I’m sitting here basking in the rays of sunshine beating (weakly) on my desk and thinking about my Australian friends (hey y’all) sitting on their various East coast beaches eating turkey salad, washed down with Pimms, for Christmas.
We’ve already had our now traditional early Christmas lunch and food-fest weekend, pictured serenely above before the action got started, and we get to celebrate Christmas all over again tomorrow!
I’m actually sitting here trying to get my head around a new concept from America that my brother has alerted me to in the I.D. magazine. I often encourage my clients to stand up to have meetings (it helps people to keep to the point), walk around the block (to clear their minds before a brainstorm session, or to have a confidential one-on-one meeting with someone, which helps promote consensus and beats sitting across a desk) but this takes the idea in a different direction: walk while you work!
The idea is that your desk is a high-tech piece of gym equipment, designed to allow you to walk (at a sedate 2mph) while you work. The desk curves at the front to hug your stomach, while the desk whirs into place to allow your hands easy access to your keyboard with your wrists resting on a thick pad. It took the writer around 15 minutes to come to terms with the new arrangement and zone in on his work, which I think is pretty good, all things considered. He even felt productive when staring off into space!
Priced at between $3,500 and $4,500 (from Steelcase’s Details subsidiary if you’re interested) I think the Walkstation is going to be next years hot corporate toy, although I suspect that, though they may be used to intimidate visitors (the possible permutations for calculating CEO’s are wonderful!!), they will otherwise sit forlorn and idle like so much other gym equipment after the month of January.
Hmmm… wonders… how much of your power cost you could save if all your employees were walking their working week? Not only would they feel warmer (lower heating costs) but you might be able to power their laptops. And think of it, no need to shut down your machine at the end of the day either, just get off and go home.
Heck, why stop there? Why not make these things mobile so that you can work as you walk home?
Walk as you eat in restaurants. Walk as you watch TV in the evenings. Walk as you sleep… you may think that’s daft, but some people do this already.
Next thing you know, there’ll be some whizz-kid working out how to speed the process up so that you can run while you work and then they really will have reinvented the wheel.
The hamster wheel, that is.
You know, I’ve been thinking more about that treadmill idea… it seems to be very much a “David J Foster” type of device. I know how much you relish getting out there into the stinging wind-driven sleet of Burgess Hill winter; into the cow-slippery ankle-deep dung of South Downs gateways along those winter footpaths… so how could I even imagine you might consider forfeiting your fresh air “runs”? Precisely! You want me to continue. Okay, so here is the way to “recharge you batteries”, quite literally, AND keep in shape and NEVER get behind your favorite running competitor. In the warmth of your own home! Simply position your treadmill just a few little paces ahead of his… it’ll give him something to look at when he’s not monitoring his heart rate. There’s a special sort of “desk” in front of him… you can sticky-tape GPS coordinates right there so he can see them easily. It’ll drive him crazy trying to make them change… and, hey! You can whoop in delight when you cruise the last downhill section to come in first… just a few paces in front of him!
What an AWESOME idea! Thanks Bro!