> When you need to ask a colleague something, walk up to his/her desk instead of dropping a message
'Did you get that email I sent you?'
Ahhhhhh~ No. Please don't.
There's plenty of good advice on this article, but be careful that the things that you do for yourself don't negatively impact other people; that's not be healthy, its being thoughtless and selfish.
It never ceases to amaze me how much others think they entitled to your time while working. They'll start conversations when all nonverbal signals show you are trying to get something done. Im at the point where I am going to be forced to be outright rude, which is not easy for me, just to be able to work undisturbed.
"Can we talk about this later? I need to get <task> done by <time>." isn't rude (at least by my barbarian standards), and it would be very rude to ignore such a request.
Im at the point where I am going to be forced to be outright rude
Our society is at a point where there are large numbers of people who think their feelings trump larger concerns, like those of the workplace, their job, driver/pedestrian safety, and the rule of law. There is a set of ideas that involves executive function, the delay of gratification, the adherence to ideals, and subsuming the petty ego. It's called being an adult.
If you think your feelings trump such concerns, take a good, hard look at yourself. Are you a narcissist? Do you really subscribe to an objective reality in your actions?
If you are hiring people, look for people who are the opposite to the above.
I moved office to the other side of the site, up some stairs an into a (admittedly vast) office with no windows in part because of this, people don't get programmers, your 5 minute non-important (to either of us) interruption costs me 15-20 minutes of lost productivity after you walk away from my desk.
I have a phone on my desk that is set to flash, not ring and only then if it's the boss, everyone else just silently rings (and then I get an email a few minutes later "tried ringing, anyway about <unimportant thing>".
This holds up to a point, but if your role is so demanding that you cannot hold a conversation (presuming a work conversation but also applies to social - up to a point obviously), then your either not very good at your job or your employer sets unrealistic expectations, or your good and the employer is realistic but you just want to get ahead.
I've worked with people that are a clamshell. It's not a very nice environment. Nobody in a company works "on an island".
Honestly I think you're part of the problem. It sounds like you are being pushed to a brink where you feel the need to be rude. The situation should've been addressed before you felt yourself at the brink.
Do you have a manager you can sit down with for ten minutes and explain this dynamic to? It's possible your colleagues don't fully understand the implications of their actions and would happily oblige you if they only knew.
Of course I don't know your situation, and given how dysfunctional some office environments are if may be possible that your options are truly limited. In my experience though there usually are options before brinkmanship.
Actually I also have problem with people dragging conversations on needlessly. okay so you have interrupted me and I answered your questions but now as adults we should learn visual cues that somebody wants to end conversation without being rude or discouraging to misc conversations in general. taking a hint is a subtle art often missed by engineers.
Seriously, I cannot think of something more irritating than this. I worked with a person who was more senior in my org who had this habit.
Not only did that piss me off because I would be in the zone (I usually leave my phone at my desk and close all emal/slack tabs to not be disturbed) when he would totally interrupt for a silly question (a la the "did you get my mail?" question).
Please please don't do this. Nothing comes across more selfish and signals that you feel that your time is more important than mine to me than this.
When someone asks if I got their email, the answer is often "Probably." (i.e. I'm not going to check that shit for another couple hours yet, if I can help it, but yeah I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume the email system functions correctly)
Just for fun, somebody should write a "track-and-trace" type of website for email. Then whenever somebody asks that question, give them a track and trace code.
Yes and No. I normally would drop a message and ask if we should meet up. There are a number of coworkers whom I don’t mind them stopping by and vice versa. If in case of emergency I would usually just walk up to their desks and have conversations. Messeaging can be slow and confusing often....
> When you need to ask a colleague something, walk up to his/her desk instead of dropping a message
Dev1: "Hey, your last commit's message was only 'fixed bugs'. Which bugs did you fix"?
Dev2: "Sure. But I'm working on something right now. Shoot me an email about this and I'll send you the bug list by the end of the day."
There is a reason why we have email/messaging. Many times, it just works better. There are things that are better asked in person, there are things that are better asked in an email.
