I have been thinking of something similar: I'd like a wearable that haptic taps me once every 10 or 15 minutes. Then I would check with myself if I am doing something that's actually interesting to me or just idling away.
I keep considering smart watches but if the goal is to prevent me from wasting time those could be counter-productive. Also I am sick of having products that require their specific charging dock.
You could probably build your own "start/stop a motion-sensitive reminder" app in a couple hours, though fine tuning it will likely take some time.
I regularly get a full week of battery out of it, and it uses a standard magnetic watch charger. The vibration motor is a bit weak though, and personally I rapidly grow to not notice frequent haptics so I can't use it for this kind of thing. But apparently watch-vibrations work for many.
[1]: it certainly has some annoying quirks and minor frictions, but they irk me far less than the quirks/etc in other watches I've tried. and I am MORE than willing to put up with it for the battery life and daylight-readable screen - I'm downright happy with it, and have returned every other watch I've tried in the past couple years.
Of course, the watch comes with a giant bundle of other features that may or may not be desired. And building it yourself is so much cooler.
Yeah, that's probably what I need too. An elegant self-hack.
I think I'll try it with a kitchen timer instead, but I can certainly appreciate the ability to fine-tune it for self-annoyance only at the correct times.
> It works so well that I wear sweats.
Hahahaha yep sometimes during the holiday season.
This works well: https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/nva-leather-belt-blac... . (Out of stock, though. The nearest equivalent may be the Bundeswehr model.)
For me a standing desk decreases "friction" to move around. I find myself bouncing from foot to foot, pacing back and forth, etc.
A chair OTOH makes it too easy to be motionless for longer period of time.
That being said, an electric standing desk makes it easy to swap between sitting / standing.
https://scitechdaily.com/new-research-reveals-that-standing-...
All this study proved is that you need to actually move, switching between standing and sitting is useful because it breaks the habit about staying in one static position for a long time. The bit about standing being harmful is especially contrived and basically says if you entirely switch from sitting to standing, but don't move from the standing position for many hours, and repeat this every day, that's harmful. Well no shit. You gotta alternate your position, and you have to balance sitting and standing with actual exercise too.
I have a HM Mira and it makes such a huge difference I'm actually a bit sceptical of the "sitting for too long is bad" thing - sitting in a average chair maybe.
Modern vacuum containers make cold and hot beverages almost constantly available which makes me get up quite frequently.
It is funny to read later what you did.(as oppose to what you wanted to get done and what you should have)
I don’t think I got any faster at typing but my wrist pain went away and hasn’t really come back in the 16 years since.
Every time they went to have a cigarette I would go out with them
I do not think that would work these days, in my culture.
I’ve found a simplified approach that works for me. For anything that I do, I use a timer (on the Watch, Kitchen Timer, etc.), as I don't want to use my brain to track time.
While I'm at my desk, I have a physical hourglass, and I like it. The hourglass helps me with a Pomodoro-ish technique without that hard and loud stop alarms. It reminds me of the passage of the sands of time but gives me the freedom to break or push a tad more to finish the task at hand. I love having a few types of mechanical Kitchen Timers lying around.
Before I started using the treadmill desk, I averaged around 2.5-3k steps per day. On days when I exercised, it could go up to 8-10k steps, although I wasn't exercising regularly at that time. Now, 2.5 years later, I consistently reach 10k-12k steps on a bad day (about 2 hours of walking) and can go up to 18-24k steps on a good day (3-4 hours). Occasionally, I hit 30k steps, but that's quite rare, to be honest.
I was hesitant about the idea, but a friend who got one himself and shared his experience encouraged me to give it a try.
Pros:
- Feels more natural than just standing on the desk (after 20 min I get tired of standing still, whereas I can walk 2h without even realizing)
- I can work comfortably with the computer when typing, using the mouse (programming, writing... and even playing games), at speeds up to ~4.5km/h (~2.8 miles per hour). Beyond that the thoughts don't flow in the same way. Below this threshold I don't notice much difference in my work. I initially found 3 km/h (~1.8 mph) fast enough, but over time, 4 km/h (~2.5 mph) has become my sweet spot.
