If you WFH or have sedentary job - would you find this useful? (honest thoughts pls)

[sittingtoomuch]

Hiya – I’d really appreciate some honest views on an app idea.

During Covid, when I was WFH much more, I realised I was sitting for very long stretches. With all the talk about sitting being “the new smoking”, I started thinking how useful it would be to have something that simply reminds you to stand up and move a bit during the day.

As I went further down the research rabbit hole, I was genuinely surprised by the science around very short bursts of activity – aka “exercise snacks” – things like 1-2 minutes of more vigorous movement, which seem to improve health markers across the board and potentially support health and quality of life later on.

This really struck a chord with me personally, as my dad died suddenly at 60, largely because he didn’t look after his own health (ironically, he was a GP).

So the idea I’m working on is an app aimed at people with sedentary jobs or who work from home (or who care about your future health). It gives gentle nudges during the day for:

short bursts of vigorous exercise (e.g. jumping jacks, squats)
mobility and strength moves (e.g. wall sits, planks)
breathing exercises (e.g. box breathing)
mindful moments (e.g. a short nature break or pause)

Everything is backed by science/research, and you choose how long the movements last (30 seconds to 2 minutes), which ones you do, and how often you’re prompted. You can snooze if you’re busy, and there’s light encouragement like streaks rather than pressure.

My genuine questions are:
is this something you’d find useful?
would you ever pay a small monthly amount if you felt it genuinely helped your future health?

Just trying to work out whether this is actually useful or a nice idea that wouldn’t get used in real life 🤔

I used to have a Fitbit that did something like this. Every hour it used to beep at me and tell me me to get up and do stuff. I used to ignore it.

If it was cheap and it told you what exercise to do. And had some reasoning behind it, say mixing up cardio and strength and mobility. And it had a cheerful, encouraging personality, like park to 5k has ( would not have to be a famous person), then yes I would.

because I have been meaning to get up ever 40 mins or so and exercise for 5 mins for about two years but never have. I get into a slump and just don’t do it.

An encouraging, well produced, but cheap, app could be exactly the motivation I need.

I think the encouraging voice would be key to making it work. Feeling someone was on your side and cheering you on and encouraging you, with a little bit of chat and commentary too.

Thanks again for all your incredibly helpful feedback - it’s mid-build so it’s helping hugely. I just wanted to briefly answer a few points. In terms of building it, my DH is (handily!) an app developer, I’ve launched and marketed apps before, so all good on that front. Useful advice on having less vigorous movements for less active folk (and I’ll always encourage a warm-up). Ditto including WFH and WFO options. One-time fee is a good shout. Yes watches can tell you to stand up and in some cases tell you to move… as mine does… and yes you can add prompts to your calendar if you were motivated… but what I’ve found is I want to be told what to do (and every movement/activity has scientific reasoning and intention behind it), and be able to personalise what days/times/how long. It’s a broader approach, from meaningful movement to mindfulness (it’s your choice which ones). It’s “bro longevity science” (if living well for longer is your bag, it might not be, it wasn’t for me till mid forties) but packaged in a gentle, doable, easy-to-understand way. It’s an incredibly personal passion project, and basically I didn’t find an option that ticked all my boxes. So I’m going to make it. I want to try and help people live stronger and healthier as they age. If it helps one person, I’ve won. That’s it really 😊

@Everythingmadu Encouragement and seeing how well you’re doing is definitely the key here. Also it’s all framed round your “why”. Why do you want to safeguard your health for the future? Personally I want to dance at my grandkids’ weddings in my 90s ☺️

@MassiveOvaryaction I’ll ask DH if it’s possible 😉 (ps- love your username 😂)

I assume you've gamified it? Building streaks, etc?

And there's a reason apps don't charge a one-time fee. That makes you no money. You'd have to keep having to create upgrades for which they would pay. Or not pay.

@TwentyFourHoursToTulsa yes, it encourages streaks. Don’t want to over-complicate with bells and whistles at this stage, as launching and getting feedback will help guide it. Plenty of apps charge a one-time fee. It can be an option alongside a monthly fee.

It didn’t let me finish below. Wanted to say if it helps one person, I’ve won. That’s it really.

No, my old smart watch used to tell me to move and I found it annoying. Sometimes I’d be in the middle of a 15 mile hike and it would send me an alert. 😂 I think the thing is that people who are sedentary are sitting and working, so they aren’t staring at an app, or they’re simply lazy and therefore an app isn’t going to motivate them for any length of time one the novelty wears off.

I don’t ever pay for any apps, so you’d lose me there with payment or subscription.

No I wouldn't use this as I'm already sick of my phone and watch constantly giving me notifications. I want less tech and less apps, not more. Plus I've have to remember to snooze it multiple times a day for meetings which is one more thing to do in an already busy day. If I wanted to move more I'd do it when I can rather than being told to by a piece of plastic.