I find that routine is important to getting regular exercise and movement. I am one of those programmers who likes getting into a 'flow' state and working for large blocks of time, so my strategy is to try and get a 1 hr walk in the morning when I wake up.
Much as people like to check their Inbox first thing to get it out of the way before starting productive work, I find that getting my walk in the morning before I have breakfast and sit down to start work ensures that it happens. If I tried to fit it in late in the day, I know that a long debug session or support email thread with a customer will easily derail it.
Organised activity is also good for making me stick to schedules. I took up Kendo about 18 months ago, and the regularly scheduled classes and training sessions are good for forcing me off the computer and go work up a sweat. I especially love the little 30 second meditation we do at the start and end of each class. The purpose of the starting meditation is to put aside all our normal work/life/personal worries and stresses, and focus on the sport, then the end meditation is to bring them all back again.
The problem is that being sedentary for hours is not alleviated by working out in the morning or evening. You have to break the flow every hour, or more often, and move.
> I took up Kendo about 18 months ago, and the regularly scheduled classes and training sessions are good for forcing me off the computer and go work up a sweat. I especially love the little 30 second meditation we do at the start and end of each class.
Mokuso was integral to teaching me to relax and focus; I try to continue meditating even though I haven't done kendo for years, but some days I just want to be sitting in my keikogi in a chilly dojo listening to someone shout "MOKUSOOO~" -- something about that environment was conducive to relaxing.
I go skateboarding at a nearby spot right after work. I found out that, no matter what, I have to take some time for my mind to unwind, otherwise I'm just not there. Although I occasionally talk to fellow people during that time, more often than not I just sit there absorbing the moment, watching the flow and listening to the pops. Such mindfulness gives some quietness to the mind and dramatically improves mind-body attunement.
Absolutely. I look forward to Mokuso during training. It is really a great, relaxing transition between 'everyday' and 'dojo' state of mind.
I particularly enjoy the ceremony surrounding Kendo. That, coupled with the discipline really helps me to focus and push myself both physically and mentally. It makes a great counterpoint to the purely intellectual activity of programming, which I find helps balance me.
I'm having a hard time distinguishing whether this is serious, or BS like herbal supplements. People have been sitting at desk jobs for over 100 years now and those people at an old age are living longer than anyone in history based on life expectancy.
People have been sitting at desk jobs for over 100 years now and those people at an old age are living longer than anyone in history based on life expectancy.
Isn't this one of those standard logic fallacies? I mean, A is true, B is true, but that does not mean B is true because A is true? There might be plenty of other factors affecting B. The advance in medical science for one. At least I always thought that alone was the most influencial factor on better life expectancy. Probably more than enough to even undo the effect of certain lifestyle habits making things worse.
But yes, the article pretty much fails to provide exact numbers or even estimates on how bad a sedentary lifestyle really is.
And obesity levels are higher than ever too. Dismissing this article's message because we are living longer is missing the point. We are living longer despite our poor physical health.
To misdiagnose the problem is worse than not diagnosing the problem at all. Remember when our collective consciousness believed that eating fat was what made you fat? All the food manufacturers starting advertising 0 fat but loaded the food with calories and sugar. This went on for about 15 years.
Instead of assessing the problem as "sitting," maybe we should look at what scientific data says. I know food manufacturers put a hell of a lot of sugar in foods, even foods you wouldn't expect, like spaghetti sauce. They use it as a preservative, so it's in damn near everything.
I know watching food commercials subconsciously compels people to eat, even after the restaurants are closed. Children consume 45% more food when exposed to food commercials.
Side note: the entire site (http://elth.co) appears to be a single-person operation (a side project even — “I am currently put up in the lovely city of Bangalore in India, working for a startup as an Android Engineer.”)
Kudos to the creator (OP). Looks to be a very well-done (if click-baity, but hey, that’s how you....well....kind of...get clicks these days) project, and it comes across very much like many of the larger content creators.
Care to share some background on the project? Looks like you launched pretty recently. Goals? Am I correct in my assumptions here?