- You can enter a flow state just as easily as when seated (or at least that's my feeling)
Cons:
- Space: The treadmill takes up room, so I keep it next to my desk when not in use for convenience. Setting up the treadmill desk takes around 1 minute.
- Meetings: It felt awkward at first. Initially, I avoided attending meetings while walking, but I gradually started participating in 1:1s and eventually team meetings. Nowadays, I’m comfortable walking during most meetings, although I avoid it during large group or company-wide calls. My webcam is positioned to show only my shoulders and face, minimizing visible movement and reducing distractions for others during calls (probably the others won't care anyway).
- Limited Upper Body Movement: The upper body remains relatively still since my hands are usually on the keyboard or mouse. This limits overall activity compared to walking outside. However, when reading, my arms and hands move off the desk, mimicking the motion of walking, so it really depends.
- Noise: I live in a flat, and while the treadmill isn't very noisy, it could be bothersome if people are sleeping (whether in the next room or in the floor below). I avoid using it early in the morning or late in the evening.
My treadmill automatically beeps after 2 hours and shuts off for 30 minutes. It does force me to take a break (or even take a shower depending on the speed I was walking). After the break, I switch to a seated position. I typically have one walking session in the morning, and on some days, another in the afternoon. When it beeps and I'm in the zone I just move it aside and continue seated (sometimes I just continue standing still for some minutes), so it does not get in the way if you are focused.
Overall I think it is an improvement over staying still for most of the day (seated or standing), and also an improvement over forcing regular/spaced interruptions (I honestly tried several times, but it breaks my concentration and prevents me from going into the zone). Standing desk + treadmill: Totally worth the investment.
KingSmith walking pads can be folded and take less space. R1 can also be stored vertically, but I always keep it horizontally for convenience.
If I had to buy one treadmill again, I would chose either a regular model or a cheaper foldable model. I would probably lean towards a smaller and cheaper regular model since I believe 40cm x 80cm (16in x 32in) is enough to walk and is not that big.
I mean, you need to have the space to put the treadmill on the side, but other than that you'll have the flexibility to choose between walking and sitting as needed.
I have an "old" ikea model that is not sold anymore, but the equivalent would be something like this one: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rodulf-desk-sit-stand-gray-whit...
You can also buy the legs and use your own table (slightly cheaper) https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rodulf-underframe-sit-stand-f-t...
Again, the advantage is the ability to adjust the height, so you can work either seated, standing or walking if you also have a treadmill.
Treadmills aren't completely silent; there's always some level of sound from the engine. Over time, you tend to get used to it. Personally, I wear regular headphones to listen to music, which helps mask the noise.
I get in between 2 and 10 miles depending on the day, and have a little drafting chair that's intentionally pretty mediocre to encourage walking instead.
I find the idea of intentionally interrupting myself every 20 minutes kinda insane, seems like it would preclude getting "deep" work done.
Time spent on it varies between 2h (very lazy week) and 10h (very active week).
I feel like this helped me prevent a lot of the symptoms described both in the writeup and comments.
I assume LaunchAgent restarts the script after it exits, so it is essentially a check that a person has locked the laptop at 20, 40, 60, 80, ... minutes after the initial start of the script, regardless of what other breaks take place.
I wish I had this problem. Lately it is the opposite. I break focus every 20-30 minutes to go get a beverage, take a pee, tend to the dog, etc.
It’s detestable and only done so The Company has a plausible defense against lawsuits while continuing to only supply only the crappiest Fischer-Price grade Dell peripherals that get thrown in the box for free.
Dell peripherals however, remain utter garbage.
At an open seating hanger type office, I never able focus deep enough that sitting too long become a problem. Not that great for productivity but.
Apart from pausing and resuming my music player, a shell script displays the number of minutes I've been in front of the computer in calm green text in the corner of the screen. After 45 minutes this turns to large red text and a sound-clip telling me to "move it, move it"[2] plays every five minutes.
It's worked well for me. I'll step away and do a couple of stretches and step back. Timer resets automatically with no other intervention.
I suppose I could augment this with a remote alarm+button similar to Jacob's to force the issue.