You all know one, someone who struggles to sit still – or has to rearrange their seated self every ten or so minutes to some undetermined yet obviously more comfortable position, one much more cushy than one they were just in. Whoever it is, their fidgeting might be met with chastisement: “would you sit still already!” one might exclaim, or just a simple “fidget” would probably do.

Should people really tell others to sit on their hands though? My confession is that I’m a bit of a fidget… I realise its annoying, but I do it not because I want to annoy, generally its to prevent pins and needles or to get a limb back into the waking world.

Every Little Helps

I’m tall, over 6 foot (182cm +) and for a good long time I developed what could be considered a bad habit… that habit being sitting on my feet/legs; tucking them under. Though often it was infact just the one leg rather than both, and it would be interchanged often – perhaps every 5 to 10 minutes. A mixture of crossed legs too and sitting normally.

Since I’ve changed my usual computer chair, I’m restricted in that sense; leaving me with not much but the ‘number 4′ leg-cross. Primarily its simply that the chair isn’t comfortable with its solid plastic edge (using a mesh canvas for back and bum support), yet it does yield a better posture over previous chairs; with the aid of an extra lumber-support device.

Little Steps

The premise of this is that the more small activities you do, fidgeting, getting up and moving about, the healthier you should be. If everything is within arms reach, there is little exercise to be had – if you can simply wheel off to your kitchen counter for coffee, you are losing out on those vital few steps… especially if you don’t exercise properly.

So as annoying as your kids’ or fellow friends’ fidgeting is, perhaps instead of trying to pressure them in to sitting still, you should follow suite and develop a beneficial bad habit. The more small movements the better, they might take a little more time than sitting still and just moving your arm and finger or using a kick of the legs to propel you across the room – but in the long term you could see some seriously small but collectively big benefits.

Making Opportunities

It may sound weird, but set things up to make yourself move – if you have to walk across the office to get that vital file, its a few steps added to that grand total; likewise your hourly coffee. Its a matter of being a little counter-intuitive and making things more inconvenient; though not to the extent that you have to go to dangerous lengths to complete them… no jumping over crocodile pits to access the kitchen please.