Member-only story
Today is the day I switch to a standing desk.
The reason why I’m making this change is because I’m really tired of sitting down all day. I’m still in pandemic-stay-at-home mode for the most part and spending the majority of my life at my desk, in my room, sitting, has led to all kinds of weirdness.
My back hurts. My knees hurt. I get tired too easily and just feel lazy a lot in the afternoon and evening.
I’ve been trying to improve these things with ideas like eating less carbs or spending less time on the computer, but those have been mostly dead-ends for me. It’s hard to make a lifestyle change when so much is restricted, like I still can’t go hang out at a coffeeshop for half the day which is my default “get out of the house” activity.
Being home, in my room, and telling myself to stay off the computer has not worked.
Changing Habits: Positive or Negative?
I see two options when trying to adjust one of my habits. One is removing negative activities. The other is to add positive activities.
People often talk about removal when they are trying to change habits. They want to stop smoking, stop eating sugary foods, stop looking at their phones so much, stop sleeping in.
Like if I said I won’t drink coffee every morning, that might be great for a few days. That third or fourth day I wake up tired and headachey though, it’s going to end. It’s too easy to fuck up one single day and then fall immediately all the way back into the habit.
Frustrated by this removal failure routine, I felt myself yearning for some other approach to habit changes. Couldn’t I add things instead of removing them?
For example if I were trying to stop drinking several cups of coffee each day, I could switch to green tea. Half as much caffeine in each cup and it involves the same ritual of brewing and holding the hot cup of liquid in my hands.
When I fuck up for a day and drink four cups of coffee, it’s a lot easier to “get back on the wagon” of drinking tea the next day than it is to resume self-denial of hot drinks and caffeine in general.
