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Ask HN: Balancing flow with the needs of the healthy human body

2 points by codyb ↗ HN
Hello everyone, Recently I've been considering the impacts of flow on the human body. Of course most of us as hacker news readers have heard the idiom "It takes about 15 minutes for a person to get into a state of flow" and any of us who have experienced understand the pleasure that it is to be there and the productivity gains it produces in us as engineers, writers, artists, athletes, and a variety of other professions, hobbies, and activities.

The question I pose is for those activities which while flow inducing also are generally performed in a relatively inactive position such as sitting. How do we balance the humans need for the eyes to focus on objects in the distance, the human bodies need to stand and stretch, and look away from the screen at least every now and again with the flow state?

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codyb
The rest of my original post:

I'm a person with a "nervous" twitch as they're sometimes known. Which means my legs (at least one, not both usually) are generally moving at least a little. That being said good posture generally indicates a foot flat on the floor and I try to maintain a relaxed posture for the sake of my future self which constrains my twitching and I believe lowers my metabolic rate to the resting rate which is reasonably associated with decreased calorie burn and a higher risk of mortality at earlier ages. There's plenty of research on this subject (and to be fair, I've never been able to conclusively find any concrete evidence on whether the nervous twitch keeps the body in the more active state or mode, but I am naturally skinny and have heard that the twitching may burn in the order of hundreds of calories a day, a very significant amount).

The human eye is another part of our organism which seems primarily designed for long distance use and of which we have constrained to long stretches of close distance use. I attempt to mitigate this with a relaxed posture which puts me a fair distance from the computer screen for a fair portion of the day (~25"). I've seen recommendations of maintaining at least 15" from your face and the computer screen, but I'm sure it doesn't compare with staring at something an actual distance (>10'?) away which returns the eyeballs to a relaxed natural state.

There are plenty of apps which will remind you to stretch, stand up, look away, drink water, what have you. I'm curious about the experienced engineers and entrepreneurs of hacker news' experiences. Have you used them? Are they effective? Do they disrupt your flow? If it's every 30 minutes does it become a part of your flow state? Are they actually conducive to better productivity by breaking the thought process a bit and letting new thoughts in?

My current maintenance schedule is to drink lots of coffee and water each day, both for the benefits of black coffee and water, but also for the trips to the bathroom which force me to walk a hundred feet and offer me the opportunity to look out the windows of my office space (I have my own office, very conducive to flow, but it's a box with no windows which is not conducive to looking into distances). I also like to do handstands in the hallways to get my blood flowing and use exert my body at least a little bit (I know this is not feasible for all obviously).

If anyone has any good input, I'd love to hear it. I think the engineers posture, eyes, and overall health can often be overlooked at some smaller companies which don't have gourmet health food buffets and yoga rooms.

Cheers from a friend. Cody

japadoggg
Hi Cody, It was interesting to read your post. I actually spend all my professional time looking at stuff like this, to optimise my own performance, and that of clients.

The frequent toilet breaks, handstands, water consumption are great ideas. I do similar, but my journey to the toilet in my home office, passes me by a pull-up bar, so I do a bursts of strenuous activity. You could try upping the cardio vascular output.

Your comment about screen distance and eyes is interesting. Personally I can be locked into my screen and in a state of flow for hours at a time, provided the task challenges and engages me. Is this healthy? Time will tell, but my eyesight has remained constant for the last 5 years. That said, I can lucky enough to have views, so I stare into the distance frequently. Could you hang up an epic and beautiful picture, on the far wall? A few other points to consider.. How frequently are you getting outside? How frequently are you talking to other people? Have you done anything like yoga or Tai Chi? Suck activities are a core part of my flow state protocol.. and do wonders for long term physical mainataince. Look into QiGong. feel free to email me.. jiro@theflowstatecollective.com :)