Every time I read an article like this, I get a bad feeling and I say to myself "I'll definitely exercise more - I don't wanna be all buggy when I get older due to my lifestyle - I'll do this NOW!". Then a couple of hours later, I'm back coding happily seated. I'm sure this is the case for many of us.
I wish our brains could keep this bad, guilty-like feeling that makes us take action around for longer.
Guilt is a terrible long-term motivator. For me, two big mental shifts made an enormous difference.
1. I had to stop feeling like someone else was going to tell me how to do it or make me do it. Start going to the gym and do whatever exercises you like doing. Keep showing up, and change your posture. Don't think "I should exercise more." Think "I'll go on Tuesday nights when I don't have as much going on." Work from the assumption that you're already a person who exercises, and just think about the mechanics of actually making time for it. We spend way too much time thinking about how we become gym people instead of just going and exercising.
2. As some other people have pointed out, realize that you can't undo a sedentary work day by working out for an hour at the end of the day. One trick I use is to do pomodoros (25 minute chunks of work) followed by a 3-5 minute break where I get up and just walk or look out the window. If my motivation or focus is flagging, sometimes I'll use that time to read a couple of paragraphs on my Kindle app. (Churchill said "a change is as good as a rest"; sometimes taking your eye of the ball for a minute can help you refocus your mind). By moving a little many times throughout the day, I find I don't build up those slow and steady tensions that ruin your body and will to exercise.
There is a Tony Robbins video somewhere where he says "in life, you get your standards". I.e. not what you want or desire but what you make an absolute standard. I found it can take time and few mental visits to a problem before this happens.
Most of us have standards around hygiene, dental care, personal appearance etc that are almost immutable.
If you have a standard that you want to remain fit and that becomes deep-rooted then there is nothing to think about. It will happen.
For me, the hardest part was getting past that when getting into shape. Going to the gym when you're out of shape isn't very fun. Who wants to role play the loser? You're surrounded by people who all look better and are stronger than you. And it's not just mental, it's also physically unenjoyable.
In my experience, if you can just get over that hump to a point where you start to look good, or get strong, or feel good, it becomes an activity, not a chore. Your body is incredible and it's a shame to not see a glimpse of its potential.
This simple concept was very helpful to me, and I hope to others as well.
You have about 5 seconds before your brain shuts up those ideas like "I'll definitely exercise more...".
It's an awesome idea, life changing even. 5 seconds later your rational self catches up with the idea and starts to counter with 'but I don't have enough time', 'it's too hard', 'maybe tomorrow', etc.
The next time you get the idea to exercise more you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do something about it. Maybe it's not the best time to start exercising at 3am when you have the idea, but at least put it down in your calendar with an alarm/reminder/something. The point being you need to take action on those ideas as soon as you have them, or they are gone.
you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do something about it
If you're at home, there's no reason not to just do 10 pressups right there and then (and as you get better, 20, 30 and so on). Or dips with your chair if you can't do pressups yet.
You just need to find activity interesting for you
I used to do sedentary lifestyle most of my life until I found rock climbing 2 years ago
I go rock climbing to a gym 2-3 times a week now. I go there because I WANT not because I have to.
This did tremendous job to my health and overall fitness. And this is sustainable in the long term because I don't have problems with motivation.
So my advice — find your sport, any physical activity you are interested in. If it becomes boring, don't hesitate to change it.
You don't need to be a sportsman and become good at something, you just need consistency to move your body , so care about your motivation. Good body will come naturally after some time.
I'm also mad for climbing and yes 2-3 times a weeks does wonders for overall feeling, fitness and strength. It's also a very complete exercise unlike many other sports. But the claim here is doing that at the end of your day still isn't sufficient in dealing with sitting for hours in row. Which I anecdotelly can relate to: I feel way better overall when not spending hours a day sitting. And when I go climbing after a 'standard' working day involving multiple consecutive hours of sitting I'll top at about 4 routes in a certain grade. However when I'm taking a week off to do some light construction works in my house and I go climbing after such a day, when I've been sitting for max 1 hour or so, and even if I already did a considerable amount of physical labour, I'll do 8 routes in that same grade. At first I thought it was a coincidence (like the routes in that grade just being easier or me just accidentally being better for some reason or...) but it happened time and time again in the last couple of years. I'm not 100% sure the not sitting is really the cause, but it is striking.
