If you attend a Zoom meeting with me, you’ll probably see that if I’m muted, I’m probably walking. I’ve been doing this for the past year, and I’ve been asked about it enough times that I felt it was time to write a short post about it.
Here’s my walking desk stack:
I got the idea for the walking desk from Eat, Move, Sleep. Tom Rath does 8 miles a day on his walking desk. Part of his secret is that he writes a lot and can walk at 1.5mph for 10 miles a day. That’s a lot - I walk around 1-2 hours daily on my treadmill.
If you walk slowly enough, I’ve found that your brain forgets you’re walking. This works even better for immersive tasks: writing, programming, or video games. You’ll get into the zone and find yourself later in a sweat with your Apple watch letting you know you’ve burned 300+ calories.
It turns out that walking makes you 60% more creative, according to this Stanford Study. In practice, I've found that walking makes me more engaged in meetings and 1:1s, so I try to do it whenever I can.
Here's the treadmill and desk that I use. You can get more expensive models, but I found both at Costco, and they work pretty well.
Let me know if you use or are interested in getting a walking desk!