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Comment by jph00 | Hacker News Reader

I tracked my learning performance over two years under a range of conditions, including trying a treadmill desk. I found at 1.2mph my error rate (compared to sitting) was 50% less, and I could comfortably study for 2x as long. The trick is to keep the speed quite low, and have your PC at a comfortable position. I now do all my work this way, with an adjustable desk, which I put in sitting position only an hour a day.

More details on my experiment are in this talk I gave last year: http://quantifiedself.com/2012/05/jeremy-howard-on-language-...

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I found something similar when I set up a treadmill desk at 1mph; I had a few years of typing data in Amphetype, I resumed typing practice on the treadmill, and the difference in WPM or error rate was slightly in favor of the treadmill (probably due to practice effect or motivation): http://www.gwern.net/Zeo#fn51

Are you referring to studying/reading only? I wonder If I m the only one who likes to read on a tablet while wandering around the house at similar speeds.

I only have quantified outcomes for studying flash cards, since that's a fixed measured thing that I do for 70 minutes per day. However I now do nearly all my work at the tread desk, and I've bought a few for some of my staff who also wanted to try them out (everyone who has tried them has liked them and stuck with them full time, so far).

Sometimes however for reading I'll go and relax on a recliner - it's nice to have a break from time to time. But if I want to really focus on what I'm reading, I'll look at it on the tread desk.

How much of an effect does missed sleep have on you?

Huge. When I'm sleepy my error rate can go up by as much as 300%. It's terrifying to think of what that means in terms of how it must be impacting by work when I see that happen. I often study in the morning before work, and if I can see I'm not performing well, I know to do yoga/exercise/etc before I try to do any productive work. (I found that my study outcomes were nearly always better after exercise, if I started badly)

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