Who is first in our docket here? First question is from Eli and the question states this, "I finally purchased a treadmill that goes under my standing desk so I can avoid sitting all day and get more steps in. I'm wondering your thoughts on the effects of walking while working.

Does it create the same issues as contact switching?" Well, okay, so Eli is one of these people who does the exercise equipment at their desk with their computer. If you listen to this show instead of watching it on our YouTube channel, you might not know, like our YouTube watchers know, that when Jesse and I are recording this show, we're doing so on NordicTrack machines.

Am I right, Jesse? And sometimes you're on a rower. Sometimes I'm on a rower and Jesse holds a microphone on a boom and just moves it back and forth with me while I row because I'm not going to give up opportunities to stay in shape. Eli, I'm a big walking fan, longtime listener to the show, know this.

I think walking is particularly good for creative insight. So I need a solution to a problem. I need a new business strategy. I need a way to open this article. How am I going to open this article? I'm working on a proof and I don't even know where to get into it.

Something about the motion helps. I've heard a lot of explanations. I don't know if this one is true, but it's the one I often think sounds right, which is the circuits involved in motion are prescribed. And somehow when those circuits are fired up, it suppresses other parts of your brain and makes it easier somehow to focus on whatever you're trying to focus on because there's a lot of sort of distractions or other things pulling at your attention.

They're somehow being suppressed. I don't know if that's true. We'd have to ask Andrew Huberman. We should just have a hotline, Jesse. Ask Andrew Huberman whenever we have a brain issue that comes up. And basically every time I would say something about how the brain operates, you would then call, press that button and Andrew would conference in and explain how everything I said was just wrong.

That's a great idea. That'd be great. Yeah, I'm sure he would be game. Yeah. What else does he have to do? Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I'm a big fan of walking. I'm not a big fan of walking desks or even to be honest, standing desk. Because to me, it feels like you're capitulating.

Work means I need to be here in front of this glowing rectangle all day. So how can I compensate? I think you should be walking a lot during the workday outside. You need the novel stimuli, the weather. It's cold today. It's hot today. I'm seeing different things. I'm hearing the birds.

That's good for your soul as a human and you're going to get more insight out of that other type of work that is not creative inside work. I think actually could be harder while you're, let's say, on a treadmill. So if you're trying to answer an email, that's very different.

Now, here you're trying to do very precise English composition. OK, how do I how do I precisely say this thing? I want to say in a way that has to write inflection and conveys the nuance of what I mean. That's actually something I think is harder to do while you're in motion.

So the idea that you want to be in motion for all types of your work, I don't think I agree with. So I think walking is good for some work, bad for others. And the right way to take advantage of that is make walking be something you do outside.

And make other computer screen work be stuff you do at your computer screen. Keep in mind, there's a lot of things you think you need your computer for that you can actually work out on notebooks and then come back and enter into your computer. So, yes, your business strategy or the article you're writing eventually does have to be typed, but you can bring a notebook with you, walk, figure that out on foot and then come back and type it in.

So that's the way that's where I fall on walking. I would also say if you work from home right now, it's like maybe due to the pandemic, your company has a more permanent remote work setup. Take advantage of it. 10 to 15000 steps a day throughout the day. Not a mega hike at 5 a.m.

Walk first thing in the morning, walk at the end of the day, shut it down, walk at lunch and have a couple of short walks in between. Put it on your calendar. Keep walking. It's one of the great advantages you have with working from home. So don't lose don't lose that possibility.