The idea is to actually do it NOW instead of thinking about it. Then after that, put a daily reminder on your phone, and when it goes off just exercise, rain hail or shine. Most people don't exercise because instead of just doing it, they think of excuses - "oh, it looks like it's going to rain" or "i'm more tired than usual today.. i'll exercise tomorrow instead". To put it simply, make exercise a rule instead of a choice.
It is about loving yourself, granting yourself this time for yourself, form a habit, and stick to the habit. There's no need to get to the gym to become a body builder, start slow and aim low instead and compliment yourself for the achievements you made. Being critical of your performance or lack of exercise is only going to demotivate you as beginner.
If you do not exercise at all right now, doing very little is already a big improvement over essentially nothing. The diff between 0 and 15 min is far greater and significant than 15 and 30 min.
You can start with something simple like doing some minor exercises every 5 min after 1 hr of sitting. It is going to help you focus more as well, because your brain will be in diffused instead of focused mode whilst you're exercising.
I can highly recommend Nederland in Beweging on Dutch TV (tho I doubt you're Dutch, American TV is massive so I hope there's something akin to it). It is 15 minutes a day with a warming up and cooling down. The Dutch government (or well, "gezondsheidsraad") recommends 21 minutes a day of movement and twice a week heavy exercise. With those 15 minutes, you're well under way to reach 21 min and the exercises are different every workday, and target different muscles, so your entire body is in the end in shape. That's in contrast to say running 3 times a week. You meet the heavy exercise requirement, but you won't meet the 21 min one, and various of your muscles (e.g. hamstrings and more or less entire arms) will be weak.
Doing this may also very well increase your overall happiness (and decrease depression), increase your focus, decrease your fatigue, and decrease your procrastination.
Don't rely on that bad, guilty-like feeling. We're hardwired as humans to get out of that state as soon as possible. That can happen in one of two ways. 1) You actually get some exercise, feel better, and now you don't have guilt to motivate you, so you lapse into old patterns. 2) You learn to ignore it and go about your day (as described in your post).
I found that making exercise part of my routine, as opposed to another thing to get round to, I exercised without thinking about it. I started cycling on my commute, now I do 20 miles a day without thinking about it. I know not everyone can cycle all the way to work and home but can you cycle to the train/tram/bus stop? How about the stop after the one you usually catch public transport from?
That's me. If it was just up to me, I'd never exercise. That's why I've got PT session at the gym scheduled every week and make sure to exercise when my more motivated partner exercises. (i.e. say "I'll go for the run with you in the morning" - and then is feel guilty not to) Making plans with other people makes it harder not to follow through.
Be careful of what you wish for :-D I was the same until this year when some very odd bodily sensations turned into full blown health anxiety. Exercise has turned out to be the only thing that helps keep it at bay, it seems. Getting healthy is great but now I seem to feel dreadful pretty quickly if I'm inactive for even a few hours.
I wish these article writers wouldn't write in the "YOU" mode, instead write "how sitting on front the computer is killing me" and then realize maybe there's a better way to communicate this without making us feel guilty.
Pain teaches me away from sitting too long, but the catch is of course to have some alternatives, like taking a break or standing, or doing yoga, if I didn't have those experiences and routines I wouldn't really probably know or recognize the pain, as the pain would be every day with me.
Standing desk is a great invention, but I've noticed I cannot stand all day long, as I cannot sit all day long, best solution for _me_ is to alternate between standing and sitting, that seems to do the trick.
> I wish these article writers wouldn't write in the "YOU" mode, instead
That horse has bolted, unfortunately. Clickbait works and everyone is at it. My pet peeve is "considered harmful. Do all the things that are "considered harmful" in headlines and you will probably come to no harm.
I've seen a lot of articles about sitting but always have some questions:
- I work with computers so sitting or standing a large portion of time is inevitable.
- Is the real problem sitting/standing, or being unfit? If I don't get fat and if I keep fit, will I be ok? Or will sitting still harm me?
