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I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace. Geez, the amount of stuff I
by stego-tech 5mo ago
I was a doubter until COVID. Then I built a habit of 30 to 60+ minutes of walking a day, ~1.5 to 5mi depending on length and pace.
Geez, the amount of stuff I got done, problems I solved, and general boost to well-being I achieved was lost on me until a job pushed those walks out of the workday. My productivity wasn’t the same.
Definitely going to block off a walk around the harbor during most workdays going forward so I can refresh the slate so to speak.
- hintymad 5mo agoDo you listen to anything while walking, or just listen to nothing while letting your mind clear itself?
- turzmo 5mo agoNot OP, but it has to be a walk with no headphones for me. As I walk, thoughts seem to bubble up from my subconscious and present themselves for consideration. This doesn’t happen as often if I’m listening to music.
- shrubby 5mo agoI decided to go offline for this summer. I got a dumb phone and a card for public transportation, instead of the app I'm using now. Downtime from the algorithmic manipulation has been the breeding ground for my creativity and this is one more step to this direction.
- Cider9986 5mo agoI wish more people knew you can turn iPhones and Androids into dumbphones through MDM and other methods. It would save people money , you wouldn't have to sacrifice security, and they wouldn't complain about losing Google maps or Signal. Result is no ability to install apps and no web browsing. It's really a smart, smartphone because you get the benefits of it being smart without becoming dumb through the distractions.
- shrubby 5mo agoAnything I can remove, I can restore. So yes and no. Few people have the willpower to stand against the addictive design, but I'm not one of them :D
- Cider9986 5mo agoYou can use a password to make it so you can't restore. That's the difference with my methods. There are various ways to store the password to allow some level of management. Give half of it to a friend, write it down, make it super long.
- exe34 5mo agoWhy fight the system when you can just leave the system?
- toilet 5mo agoIt would save people money, you wouldn't have to sacrifice security, and they wouldn't complain about losing Google maps or Signal.
- exe34 5mo agoPaper maps still work. What do you sacrifice in security in a dumb phone? A dumb phone is much cheaper. You can still call your friends.
- kjkjadksj 5mo agoIncreasingly services want 2fa and other bullshit that only really plays nice with a modern smartphone. They don’t sell a lot of dumb phones fwiw. The network that your old one in the drawer ran on is shut down. The new “dumphones” are usually android phones designed for old people with poor eyesight and dexterity.
- appplication 5mo agoI don’t walk but I run 60-120 min 4-5x a week and could not imagine doing so with headphones. Firmly believe we need time away from the constant stimulation of modern life.
- hintymad 5mo agoI wish I could do the same, but the running(even at low pace like 6mph) is too taxing without something fun to listen to
- mantas 5mo agoToo taxing in what sense? Too boring? Too hard? If it’s the later, slow down to a brisk walk to build some stamina. If it’s the former, start watching your surroundings. There’s a ton of things that are fun to watch.
- tass 5mo agoSounds like they’re using a treadmill, and yes this is about the most boring way possible to exercise
- hintymad 5mo agoMostly boring, but in upper zone 2 and sometimes zone 3 does not help. Yeah, I find it helpful to run outdoor. It’s particularly enjoyable to run in a trip because the routes will be unfamiliar
- hawaiianbrah 5mo agoI always find treadmill running to be as much of a mental workout staying focused as a physical one
- usefulcat 5mo agoFor several years I walked to and from the office, about 1.5 miles each way. Typically in the morning I would listen to a podcast or audiobook, and on the way home I would often continue thinking about whatever I had been trying to figure out at work. I found it useful.
- kristiandupont 5mo agoIt reminds me about this video where John Cleese talks about creativity. One of his points is that his work was better than some of his more talented peers simply because he set aside more time to let ideas mature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g
- echelon_musk 5mo ago[dead]
- echelon 5mo agoIt's our evolutionary background. Land animals first evolved intelligence when we emerged from the cloudy, murky sea and developed the ability to see shapes (predators, prey) really far into the distance. This required the ability to understand the future and perform spatial reasoning. Not all aquatic species were exposed to such pressures (opportunities), since line of sight vision (especially traveling at speed) is limited. We got really smart when we became endurance hunters and out-walked and out-ran our prey. Bipedal locomotion and sweating were clutch advantages for sure, but our brains became especially attuned to multi-tasking when walking and running. We could see our prey far into the distance and could plan hours in advance for how to exhaust and corner it. Especially as a group activity. This engaged spatial, temporal, collaborative, and complex reasoning. We didn't evolve to think at a desk. We evolved to think because it greatly enhanced our hunting skills and survival fitness. When you walk or run, you're directly engaging machinery that was fine tuned over hundreds of thousands of years.
- iammjm 5mo agoThere are highly intelligent species such as whales and dolphins, which cannot walk nor run. There are also highly intelligent species that generally do not walk, such a octopuses and birds. Also you skipped other ways of locomotion, such as crawling and climbing. Sure locomotion is crucial, but it's not a simple just a switch to walking. You made it seem like intelligence is only about walking and running, but in reality intelligence was acquired as a long process of various adaptations. Other examples for crucial adaptations that are completely missing from your narrative would be communication, prosociality, or tool-using
- neya 5mo agoSame here. I have a personal mind frame of: "If you have the option to work on something you like on your computer or just even glance outside into the sun for a moment, always choose the latter." This golden rule has given me more benefits - including finishing the task way faster I would have taken longer if I just sat in front of the computer.
