No its not a lottery win – but rather then number of steps my fitbit recorded last year. Seems like a staggering figure (not literally) in terms of the number of times I put one foot in front of the other. Those of you who have met me will know that I am an advocate for IT professionals looking after themselves both mentally and physically.
I see too many younger IT staff risking their health through poor practices, long hours spent coding or generally getting caught up in work. For me walking is my contribution towards staying fit and alert while working in IT.
After more than 30 years in IT – I can say that one of the greatest detriments of technology has been to give us an even more sedentary lifestyle. Taking time away from it can be beneficial in many ways – with a couple of examples
A chance to consider up coming work.
Think laterally about a problem in hand (many times the answer has come to me when walking).
Catch up with a colleague on progress on a project.
Get out of the office !
Some people might say that your efficiency will drop by taking breaks through the work day. I’d argue the opposite. Sticking at a problem for hours making no progress should be a sign that you need to think about this another way.
So if you are wondering what you might do to improve your performance this year – think about walking through those problems (literally). See you next year – hopefully after another 3666 miles