- If the claim is that sitting still harms me, how robust is the science here? Do they control for the above? If sitting, as opposed to poor fitness is the problem, does regular movement help? or are we just doomed to this if we use computers?
With all the articles and papers I read, the problem is that you never have to active your body and legs' muscles, even just slightly. Sometimes even your arms' muscles. And this kills us.
The solution to all the problems this create for your body is to use your muscles, and even just a little bit is enough.
- If you are usually standing: you don't have to be standing up for hours, just a few hours are enough.
- If you are usually sitting: a yoga ball is great. You don't have to move all around, keeping your balance on the ball will be good enough.
- And every hour you can take a quick break, or talk to someone so you will move out of your computer and use your muscles.
- Overweight, unfit, and sitting/standing for long periods.
- Unfit and sitting/standing for long periods but not overweight.
- Sitting/standing for long periods but not overweight or unfit.
If obesity was the only health-related issue you could just eat less. If Obesity and unfitness were the only issues you could just get some exercise outside of work hours. And if all three are an issue you'd want to keep active as much as possible during work (although not too much... because physical labour jobs hurt people's health too).
I regularly go to the gym to lift weights and I keep my body fat under control by strict control of eating times (I fast for hours every day). I'm very strong and look good. But I'm constantly battling with finding enough time for everything. I basically want to have all my time to code, but I also want to do other things (I also play guitar and cook, and I sleep at least 8 hours a day). I don't think this feeling will ever go away. I just have to accept that I can only achieve so much with programming.
Relax! This is called a good "work-life balance." ;) Life is not some sprint. No one is going anywhere. There is no finish line unless you construct it.
I'm resonating with this a lot. The thing that helped me a lot was starting my day earlier. I am trying to move all my 'mandatory' tasks to the morning and try to set timeboxes for them, so that after work I have enough time to do other things and don't get distracted. For example, I searched for a 24h gym around my place and go every Monday, Wednesday and Friday before/at 6am for 1h (+10 minutes stretching). It's sometimes tough but that's why I leave enough time between workouts and skip the weekend so I can recover or catch up on sleep if needed. Then afterwards I have an hour for chores like cleaning, dishes, etc.
I also replaced my train commute with a bicycle for some extra health points (and post-work motivation. Full trains depressed and demotivated me)
Same as you, I do IF and try to eat my last meal at ~6pm and don't think about food until next days lunch.
Other things that helps me a lot with being more motivated is trying to leave the office while it's still bright outside. I want to leave earlier because I'm happier and at the same time have more time+motivation for other things.
I'm facing the exact same situation, except I cannot care less about food, which frees up some cooking time.
How do you manage your social life along with these activities? I find that it gets in the way of things I do, but on the other hand, not keeping in touch with friends (who don't do the same activities as you) just drives them away.
I don't really have much of a social life. There is just no way I can manage it. I have friends whom I see about once a week or so. Those are the only ones who have stuck around after years of me not turning up to most things. I make time for my girlfriend, but often she is upset when I refuse to just sit and do nothing with her (like watch mindless TV).
In our office we started a lunchtime walk. We eat our lunch and whoever wants to participate, we head out for a 30 minute walk. It might not be enough, but it's better than the nothing before.
For me, it wasn't about efficiency. Walking turned out to be the one thing I could work into my routine and actually do consistently every day. A big reason was that I enjoyed it.
Threre are a couple health benefits that walking has over HIIT. For my particular case, my doctor told me that the amount of time I sustained an elevated heart rate was more important than how hard I pushed myself (don't try to walk the same distance in a shorter time, instead walk for longer). And there are cognitive benefits unique to walking [1].
I can't speak for anyone else, but waking turned out to be my gateway drug to all kinds of other healthy lifestyle changes.
Readit News
'Did you get that email I sent you?'
Ahhhhhh~ No. Please don't.
There's plenty of good advice on this article, but be careful that the things that you do for yourself don't negatively impact other people; that's not be healthy, its being thoughtless and selfish.
