Just Six Things, by Catriona

A writer’s job involves a lot of sitting - scribbling in a notepad, or hunched over in a chair, typing. Do you have a daily exercise routine? What advice would you offer to other writers, to keep themselves fit and healthy over the longer term?

Great question! I quite like exercise and I really like routines so I'm feeling smug as I embark on the answer. (If the question had been "A writer's job involves a lot of biscuits (US cookies) ... What advice would you offer to other writers to help them fit into their clothes over the longer term?" I'd have been struggling. My only solution is to have absolutely no snacks in the house whatsoever.)

How sad is that?

Anyway, I get up at six o'clock in the morning to start work at ten, with a forty-second commute, and much of that four hours is spent exercising. Wait, half of it is spent exercising actually. I read in bed with coffee for the first hour and I eat breakfast (in the garden, reading again) and get clean and clothed for the last hour. In between, I do ONE an hour of gardening and TWO an hour of exercise. On alternating days, I do half an hour outside on a trampoline, listening to Radio 4 on BBC Sounds (of which more later) plus half an hour of outdoor yoga, or a whole hour of outdoor yoga.

Later in the day, once the rural postie has been, after the summer temperature has dropped (yesterday it was after nine at night), before the winter light has gone (although a walk in the cold, starry dark is pretty lovely), THREE I go to the mailbox. Big whoop, you say? Yeah, but it's a good twenty-minute brisk march there and back. 

Manhattan it ain't

In between, when I'm at my desk, FOUR I set the timer on my phone for thirty minutes and leave it in another room. When it goes off, I stand up and do something for a wee while before resetting it again. These somethings can be: making the bed; putting away dry dishes; starting a load of washing; hanging out a load of wet washing; bringing in a load of dry washing; putting away a load of washing . . . it's mostly washing. If I used a service wash at a launderette, I'd have puffy ankles.

I forgot "colour sorting a load of washing"

Of course, sometimes writing does involve leaving your desk: to go to the post office and send off books; to go to Staples and buy more colours of Post-It notes to help with editing; to go to a coffeeshop because you need witnesses looking over your shoulder to shame you into staying off property websites (Rightmove UK has floorplans, by the way). Whenever duty calls me away, I try to FIVE park at the furthest corner of the Staples carpark and walk as far as possible to the door; park in one place in town and walk to the post office and coffeeshop rather than shift the car; or even better take my bike to the edge of town and cycle around on all my errands; and of course never ever ever take the lift instead of the stairs. It sounds less impressive than forty minutes on a machine at the gym, I know. But I was persuaded by the evidence on "exercise snacks" being better for you than long sessions. The hypothesis - borne out by studies - was that the muscle recovery period from exercising is where a lot of the benefit lies, so pumping up your muscles, briefly, many times a day is preferrable to getting it all over in a oney. (So why do I do a solid hour of exercise after a solid hour of gardening? Dunno.)

Which brings me to thing SIX. Those nods in the previous paragraph to persuasion, evidence and  studies all refer to Dr Michael Mosley, a medical doctor and science broadcaster who committed his life to evidence-based public-health messaging on British telly and radio, including on his Radio 4 podcast Just One Thing. He died last month in a tragic accident and, if you don't live in Britain, you might have missed the outpouring of grief that followed a nation's shocked disbelief that such a warm, humble, clever, generous, and helpful friend had been taken away by the cruelty of fate. 

Anyway, he has left as part of his legacy, an archive of cheerful fifteen-minute suggestions on how to live a healthier, happier life. I heartily recommend them to you. I'll never brush my teeth standing on both legs again.

Cx