Londonist was tickled by an href=”http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/display.var.1736348.0.a_healthy_life_is_a_few_steps_away.php”>article about a Kingston University chappie who reckons he has found the perfect way to motivate the slothful into taking more exercise. This on a day when this particular Londonista chose to stay in blogging instead of pounding the treadmill. Lecturer Oliver Webb plastered brightly coloured (we’d like to think they were post-it) notes bearing the words:“Seven minutes of stair climbing daily protects your heart”
all over the stairwell of a local shopping centre, and then monitored the take-up rate of his advice. Staircase usage increased by a very impressive 190%.
Now obviously notes that remind us about things that we’d rather not think about – like how much we drink, smoke or fail to exercise – can be darned irritating. Nanny government and all that. But even so, frivolous bits of paper are so much friendlier and sillier than formal lecturing that their messages are bound to sink in.
And notes that are fun, and unexpected, and on a pretty shade of paper, really stick in the mind – as art out of them now.
Post-its are the way forward. Government departments take note.
Image courtesy of tbuesing’s flickr stream.
