Day 613: More writing adjustments for my health

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Since I was thinking about my health yesterday, I also decided to make some adjustments to my writing desk today. My seat and keyboard and mouse and monitor is mostly adjusted to be comfortable, but I realized that I don’t move around enough during the day, and sometimes my back and butt get sore.

So I decided to try for a different type of seat. Instead of sitting only on my seat cushion on the floor, I’m sitting on a small circular buckwheat meditation pillow on top of my seat cushion on the floor. I also adjusted the height of my monitor and the bed tray that holds my keyboard and trackball.

Sitting on the buckwheat pillow forces me to keep better posture since I don’t have a backrest. Also, the buckwheat is a bit more comfortable than just the seat cushion since it conforms to my sit bones better.

The buckwheat pillow forces me to move around a bit more, even while sitting. I change positions often—cross-legged most of the time, but sometimes sitting seiza, sometimes with my legs to one side or the other. I think the increased movement is better for my body than simply sitting for the entire hour in the same position.

Also, I think because I’m moving my legs so much, it’s been easier for me to get up to stretch every hour. Before, since my body was stiff, I would sometimes avoid getting up. I think since I’m moving my legs around more while sitting, it’s increasing my blood circulation and making it easier for me to get up to stand and stretch.

I think it’ll take a few days to get used to. I have to remember to have better posture while working. When I was sitting with my backrest, it kept my back and arms at the right distance from my keyboard and trackball. But now that I’m sitting up, I find I have a tendency to lean forward, which makes my upper back hurt a little. I will hopefully improve my core muscles so that I don’t do that so much.

I’ll try this for a week or two and see how things go.

Editing: Time spent: 5 minutes

Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Writing: Total number of words: 616 words

Writing streak: 92 days

Blocking: time spent: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Blocking streak: 86 days

Time spent doing other writing-related business: 17 minutes

My takeaway for today: Trying out a buckwheat meditation pillow to force myself to move my legs more while I’m sitting and to keep better posture.

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