Our society is at a point where there are large numbers of people who think their feelings trump larger concerns, like those of the workplace, their job, driver/pedestrian safety, and the rule of law. There is a set of ideas that involves executive function, the delay of gratification, the adherence to ideals, and subsuming the petty ego. It's called being an adult.
If you think your feelings trump such concerns, take a good, hard look at yourself. Are you a narcissist? Do you really subscribe to an objective reality in your actions?
If you are hiring people, look for people who are the opposite to the above.
I have a phone on my desk that is set to flash, not ring and only then if it's the boss, everyone else just silently rings (and then I get an email a few minutes later "tried ringing, anyway about <unimportant thing>".
I've worked with people that are a clamshell. It's not a very nice environment. Nobody in a company works "on an island".
Do you have a manager you can sit down with for ten minutes and explain this dynamic to? It's possible your colleagues don't fully understand the implications of their actions and would happily oblige you if they only knew.
Of course I don't know your situation, and given how dysfunctional some office environments are if may be possible that your options are truly limited. In my experience though there usually are options before brinkmanship.
Not only did that piss me off because I would be in the zone (I usually leave my phone at my desk and close all emal/slack tabs to not be disturbed) when he would totally interrupt for a silly question (a la the "did you get my mail?" question).
Please please don't do this. Nothing comes across more selfish and signals that you feel that your time is more important than mine to me than this.
Just for fun, somebody should write a "track-and-trace" type of website for email. Then whenever somebody asks that question, give them a track and trace code.
Dev1: "Hey, your last commit's message was only 'fixed bugs'. Which bugs did you fix"?
Dev2: "Sure. But I'm working on something right now. Shoot me an email about this and I'll send you the bug list by the end of the day."
There is a reason why we have email/messaging. Many times, it just works better. There are things that are better asked in person, there are things that are better asked in an email.
Much as people like to check their Inbox first thing to get it out of the way before starting productive work, I find that getting my walk in the morning before I have breakfast and sit down to start work ensures that it happens. If I tried to fit it in late in the day, I know that a long debug session or support email thread with a customer will easily derail it.
Organised activity is also good for making me stick to schedules. I took up Kendo about 18 months ago, and the regularly scheduled classes and training sessions are good for forcing me off the computer and go work up a sweat. I especially love the little 30 second meditation we do at the start and end of each class. The purpose of the starting meditation is to put aside all our normal work/life/personal worries and stresses, and focus on the sport, then the end meditation is to bring them all back again.
Mokuso was integral to teaching me to relax and focus; I try to continue meditating even though I haven't done kendo for years, but some days I just want to be sitting in my keikogi in a chilly dojo listening to someone shout "MOKUSOOO~" -- something about that environment was conducive to relaxing.
I particularly enjoy the ceremony surrounding Kendo. That, coupled with the discipline really helps me to focus and push myself both physically and mentally. It makes a great counterpoint to the purely intellectual activity of programming, which I find helps balance me.
Isn't this one of those standard logic fallacies? I mean, A is true, B is true, but that does not mean B is true because A is true? There might be plenty of other factors affecting B. The advance in medical science for one. At least I always thought that alone was the most influencial factor on better life expectancy. Probably more than enough to even undo the effect of certain lifestyle habits making things worse.
But yes, the article pretty much fails to provide exact numbers or even estimates on how bad a sedentary lifestyle really is.
Instead of assessing the problem as "sitting," maybe we should look at what scientific data says. I know food manufacturers put a hell of a lot of sugar in foods, even foods you wouldn't expect, like spaghetti sauce. They use it as a preservative, so it's in damn near everything.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z8849j6
I know watching food commercials subconsciously compels people to eat, even after the restaurants are closed. Children consume 45% more food when exposed to food commercials.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2743554/
I know certain foods, sugar in particular, have addictive properties similar to cocaine.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23719144
Sitting may very well be a factor, but this article shows no links to any studies. Until I see some data, I'll consider it BS and so should you.
Kudos to the creator (OP). Looks to be a very well-done (if click-baity, but hey, that’s how you....well....kind of...get clicks these days) project, and it comes across very much like many of the larger content creators.
Care to share some background on the project? Looks like you launched pretty recently. Goals? Am I correct in my assumptions here?
