It’s maybe a little ridiculous, but I built a desk and mounted a monitor over my treadmill. It’s all wired in to my regular work desktop and I can easily switch between my regular desk and the treadmill.
You’d think that walking while working would be really distracting, but I think I’ve found the opposite. I tend to be much more focused and, more importantly, my focus stays on important things. I find I’m much less likely to drift into things like reading the news or wasting time elsewhere, and if I do, I don’t linger long.
My mom used to always say that when I was a kid, I always had to be doing two things at once. It was the only way I could effectively do anything. I probably should do some more research here, but two thoughts come to mind on this topic:
- That sounds like a likely ADHD symptom. I should probably investigate that.
- Studies have shown multitasking is actually not an effect method of productivity.
Given #2, I’m not really sure why this works. It’s possible that the studies investigated more of doing two difficult, cognitive tasks simultaneously vs. a low-level task like simply walking. Or perhaps I do have ADHD or something and the studies only apply to people who don’t.
I’m not really sure!
But if it works for me, I should keep doing it. And clearly the health benefits alone are worth it, so I should really focus on doing it consistently.
I just wanted to get my thoughts down and also leave this here as a reminder that I need to keep using it. Especially since I already have it and it’s all set up.