After pivoting to working from home in March 2020, environmental scientist Jill Trescott of Randolph, Minnesota, was thrilled with the extra time she gained from dropping her commute. But soon, she found herself missing the steps she took from the parking lot to her desk, coffee breaks, and walks to team meetings. She just wasn’t moving as much as she used to.
“I realized I was often coming out of my home office at the end of the day having barely moved all day,” she says. “My new work days had a lot less built-in walking.”
The lack of movement started to wear on her body. So Trescott, who still works remotely, found ways to prioritize wellness: She blocks off time on her calendar for a long walk each day and posts movement reminders in social media groups she’s a part of to encourage others to get moving, too.
While in many ways, working from home lends itself to wellness — you can cook a healthy lunch or easily stretch in your athletic pants — for many workers, today’s new normal of remote work also means spending even more time sitting and staring at screens than before the pandemic.
