Posted by christefano on May 10, 2010 at 3:47am
One of the coolest productivity hacks I've ever seen is the homemade treadmill desk by fellow Drupalero, Chris Shattuck. I've been slowly freeing up more and more space in my office so that I can do this, too.
Has anyone else built a treadmill desk like Chris has or gotten one of those walkstations? What other fitness hacks have you done or been thinking of?
Categories: treadmill, walkstation
Comments
Hey Christefano! In the back
Hey Christefano!
In the back of my mind I've been thinking about how to start a discussion in the Drupal space about increasing productivity and enthusiasm for your work (and the rest of life) by helping one's body become less distracting, and a group on g.d.o is a great choice, thanks for setting this up! I'm excited to hear what other people are doing.
I've also been thinking that if we can get more people on board with adding more movement into their work day, we could potentially increase the productivity of our community by a significant percentage. A lot of people ask about the treadmill desk, so I know it's on folks' minds. What would a 2-5% increase in productivity do for the community?
Over the last few years I've made a few other hacks that in tandem with the treadmill desk has made my work life more enjoyable:
Sometimes if my body is feeling particularly distracting, I will set a timer (http://capablehands.net/menubarcountdown) for every 1 or 2 hours. When the timer goes off, I'll spend about 5 minutes doing situps, pushups, squats and toe lifts (low-tech exercises). That gets the heart pumping and releases some endorphins. I'll do this throughout the day.
I pretty much quit sugar. I had some other reasons for this, but this has helped even out my energy level throughout the day. Sugar ends up peaking energy and then dropping it down, and both states are difficult to fully concentrate in.
I jog daily if I can. This has been great since I'm a father of a toddler and can give mom a break while getting some exercise and getting outside. 30 minutes is good for me, with 15-30 minutes walk after and stretching. I recently found that using the Nike Fit allows me to vary my routes quite a bit, which has been nice. I also use the time to listen to something educational. For a while it was The Story of Civilization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Civilization) and now I'm working through the whole series of This American Life. I've had a knee thing that's been bothering me since Drupalcon in SF (I live in a very flat place, so I blame it on the hills) and it's made me realize how much I rely on this time to feel sane.
Those are the big ones. Sometimes I also experiment with using an exercise ball as a chair, but most of the time when I'm sitting it's because I'm pooped from the treadmill and kind of want to slouch. :)
Thanks for asking, Christefano!
Chris
Chris Shattuck
Learn Drupal with over 1700 Drupal video tutorials
neat idea...
I have 2 treadmills, which I got for my dogs (which could be the subject of another thread), so I'll have to set this up... I'm thinking big screen, wireless keyboard and mouse, to avoid the problems of having it all so close and needing to position laptop so close.
More when I do it...
Using a treadmill didn't work
Using a treadmill didn't work for me, i found it too hard to use a mouse and keyboard.
Instead i pedal away on an exercise bike. Works great!