![\"Businesswoman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_306130083-cce0.jpg\")
\n\t\tIf you\u2019re sat in the office all day, it can be hard to get walking breaks in (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\t\t
\n\t\tIf you\u2019re sat in the office all day, it can be hard to get walking breaks in (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re anything like me, you\u2019ll constantly be tracking your step count<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll often skip the bus in the morning to walk 25 minutes to the station, and I\u2019ve been known to walk circles around my flat at 11:59pm in order to hit that all-important 10,000 (a completely arbitrary figure, by the way).<\/p>\n Often, I find reaching my goal difficult, because I work in an office. I\u2019m sat, glued to my computer, for hours on end, only getting up to use the loo or make a cuppa.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m stuck in hyperfocus mode \u2014 common for me as I have ADHD<\/a> \u2014 I find it difficult to step away from my desk, for fear of breaking the spell.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just me. One\u00a02019 YouGov study<\/a>\u00a0found almost half (45%) of UK adults are sedentary for at least six hours each day, while 46% of working adults walk for less than an hour each working day.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAsk Metro<\/p>\n Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about \u2013 powered by Metro and trusted publications.<\/p>\n So when I read about the \u2018trigger point\u2019 method, that could help you reach your step count without even realising it, I was intrigued \u2014 and decided to give it a go.<\/p>\n \t\t \u2018Trigger points\u2019 gamify your step count. The concept, developed by Vitality\u2019s<\/a> Habit Index, involves picking various \u2018bases\u2019 in your office \u2014 like the coffee machine, the printer, or the stationery cupboard \u2014 and using that as a prompt to walk around a bit.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not about setting off on a 10 minute stroll every time you see the water cooler, but rather adding in a quick lap of the kitchen, for example.<\/p>\n I picked the kettle as my base. So, every time I saw it, I did a loop around the office. If I wasn\u2019t particularly busy, I\u2019d throw in a walk to a different floor in the building, and back up again.<\/p>\n \t\t Effectively, I turned myself into a human version of Pac-Man, and just hoped my colleagues didn\u2019t think I\u2019d lost the plot walking around in circles.<\/p>\n When I started this experiment in the morning, my step count was around 3,000, but I was feeling lethargic, reaching for my coffee with a yawn.<\/p>\n By lunchtime, I was surprised to see I\u2019d got myself up to 4,000, just by putting in a bit of extra graft.<\/p>\n On average, adults walk around 100 steps per minute, which means taking five minutes away equates to an extra 500 steps. If you do this routine a four times, you can add an extra 2,000 steps.<\/p>\n While I\u2019d previously struggled to get up from my desk for fear of destroying the hyperfocus, this actually helped to reinforce it. By lunchtime, I felt more refreshed, more alert, and more productive.<\/p>\n \t\t One 2026 study <\/a>from Harvard University found that getting a few extra steps in can help improve focus, memory, and thinking skills, which is welcome news if you\u2019re struggling to get into the flow of it in the office.<\/p>\n The experiment taught me that you don\u2019t always need to head to your local park for hours after work, even if it\u2019s arguably nicer to walk past flower beds over photocopiers.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re time poor, this trigger point technique is a great solution. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\tHow long you need to walk for every day to \u2018reduce risk of early death\u2019\t\t\t<\/p>\n A 2026 study<\/a>, conducted by the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences and published in The Lancet, estimates that\u00a0walking for just five minutes per day\u00a0could help reduce the risk of early death by 10%\u00a0for most of the general population, while\u00a0walking for 10 minutes could cut the risk by 15%.<\/p>\n But this figure is different for the \u2018least active\u2019 people among us, as for them, a five-minute walk could reduce the risk by just 6%.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t able to get out and about for a brisk walk, simply getting up and moving about your home, doing housework, for instance, could also make a difference.<\/p>\n The findings also claimed that reducing the amount of time you are sedentary (sitting and inactive) by 30 minutes each day could help to prevent around 4.5% of deaths.<\/p>\n As for step counts, the world we\u2019re hung up on reaching 10,000 per day<\/a>, but this was actually a marketing technique. The Japanese character for 10,000 (which is \u4e07) looks like someone going for a walk, so was chosen to advertise a pedometer.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s since been debunked as a gold standard that\u2019s a bit of a myth, as adults aged between 18 and 59 can generally aim for anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"Fitness](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_306130080-bfdd.jpg\")
\n\t\tYou don\u2019t actually need to reach 10,000 steps a day (Picture: Getty Images)
\nThe one thing that helped me get my step count up in the office<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_306130079-213e.jpg\")
\n\t\tHalf of UK adults are sedentary for at least six hours a day (Picture: Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_306130085-f0ec.jpg\")
\n\t\tIt\u2019s worth turning yourself into a human Pac-Man (Picture: Getty Images\/Westend61)<\/p>\n
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