyday life and others that merely provide temporary benefit but no real improvement to the system. I started my journey with an improvement to my home office chair, then bought a standing desk frame and largely those two are essential pieces (IMO) to the remote work puzzle.
The problem
Much of the discontent I felt after working a full-day and realizing how little I moved wasn’t a hardware problem - it was system problem. Particularly my system was ill equipped to be setting myself up for success.
What I mean here is that I had no habits to fall-into when it came to moving. So we have to adjust and set our tomorrow selves up for success today.
I knew I wanted to move more - so I started planning movement into my everyday workflow. Standup and movement reminders with a few dog walks thrown into the mix were great with no additional purchasing required.
Treadmills galore
Then I started coming across articles for people who actively walk while they were working. This made a lot of sense to me and the additional benefits of it throughout the day were enticing. So what were the problems?
- I didn’t want to jump to spending money on something I was not positive would be valuable to me
- I already owned a treadmill in my garage.. did I really need two?
Experimentation
Earlier this year, I cobbled together some scrap wood and built a desk to sit on-top of my existing treadmill. My thought process here was that I could use my existing treadmill to prove out whether or not it was an enjoyable activity for me or not. It would also give me some early insights into the pros/cons.
So what did I learn?
- I really enjoyed the additional movement 1x-2x times a day
- It was a good way to clear the “morning fog”
- I could optimize my time walking during meetings
- Productivity initially took a small hit - But has since leveled out after adjustment
Productivity
There is something to be said about the ability to focus while performing an activity such as walking. I will usually not use my walking pad during the time I have available to be focusing on code or other issues (see my Pomodoro blog post). Instead I optimize for the time when I am either in meetings or doing other administrative tasks that will not be impacted by the activity.
This has changed over time. I am getting better at the overlap into my focus time as I refine my skills with walking and focusing on specific tasks.
Investment
In another blog post - I’ll outline the treadmill that eventually made its way into my office (as seen above). This was a pretty niche scenario and I want to tell the full story - which is too long for this post. Just know that I now have a walking pad AND I am keeping track of my walks (time/distance).
Results
So long story extremely long - I spent a month experimenting with having a walking pad in my immediate working vicinity and using it 1-2x a day.
Data
I wasn’t going to write this without some hard data:
Over the last 4 weeks - I walked a total of 23 times for a total distance of 32.3 Miles.
Where did this data come from? I certainly didn’t track it manually. Stay tuned for more on this project to include hardware hacks and data collection.
Thoughts
I personally really like having a walking pad directly under my desk - ready to go at a moments notice. My body feels more fluid and I do believe there are advantages to the focus time I have after a good walking session.
Conclusion
Getting up and moving is contributing to my day to day perceived satisfaction. Experimenting with existing resources helps with the decision making process. Lastly some ingenuity and creativity can move existing platforms to serve the outcomes you wish to attain.