You haven’t been clear about what your app offers over the millions of free or inbuilt options that are already on the market.

Why would anyone pay for what you’ve done?

should add, my watch tells me to move but I totally ignore it. Sometimes I will have just done a 15km run and be sat down for half an hour after and it tells me to move and I want to throw it across the wall 😂

I could turn the alerts of but I convince myself they will be helpful when I’m working but realistically if I get a notification to move when I’m mid meeting or very focused I forget about it by the time I’m able to move again.

@99pwithaflake People don’t need another app shouting instructions (when they’re not open to hearing them)… they need something that feels like a friend, encouraging them to keep going and reminding them why (this is only going to appeal to people who care about the why - some folks may never get there). That’s the crux of it. It’s not for everyone, and that’s ok.

I initially thought no. I have a garmin that prompts me to move every hour, tells me if I'm stressed, tells me to meditate/do yoga in the evening. I'm usually too busy to get up every hour when it prompts me too.

However, having read further posts, what would be useful would be say twice in the work day eg 11am and 3pm, direct instructions saying do 2 minutes doing x activity, with different activities and the background/benefit to it. I'd probably be motivated by the streak too. If it worked, I might pay a small monthly fee.

This sort of research really doesn;t bother me. MN is a place to chat. OP is discussing this the way you might down the pub with mates. No one is obliged to chip in. It's hardly a targetted marketing survey. It's kicking around some ideas. Why not? It's way more interesting (to me, anyway) hearing how another woman might develop an app than rabbiting on about the Beckhams, CoL and the ridiculous, endless stream of 'my husband lets me eat one grain of rice a day and calls me porky, should I leave him?' threads that seem to fill active discussions these day.

@Tonissister I would definitely LTB if they said that to me 😉 Appreciated your comment, thank you.

Maybe years ago this app would be seen as useful but not now. So much advice about fitness is available on phones for free, plus the phones themselves are easy to prompt you to do something.

I am an advocate of small amounts of exercise in a day so I link them to activities. Boil a kettle, 10 squats. Go to the loo, 10 kick backs etc.

We just deleted all our subscriptions- saved a fortune :-)

I would find this useful. I have apps to stop me going on social media during work hours, apps to track my intermittent fasting and apps to tell me what housework needs doing. I am clearly someone who responds well to being told what to do by an app!

Not really. I hate notifications on my phone and if I am busy I can't just stand up. And I hate mindful suggestions.

If I have a couple of minutes I am normally up and down the stairs, throwing a load of washing in or hanging it up. Or making one of too many cups of tea,

I try to have a proper break during my lunchbreak now.

I have used an app like that when I was working It was on the PC and every so often it said to get up and walk around, do stretches, move, look away from the screen etc. I can't remember it's name but it definitely existed, at least it did around 10 years ago.
To be honest though eventually I disabled it because I found the interruption very annoying when I was busy and had to get something finished!

The dangers of sitting too much whilst WFH are real, and I wish I'd listened more during the pandemic! That said, the issue has had a very high profile since, and I'm not sure there's much scope for yet another app in this field. Work provided us all with an app for to use for just this purpose. After a year they discontinued their subscription as feedback showed that either people had no interest in it, or those that did found it a bit redundant as they had their own ways/apps/phone notifications etc to remind them.

No I wouldn't. I have to concentrate and focus and don't appreciate interruptions. There is no way I could stand up and do my work at the same time. I like doing a job that involves sitting down and a doing lot of writing, as I love writing. If I wanted a manual job I'd do one. I like exercise and walking and pottering about the house and garden but I also enjoy doing a lot of sitting and lying down. I've done jobs where I'm on my feet all day and purposely picked a job where I could sit down a lot. I really hate standing. Sitting is great. Lying down and putting my feet up is even better. I'm much healthier now I have a job where I can be at home most of the time and just commute two or three days a week . I was the least healthy in my life when I had to commute four or five days a week and work long hours. I like being able to exercise for several hours a week, work for a few hours and have a lot of time faffing about doing nothing in particular. My brain needs a lot of lounging around, faffing and pootling about time. Then I can spend a bit of focus time getting my work done.

I don't need my phone to remind me anything else . Your idea has been done by 100000000 other apps.

In fact, I tend to not even want to look at my phone if I'm working.

It is a good idea. I might use it if it was free but can also imagine getting annoyed at it and muting it like I do duolingo. Def wouldn't pay for it though which is the challenge for a lot of good ideas sadly!

But there might be people who would pay if it made things super easy like had a meditatin ready for you so you just press play etc. Not me though and I don't like being being reliant on phone