Takeaways: The Healthy Programmer

I recently picked up The Healthy Programmer by Joe Kutner. The 8+ hours of programming are beginning to take their toll on my health with various headaches/eyeaches, so I wanted to see if Joe had any insights into what I can do to stay healthy. Here are my key take-aways from Joe's book:

Walk Walk and Walk Some More

One of the big points that Joe stresses is the importance of walking. He tears through the current "standing desk" fad sweeping through the nation. Numerous studies can be cited which state that standing for 8 hours a day can be as bad for you as sitting 8 hours a day, albeit in different ways. The best thing we can do for our bodies is to take frequent breaks in which we walk. Walking gets the heart pumping, which is the source of the health benefits associated with walking. 

Walking is also associated with better cognitive function. We learn and remember things better while walking, which is extremely important for programmers. 

There are three areas of improvement I drew from the Healthy Programmer:

1. If you get stuck on a difficult problem, take a walk. Walking will jog the brain and help it get out of its current rut of thinking.
2. Take a walk either before or after learning something new. This will help you remember it better.
3. Take a quick walk every 25 minutes. 

For that last bullet point, take advantage of the Pomodoro Technique. There is a Pomodoro Timer is available for Mac and Windows. I installed it on my work computer, and it looks like this:

You can set that little popup to always hover on your screen, and it alerts you when time runs out. When you get the alert, simply get up, walk around for a few minutes, look outside the window (to rest your eyes), and then reset the timer and get back to work. Using this technique will have remarkable effects on your health, and it will significantly lower your mental fatigue and increase your productivity.

Take care of your eyes

Imagine not having your eyes. It's a terrifying thought. Taking care of your eyes is important, and as programmers, we're already at a disadvantage because we stare at screens for 8+ hours a day. 

The Pomodoro Technique described above is a good way of giving your eyes the rest they need. Everyone knows they're supposed to rest their eyes and look in the distance every 15 or so minutes, but when you're in the middle of tracking down that obscure bug, an hour or several hours can go by before you remember to look up. The Pomodoro Timer is a good way of forcing yourself to look up and away more often. 

If you think there's a productivity cost, think about how productive you would be if you lost your eyesight. Your body is important. Take care of it. 

In addition to the technique above, I've also put a post-it note on my monitor with the message: "BLINK!" People tend to blink less while staring at a computer screen, so every time I see this note, I stop what I'm doing and blink several times for a few seconds. 

I've also lowered the contrast and brightness of my monitor so that it matches the brightness of my office. I've also put the display settings to "warm" - per Joe, red hues are better for the eyes than blues. 

Visualize breaking bad habits

Imagine yourself breaking through your bad habits. For example, if you know you go to the vending machine for chocolate at noon everyday, and you've decided you're going to stop doing that, then visualize several times over the course of the morning how you're going to not go to the vending machine at noon. If it helps, visualize yourself doing something else at noon - maybe going to the water cooler, or going to a coworker's cubicle, and then do that other thing. Once you've done it a few times, your chocolate urge will be significantly lower come 12PM.

Life should be a series of small improvements

I loved this point. "Set a new personal record everyday," says Joe. In many many small incremental improvements, we can make dramatic improvements in our lifestyles over the course of weeks, months, and years. Think about your daily routine. Is there something small you could do that would improve it? Seize that thing and fix it. Spend a few days making sure it's stamped out. Then pick on the next thing you want to improve and repeat.

I do recommend picking up the book I got these tips from - The Healthy Programmer (disclaimer: affiliate URL). It's not the best book in the world (it doesn't claim to be), but it does have some valuable nuggets of information that make it worth the time and energy spent reading it.