First of all, thanks for going through the mission statement and appreciating what I'm doing with this project.
Having worked in a startup for over 2 years now, there's one thing that I have noticed.
Most people like their butts glued to their chair and keeping activity to a minimum.
I mean like for traveling even 1KM they tend to get a cab.
I tried getting some guys to the gym with me or to eat healthy.
Some tried. Some didn't. Most of them didn't stick to their healthy habits for long.
What I was doing was cheerleading them to health. That's not the push they required.
They needed to know what's wrong with their current habits. Why they should be improving their habits. How to do it.
That is when this project was born.
I wanted to hand out claims that are backed by science in a lucid manner. Also, what I think most blogs do is just say stuff and end the article.
I want my readers to take away actionable tips after completing the article. They should be knowing what to do right after reading each article.
That's my main aim with this project. Educate, inspire, and influence people towards a better life. To help them decide what's good for them.
I launched the site yesterday. Planning to do 1-2 solid articles each week.
Thanks again for your kind words. I'm more thrilled to work on this project after reading this comment.
Made my day.
Watch out for more articles on the blog.
Cheers!
Rahul
A quick look at the source suggests that this might be the WordPress theme that the site is based on: https://themeforest.net/item/times-extraordinary-newspaper-m...
I'll keep polishing it.
I wish our brains could keep this bad, guilty-like feeling that makes us take action around for longer.
1. I had to stop feeling like someone else was going to tell me how to do it or make me do it. Start going to the gym and do whatever exercises you like doing. Keep showing up, and change your posture. Don't think "I should exercise more." Think "I'll go on Tuesday nights when I don't have as much going on." Work from the assumption that you're already a person who exercises, and just think about the mechanics of actually making time for it. We spend way too much time thinking about how we become gym people instead of just going and exercising.
2. As some other people have pointed out, realize that you can't undo a sedentary work day by working out for an hour at the end of the day. One trick I use is to do pomodoros (25 minute chunks of work) followed by a 3-5 minute break where I get up and just walk or look out the window. If my motivation or focus is flagging, sometimes I'll use that time to read a couple of paragraphs on my Kindle app. (Churchill said "a change is as good as a rest"; sometimes taking your eye of the ball for a minute can help you refocus your mind). By moving a little many times throughout the day, I find I don't build up those slow and steady tensions that ruin your body and will to exercise.
Most of us have standards around hygiene, dental care, personal appearance etc that are almost immutable.
If you have a standard that you want to remain fit and that becomes deep-rooted then there is nothing to think about. It will happen.
It actually surprised me learning later in life that Tony Robbins is not the total charlatan I always assumed he was.
In my experience, if you can just get over that hump to a point where you start to look good, or get strong, or feel good, it becomes an activity, not a chore. Your body is incredible and it's a shame to not see a glimpse of its potential.
This simple concept was very helpful to me, and I hope to others as well.
It's an awesome idea, life changing even. 5 seconds later your rational self catches up with the idea and starts to counter with 'but I don't have enough time', 'it's too hard', 'maybe tomorrow', etc.
The next time you get the idea to exercise more you need to stop what you are doing right then and there and do something about it. Maybe it's not the best time to start exercising at 3am when you have the idea, but at least put it down in your calendar with an alarm/reminder/something. The point being you need to take action on those ideas as soon as you have them, or they are gone.
If you're at home, there's no reason not to just do 10 pressups right there and then (and as you get better, 20, 30 and so on). Or dips with your chair if you can't do pressups yet.
I used to do sedentary lifestyle most of my life until I found rock climbing 2 years ago
I go rock climbing to a gym 2-3 times a week now. I go there because I WANT not because I have to. This did tremendous job to my health and overall fitness. And this is sustainable in the long term because I don't have problems with motivation.
So my advice — find your sport, any physical activity you are interested in. If it becomes boring, don't hesitate to change it.
You don't need to be a sportsman and become good at something, you just need consistency to move your body , so care about your motivation. Good body will come naturally after some time.
If you do not exercise at all right now, doing very little is already a big improvement over essentially nothing. The diff between 0 and 15 min is far greater and significant than 15 and 30 min.
