Working from home can mean answering emails from the sofa, taking calls at the kitchen table or settling in bed with your laptop. These spots are comfortable for a while, but they often leave you curled forward. The bigger change, though, may be how much less you move.

You may move less than you think

In the office, you walk to meetings, to the kitchen and to colleagues’ desks without thinking about it. At home, many of those small walks disappear. Studies from recent years found people working from home tended to sit for longer and take fewer steps. Those lost movements are often what used to break up long spells of sitting.

Changing position matters more than the perfect chair

You don’t need a perfect home office. What seems to matter more is changing position often. Working from home can make this easier, since you can move around more freely. Standing for calls, moving between spots or taking a short walk between meetings can all help.

Soft seats and slouching

Sofas and beds are designed for relaxing, so they let you sink in and round forward. It’s not that they’re harmful for a short while. They just make sitting tall hard work over a long spell.

Using your goal videos

Working from home, your goal videos show both seated and standing options. You could try the standing ones to get you up and moving between tasks. The 30-second VIDA videos are handy for quick resets.

Something to try this week

Each time you take a call, stand up for it.

What to take away

• Add back the movement you’d get in the office.
• Change position often rather than holding one.
• Choose one main spot with a firm chair at a table.
• Try the standing options in your goal videos.

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