Goal: Stop slouching
Noticing when you slouch, without overthinking it
Dr Nicola Tik
You might only realise you’ve been slouching when you catch your reflection, or when your shoulders start to feel tight. That’s completely normal. The first step towards sitting tall more often isn’t fixing your posture. It’s simply noticing it.
Your body adjusts its position automatically, so slouching happens without you deciding to do it. Research comparing how office workers think they sit with what sensors actually measured found that people’s sense of their own posture often didn’t match reality. That’s not a failing. It just shows how much of our posture happens below our awareness.
Studies using posture feedback, like gentle vibration alerts when someone slumps, suggest that simply becoming aware helps people change position more often.
A check-in takes a few seconds. You don’t need to correct anything. Just notice:
Then simply name it to yourself, like “leaning forward” or “pretty upright”.
Check-ins are easier to remember when they’re tied to moments that happen anyway, such as:
The aim isn’t to catch yourself out. Many people find that once they start noticing, they slouch less often without trying. If you do want to change position, the 10-second reset is there, but noticing on its own is progress.
Choose one moment, like opening your laptop, and do a quick posture check-in every time it happens. Just notice and name what you find.