I Am Ready to Try Walking While Working

Updated: I have created my own treadmill desk; you can read about and see it at the end of this article.

Every time I get on my treadmill, I tune into mindless reality TV on VH1 (Rock of Love reruns, anyone?), the news on CNN (same old depressing crap) , or the latest nature show on Discovery (”observe, the tiger and his mate”) depending upon the time of day. Every time I do it, I think that there has got to be something better I could be doing with that hour as I exercise, and I think I have come up with the answer.

My friend Joe has been touting the virtues of walking while working for years, but it never sunk in that he was actually doing his prolific posting while walking on his treadmill until he mentioned something about it in an email recently. I said I had just finished my hour, and he said that he walks on his treadmill eight hours a day, seven days a week. My reply was simply that I was “scared of him,” but I was definitely intrigued.

Of course, he isn’t doing some 4.0mph huffing and puffing pace, Joe does it at one mile per hour, and he has a special laptop rig in place so that he can comfortably blog all day long…while walking.

Here are some pictures of Joe’s setup…

also Joe’s setup

Because it hadn’t sunk in how slowly he was walking, I replied that I would probably trip and kill myself if I tried walking and blogging. But Joe patiently said he would teach me how if I gave him five minutes. As is my way, I politely blew him off.

And every time I got on my treadmill, I thought about how it would be great to be more productive during that time; and how if I walked for longer, I could walk slower, and typing would be possible without disastrous results. Today I wrote him back, and told him to give me the skinny.

He sent me a list of posts he has done on the subject; color me inspired –I am now on a mission!

Without building a stack of stuff as a platform, and without spending money on an iffy solution, I am now hunting for a desktop that can be adapted to fit my NordicTrack C2255. Hey look – they are even on sale right now if you need a FAB treadmill!

What I think might work, is if I could adapt one of those steering wheel desks that are available, to somehow hook over the top of my treadmill’s rather fat console. This would be a relatively inexpensive and completely perfect solution – if I can make it work.

Here are some the ones I am considering:

The Kurgo Auto Tray Table

The Express Desk Steering Wheel Laptop Desk

The WheelDesk

But I wouldn’t be adverse to trying to modify one of the crazy mounts found on the RAM Laptop Mount Site.

So, my question for you all is – have you tried walking while working? Do you have any hints, tricks of the trade, or suggestions on how I can make my laptop console into a desk? I’m all ears.

In the meantime, I am going to catch up on the tips at Walking While Working. The good thing is, since so many of my posts are derived from digital content, my workspace will never look quite like Joe’s.

I’ll leave you with Joe’s cat Humphrey, getting in on the treadmill action…

Updated: I did it! created my own treadmill desk…and I already had everything I needed to get it done on hand; check it out!I used an old wooden shelf that was being stored behind a door to make the base. Because I had to attach the board somehow, and I didn’t want to do anything permanent to the treadmill, I had to be a little bit creative with duct tape and a couple of wash rags…don’t ask.

Next I pulled the Logitech Alto from storage and placed it on the platform…

My Fujitsu T4215 fits perfectly, although it is sitting a bit too low for proper ergonomics. The alcoves in the treadmill make for perfect places to keep my portable hard drive, mobile phone, hand weights, etc. The extra room on either side of my laptop gives me a place to keep a diet coke or a bowl of grapes. This is an inspiring place to work!

I’m on it right now, going one mile per hour. It’s not perfect – I need to raise my keyboard area by about a foot for it to completely comfortable – but that shouldn’t be a problem. I probably have what I need in the garage.

Updated again!: I did have what I needed in the garage. I took apart the VCR shelf from an old entertainment center and flipped it upside down…my setup is now perfection. I am going on 86 minutes at one mph. It will take a bit to get used to this method of working, but I am really impressed with everything so far. :happy dance:

Tags: Health Tech, Home Tech, Laptop Gear, Movies and Streaming Video