We can do it! Wednesdays: Walk Breaks at Work

So I tried a new thing at work last week. Usually every time I hit a stopping point when working I’ll go online and surf the internet for a few minutes. This past week I exchanged those breaks with walking one lap around our building outside (that’s about 0.4 miles). I ended up walking around the building about two times a day – once right after lunch, and another in the afternoon around 2:30pm – and I love these walks. Here are the major benefits I saw this past week:

1.       Walking around and getting away from my computer allows me to think clearer about any problems I’m encountering that day. So I’m actually pretty productive on these breaks.

2.       Getting a chance to enjoy the good weather definitely brightens my mood, which is a nice pick-me-up if my day isn’t going so well.

3.       It feels good to exercise. There are so many articles that say sitting down all day will kill you, so it feels nice to get up and walk around every so often.

I like the walks and I’m going to stick with them, but there are a few bad things about them:

1.       I think it’s really awkward when I see other people while walking, they always look at me weird because I think they’re wondering where I’m going. And even when I don’t see people I feel guilty the whole time, like I’ve broken out of prison. I’m hoping this will go away with time. I’m sure eventually enough people will see me and come to realize that I just walk around the building every so often, no big deal.

2.       I’m not sure how I’m going to keep up with walking when the weather gets crazy hot. Also, in the winter I’m sure these walks won’t be as pleasant. I could always walk around inside the building, but then we get back to people seeing me and it being awkward, especially when they notice that I’ve passed by them a few times.

All in all I think the walking experiment was a success. I’m going to stick with it and maybe increase the frequency to 3 times a day (morning, lunch, and afternoon).