I’ve moved to biking everywhere and daily walks with the dogs, but still have 8 hours where I’m mostly sedentary
1. Taking walks during the day. I have figured out a lot of tricky design and even debugging questions by taking a walk. And even if I don't think about programming directly, it still clears my head. Splitting my day up with an hour (or longer) walk leaves me more effective than spending the same time in front of my computer. I usually work remotely, so often this involves walking to a cafe, doing some work there and walking back.
2. Taking walking meetings. I've found this works well for 1:1s, and it works reasonably well for large calls where I don't need to participate much. There are lots of meetings where it's too awkward or doesn't work at all, but converting even a small fraction of my meetings to walking meetings is a real improvement.
Of course, both of these assume a flexible culture where this does not make me look like a slacker and where I can take meetings in different ways. But I figure that's a minimum for having a healthy and productive work environment regardless!
I'm about to start leaving video on with the phone in my pocket as I walk.
And for 1:1s walking meetings can work well in person too :)
> Semi-recumbent stationary bike that fits under my standing desk.
> I've never been coordinated enough to get the hang of walking on the treadmill and typing, but pedaling slowly all day I can do! I've lost 45 lbs so far this year, and adding up the calorie estimate for each day (I've been tracking) and dividing by the 3500 calories people say are in a pound, about 20 of them have been from the bike! (The rest have been from hard work with a dietitian who helped me solve some longstanding issues, but that was more expensive.)
Why are you at a desk? Because you have to work 8 hours.
Why? Because your job requires it.
Why do you have that job? Because you need income to live.
Is a job the only way to have income to live? (See: FI).
Ultimately the root cause is not being in control of your time. It takes time, but once solved the downstream problems solve themselves. You can work (exert effort on goals you care about) in a way that prioritizes your health.
But also for me , if I’m at home, I take my dog for walks during the day and just make up the time later if needed. It breaks things up.
Or if I’m in the office I go for thinking walks to plan out what I’m doing
What I mean by "rethink the way we work" is that jobs like yours (and you may not agree with this) need to be broken up into smaller chunks through the day. So, you work for 2 hours, do something else for 2 hours, work a little more for 2 hours, and so on.
I work beside a lot of programmers and CAD designers in my industry and, in fact, am trying to move over to their side of the team (currently I am the guy who builds, tests and repairs the machines they create). One thing I feel is universally true is that, while you may be sitting at your desk for 8 hours, you are really only doing any actual work for about half the time, possibly less.
Here me out; sitting in front of a computer is tough on both the brain and body. When you are tethered to the desk and 90% of your job is cerebral, to an outsider that looks like a pretty easy day, but we know it's not. Those stress hormones build up fast and because you can't get up to work them off or give them some physical purpose, you sit tensed, bouncing a leg, shoulders up to the ears, etc etc. Your body suffers and really, the output for the day could have probably been done with only 4 hours of actual computer time, instead of 8. So, open up the opportunity for our programmers to move around by doing some other stuff. If no work tasks can be assigned, the programmer should just get those 2 on/2 off times to do what they think is best, because, as far as the employer is concerned, if the output each day remains the same, who cares? Nothing changes for them and you get to stop being a pressure cooker of cortisol.
Understandably, my idea needs some massaging, so don't take any of this as 'this is the way it must be to work.' Consider it a work in progress and your suggestions are welcome.