You can start with something simple like doing some minor exercises every 5 min after 1 hr of sitting. It is going to help you focus more as well, because your brain will be in diffused instead of focused mode whilst you're exercising.
I can highly recommend Nederland in Beweging on Dutch TV (tho I doubt you're Dutch, American TV is massive so I hope there's something akin to it). It is 15 minutes a day with a warming up and cooling down. The Dutch government (or well, "gezondsheidsraad") recommends 21 minutes a day of movement and twice a week heavy exercise. With those 15 minutes, you're well under way to reach 21 min and the exercises are different every workday, and target different muscles, so your entire body is in the end in shape. That's in contrast to say running 3 times a week. You meet the heavy exercise requirement, but you won't meet the 21 min one, and various of your muscles (e.g. hamstrings and more or less entire arms) will be weak.
Doing this may also very well increase your overall happiness (and decrease depression), increase your focus, decrease your fatigue, and decrease your procrastination.
Discipline trumps motivation every time.
1 - Cut sugar from your diet 2 - Reduce junk food from your diet (start having homemade food) 3 - Start doing bodyweight exercises
and so on.
It will be much easier to stick to the plan if you break your goal into smaller actionable steps.
Pain teaches me away from sitting too long, but the catch is of course to have some alternatives, like taking a break or standing, or doing yoga, if I didn't have those experiences and routines I wouldn't really probably know or recognize the pain, as the pain would be every day with me.
Standing desk is a great invention, but I've noticed I cannot stand all day long, as I cannot sit all day long, best solution for _me_ is to alternate between standing and sitting, that seems to do the trick.
That horse has bolted, unfortunately. Clickbait works and everyone is at it. My pet peeve is "considered harmful. Do all the things that are "considered harmful" in headlines and you will probably come to no harm.
- I work with computers so sitting or standing a large portion of time is inevitable.
- Is the real problem sitting/standing, or being unfit? If I don't get fat and if I keep fit, will I be ok? Or will sitting still harm me?
- If the claim is that sitting still harms me, how robust is the science here? Do they control for the above? If sitting, as opposed to poor fitness is the problem, does regular movement help? or are we just doomed to this if we use computers?
The solution to all the problems this create for your body is to use your muscles, and even just a little bit is enough.
- If you are usually standing: you don't have to be standing up for hours, just a few hours are enough.
- If you are usually sitting: a yoga ball is great. You don't have to move all around, keeping your balance on the ball will be good enough.
- And every hour you can take a quick break, or talk to someone so you will move out of your computer and use your muscles.
- Overweight, unfit, and sitting/standing for long periods.
- Unfit and sitting/standing for long periods but not overweight.
- Sitting/standing for long periods but not overweight or unfit.
If obesity was the only health-related issue you could just eat less. If Obesity and unfitness were the only issues you could just get some exercise outside of work hours. And if all three are an issue you'd want to keep active as much as possible during work (although not too much... because physical labour jobs hurt people's health too).
Relax! This is called a good "work-life balance." ;) Life is not some sprint. No one is going anywhere. There is no finish line unless you construct it.
I also replaced my train commute with a bicycle for some extra health points (and post-work motivation. Full trains depressed and demotivated me)
Same as you, I do IF and try to eat my last meal at ~6pm and don't think about food until next days lunch.
Other things that helps me a lot with being more motivated is trying to leave the office while it's still bright outside. I want to leave earlier because I'm happier and at the same time have more time+motivation for other things.
How do you manage your social life along with these activities? I find that it gets in the way of things I do, but on the other hand, not keeping in touch with friends (who don't do the same activities as you) just drives them away.
Sometimes the practical solution isn't the most efficient.
Threre are a couple health benefits that walking has over HIIT. For my particular case, my doctor told me that the amount of time I sustained an elevated heart rate was more important than how hard I pushed myself (don't try to walk the same distance in a shorter time, instead walk for longer). And there are cognitive benefits unique to walking [1].
I can't speak for anyone else, but waking turned out to be my gateway drug to all kinds of other healthy lifestyle changes.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/walking-f...