- hennell 5mo agoI always found walking around throwing a stress ball as I think out a new feature far more effective then heading straight to the computer. Much easier to think out the abstraction then getting stuck in the details of my first solution, and only realising a the flaws/a better way hours later. Convincing people it's an important part of working though, that was the tough one. And now if you spend any time thinking people want you to use Ai for the thinking bit...
- WaitWaitWha 5mo agoTake advantage of canceled meetings. I step outside and enjoy nature for those few minutes, even if it is just to watch nature.
- Ayush_Khati1 5mo ago[flagged]
- ajuc 5mo agoYeah I started walking a lot since 2021 (before I walked but just a few km to/from work, and sometimes I'd take a bus), since 2020 I worked remotely and I realized how much I need these walks, started walking around 7km daily on average, with 20-30km walks on weekends. It fixed my back pains. It made me lose weight. It gave me time to reflect on my long-avoided problems. Productivity is like the least important benefit.
- astura 5mo agoExactly the opposite for me, I tried to add 10 minutes of walking to my workday (midday) and I only lasted a month. I found it so distracting; I lose so much productivity, would be unable to concentrate for at least an hour afterwards, and sometimes for practically the rest of the workday. I absolutely do think exercise can help with work, in general, just not immediately after for me. A walk after work is much better, to prepare for the next day.
- card_zero 5mo agoMeanwhile, another commenter who walks around Manhattan says that "distraction is the catalyst", and in the article they have participants walking on a treadmill in front of a blank wall, and others walking "outdoors along a predetermined path" (but where?) with the same results. Furthermore, what they measure and call creativity is thinking of uses for a button or thinking of the word "cheese".
- shovas 5mo agoTry pomodoro instead. It's 25/5 work/break. I started out with 60/15, then 45/15, then 25/5 and found out they were right. These breaks, for me, are just walking elsewhere to do a household task and then coming back. For most, it's likely all you need.
- abnry 5mo agoAre you carrying a lot of stress when you were walking 10 min mid-day? I think the wandering, creative mind is the goal and walking often facilitates that, but if some stronger force is keeping you away then it may not work.
- rob 5mo agoYou were a doubter… as in you thought it was normal to sit inside your house the entire day (or for over 12 hours) without going outside at all? Or what?
- shovas 5mo agoYes, some people, particularly coders, are exactly like that, especially when they're young and everything feels like it comes easily. Young coders can sit for hours on a single task if they're really into it and make good progress. As you get older, and the cognitive load increases, you're forced to find out what you did before doesn't work anymore.
- SkiFire13 5mo agoSame here. I'll add that this also happens to me with stuff other than walks. For example when taking a shower, or while I'm falling asleep. All activities that allow me to break free from the work I was doing while at the same time not being too demanding to the point where I can think of something else
- dangoodmanUT 5mo agoExactly this
- haritha-j 5mo agoDid you do it in the middle of the work day, or at the begining?
- andai 5mo agoA few years back I was freelancing by the sea. Every few hours, I'd walk down to the shore and look at the ripples and the waves. I'd go maybe three times a day. I remember this being — aside from profoundly meaningful in itself — very refreshing and beneficial for my work.
- abustamam 5mo agoI'm convinced that humans can't (or at least, shouldn't) actually work 8h a day. I'd argue that taking an hour to exercise or walk during the work day and working maybe 6 hours would make people more productive and happier than just working 8h. Unfortunately management thinks that lines of code written or token usage or seats in butts or {insert random quantitative metric} equals peak productivity.
- arthurofbabylon 5mo agoRelatedly, I'm convinced that humans cannot achieve any form of peak performance in any domain (athletics, art, business, community organizing) without consistently going for walks. We're all aware of the programmer working at a problem for hours, going for a walk, sitting down, and then elegantly solving the problem in a few lines of thoughtful code (haven't we all experienced this?), and here is an example in another domain... I have never been at my best rock climbing performance without a substantial amount of walking; even if I am training well, eating well, sleeping well, climbing with others, and super enthusiastic, the element of walking is for some reason critical. My suspicion is that the human body is designed for walking (eg, we are upright, our shoulders adapted to swing the arm) and that myriad processes simply will not occur or will not occur optimally without walking. I believe restoration on a cellular level is enhanced by walking, that various cognitive and sub-cognitive processes are aided by walking, and that many of these processes sync up with a sort of supermodular (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermodular_function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermodular_function) effect when walking.
- catuscubitus 5mo ago
- bloomca 5mo agoI love to walk and think through things, but I honestly think walking itself is just a tool. It just allows your mind to wander as long as you are not busy (not alone, listening to a podcast, etc) and in the modern world it is a bit too easy to get distracted.
- tartoran 5mo agoYes, walking could be thought of as a tool to let the mind wander but I think it does more than that and is so widely available to most that it could be turned into a good habit. It's possible any movement would do but how available is swimming for example?(or running in a lunch break without worrying about the sweaty clothes)... It's also easy enough that one needs not build up motivational energy to go for it, could be just an auto pilot habit that never stops on giving back.
- underdeserver 5mo agoUm, could it have been the job itself that killed your productivity and not the walks?
- fipar 5mo agoBesides the productivity boost (and I know you already mention a boost to your well-being), this is one of the simplest yet effective things you can do to improve your cardiovascular health. I had a heart attack at 40 and 30 mins a day is the minimum recommended, so 60+ is great. But back to your productivity angle: Stephen Wolfram wrote about the productivity benefits (for him) of walking while working: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-productive-life-some-details-of-my-personal-infrastructure/ https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod...