I Love My Treadmill Desk: How I Stick to Using It Daily 2 Years Later

For nearly eight years, I didn’t have a car and lived in super walkable cities, like New York City, which meant I often got close to 10,000 steps a day just by commuting to work and doing daily tasks like grabbing coffee or groceries.

When I moved from NYC to North Carolina, my steps plummeted. I started working from home, and most days I was clocking less than 1,000 steps in a day.

I started feeling sluggish and gross for moving so little throughout the week and decided to look into getting a walking pad.

It’s been almost two years since I got mine, and I still use it to get between 8,000 to 10,000 steps (or sometimes more) a day. A few things have helped keep me motivated to stick with it.

I knew I wouldn’t use a walking pad that wasn’t easy to set up and put away

I knew I wouldn’t be likely to use a walking pad regularly if I had to put in a bunch of effort to set it up, so I researched options that fold in half.

My walking pad folds to just under 3 feet long, so when I’m not using it, I push it underneath my desk.

With my current setup, I can also leave my walking pad plugged in all the time, so I just have to move my chair and unfold it when I’m ready to walk.

Since it’s been so accessible, it’s been easy to incorporate the walking pad into my daily routine.

I don’t try to get all of my steps at once

I can easily go from sitting to walking and back, so I get my steps in over the course of the day instead of all in one session.

I typically try to walk for one and a half or two hours throughout the day, which I usually split into either a morning and afternoon session or a morning, midday, and afternoon session.

If I’m really not feeling like walking one day, I’ll aim to do it for the length of one meeting, usually 30 minutes, and then switch to sitting for a bit before walking again.

Breaking up my steps also breaks up my day and gives me a bit of a change of pace throughout, which has been good for my mental health, too.

I’m always trying to match or beat my step count

I am competitive by nature and always enjoy a challenge. So, on most days, I check my number of steps on the Health app on my iPhone to see how I’m doing compared to my past self.

My target is to hit at least 8,000 steps a day, so I’ll look at my app periodically to make sure I’m on track.

I also like to see how many steps I was averaging this same time last year. If I’m behind, I feel motivated to catch up. If I’m ahead, I feel empowered to stay that way.

Sometimes, I also have external accountability. My neighbor bought the same walking pad, so we occasionally text to see how many steps the other is taking.

Above all, I like the way using my walking pad makes me feel

Probably one of the biggest reasons I’ve continued using my walking pad for so long is that it makes me feel better during the day.

When I start to feel like I’m in a slump, walking for even a few minutes gets me out of it. Daily movement like this is good for my health and helps me feel more energized.

Plus, I’ve found it can help meetings — especially ones where I’m more of just a listener than a participant — go by more quickly.

When I’m walking, I feel more locked in on whatever task is at hand, and it’s harder to step away from my desk and get distracted by something else.

All in all, my walking pad has been a game changer for getting my steps in and for helping me be more productive at work. I can’t see a world where I ever stop using it.