Hey there, I’m Elise — a desk dwelling freelance writer, self-published author, and avid blogger who absolutely loves her job!

I was born to work at a desk where I could quietly and independently be creative.

In fact, could spend all day just writing and reading if my mind and body allowed it.

As a desk worker for now over a decade, I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit being consumed by unhealthy habits that made me very unproductive.

You could say I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home and make my entire living online.

You could also say that it’s taken me a lot of painful self-discipline, rewiring of bad habits to good ones, and persistent practice to be able to work in such an isolated, sedentary, and often distracting environment.

The Health Effects of Working from Home

Spending so much time sitting and writing and running your own business comes at a cost.

It becomes way too easy to get sucked into the vortex of work and “busy-ness” instead of health and productivity.

I know exactly what it’s like to try healthy habit after healthy habit—only to fall off the wagon days, weeks, or months later.

Working at a desk all day brings a whole new set of challenges to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

When your work is primarily done at a desk, you don’t get to move quite as much or as frequently as teachers, nurses, plumbers, retail associates, massage therapists, constructions workers or anyone who works in a more traditional profession.

What’s more, the work of a desk dweller is almost entirely reliant on your mind, making mental health just as important (if not more) as physical health.

So join me as I embark on this journey toward helping fellow desk dwellers adopt practical healthy habits they can actually stick to over the long run.

This is the type of stuff that will improve your work productivity, your overall health, and your quality of life!

Desk/Computer Work Is Both Physically and Mentally Taxing

You probably already know that sitting and staring at a computer for long periods of time isn’t exactly the healthiest lifestyle habit.

Whether you work from home, run a blog, have a freelancing side hustle, or are writing your first book, you often have no choice but to suck it up and try to implement as many healthy habits as you can to help counteract the effects of prolonged creative work.

If you spend any significant amount of time writing or working at a computer in general, you probably know exactly what it’s like to deal with some of these problems:

• Trouble focusing and concentrating on your work

• Procrastination, multitasking, and distractions

• General fatigue and low energy

• Bodily aches and pains from sitting and working for too long

• Weight gain and/or muscle deterioration from a sedentary lifestyle

• A to-do list that seemingly never gets completed by the end of the day

• Stress and anxiety about how much needs to get done

• Too much time spent working and not enough time spent doing things you enjoy

• Trouble shutting your mind off from work during after-hours or when trying to sleep

Healthy Desk Dweller is all about finding simple, realistic solutions to all of these problems and more.

I Spent Years Trying to Figure Out How to Beat My Sedentary Lifestyle With a Full-Time Desk Job

Healthy living is so simple, yet so complex.

Modern day work has made it even more complex.

Us humans have brilliant minds and have limitless creativity, but we simply haven’t evolved to be sitting in front of computers all day, every day.

It’s no wonder we suffer from disease, mental health problems, and shorter lifespans.

My solution to tackle this involves a standing desk converter and a mini stepper as part of my home office setup.

Here’s a photo in case you’re having trouble imagining what that might look like:

Pictured above: My actual workspace, featuring the Rise-X Light Standing Desk Converter in white and the Sunny Health and Fitness Adjustable Mini Stair Stepper in pink and white.

It might look kind of ridiculous, but it’s my favourite solution for avoiding a sedentary lifestyle—especially in the winter months when it’s less than ideal to get outside to walk.

You can’t know how much your focus, energy, and productivity will be enhanced until you try a setup similar to this.

Compared to slumping in my office chair, forcing my body to move while I work is a total game changer.

Gaining Control Over My Health and My Life

I know you should never have any regrets in life, but I have to say, if I could have just one, my biggest regret would be the amount of time I wasted instead of being productive.

That’s time I’ll never get back.

I had to get real about my habits, so I read books, I watched videos, I bought courses, and I researched science journals.

A lot.

I learned so much about the mind and its capabilities, plus all the different ways we self-sabotage so we never get as much done as we could (or do it poorly).

From my own research and implementation, I developed a system that worked for me.

I no longer have to worry about being too sedentary or having to work overtime because I just couldn’t focus and be productive.

You Can Be More Healthier and Productive in the Office, Too

It’s a balancing act, let me tell you.

And there’s a lot of self-help junk out there that won’t get you anywhere.

I know because I’ve tried.

You can become a more efficient and productive worker even if you’re a slow learner or find it hard to get motivated.

You can move your body more even if you don’t have the funds to buy an expensive standing desk.

You can work less and live more even if you’re just getting started with running your own business.

The only thing that’s holding you back is yourself.

Wouldn’t it be nice to smash your to-do list faster and better than ever before, without feeling drained, run-down, and physically stiff/achey when it’s all said and done?

My Drive to Help You Is What Keeps Me On Track

My ultimate goal with this blog is to help myself by helping others find practical ways to balance desk work with healthy habits.

It’s far too easy to let my health fall by the wayside when I get so sucked into a new writing project.

I begin to sit more and walk less.

I start checking my phone far too often and trying to multitask.

Anxiety starts taking its toll, leaving me with a restless mind, decreased self-control, and insomnia at night.

By making the development and growth of this blog a new priority in my life, not only do I get the pleasure of working on something that combines two of my personal passions (work and health), but also the opportunity help other people like you figure out the best way to go about reaching your health and productivity goals while also working at a desk and computer.

Let’s Work Together to Beat All the Unhealthy Side Effects of This Thing Called the “Laptop Lifestyle”

Given the fact that more modern jobs are requiring more time spent sitting and glued to our computers/smartphones/tablets/whatever, I’d say that making the conscious decision—EVERY DAY—to be more active, to take care of our mental health, and to do what we love to do to recharge.

My hope is that by sharing what I’ve learned and experienced for myself through this blog, you’ll be inspired enough to adopt good healthy habits that work for your lifestyle too.

Desk work doesn’t have to be a death sentence. And it really shouldn’t be.

We all have everything we need to offset the negative of effects of sedentary, high-stress work.

The question that remains is whether or not we’re willing to put in the effort to do it—and continue doing it to maintain it over the long run.

You don’t have to go it alone.

If you’ve made it this far down my About page, then I know you’re really ready to invest some time and energy into this.

Your first step should be signing up for my 10 Awesome Workspace Hacks below, and I’ll see you on the other side of the sign-up form!