NHS HIGHLAND: Let’s all pause and be more conscious of decisions for sake of our health
I was at an event a few days ago where a small inconvenience made me think about how we live our lives and about how we can make changes.
I was waiting in the queue for coffee and tea, and it was moving extremely slowly, much more slowly than I had expected. Then I saw that the drinks on the table were arranged after the cups with milk first, then the coffee and hot water and then tea bags.
This meant that people who wanted coffee would get that first and then go back for the milk, holding up the queue. Even worse, tea drinkers would get a tea bag then go back for the water and then the milk with further delay.
• Sign up for our free newsletters
I decided that I had to make a change and moved the milk to the other side of the coffee and hot water, but I didn’t feel that I could move all the tea bags. I think that this made the queue move more quickly but I certainly had a sense of satisfaction for trying to increase efficiency.
What has all that got to do with health you may say? Well, it did make me think about how the way that things are set up affects our behaviour.
If something is set up in a particular way, then the easiest thing to do is to follow that way rather than to change it.
If we walk into a building and the lift or escalator is straight in front of us, then we will probably use that rather than looking around to find the stairs and getting some more exercise by walking up them. If the stairs are more prominent then we are more likely to use them.
This was acted on in New York City where planning rules require that buildings should prioritise stairs over elevators for those who can climb them.
We are not able to change the layout of buildings that we visit unlike my being able to change the location of the milk and the coffee. Yet at least if we recognise that we are affected by the world around us and how things are set out we can start to make a difference.
Perhaps we can stop and pause when we go into a building and consider looking for the stairs to use if we are able to do so. Perhaps we can be more conscious of how food is set out in supermarkets and recognise that the more prominently placed items may also be those that are less good for our health.
Perhaps also we can change some parts of the layout ourselves. Just because we may have a car doesn’t mean that we must use it. Just because the bus stop is right outside our house doesn’t mean that we can’t walk some of the way.
What we can do will depend on our circumstances, but even small changes can make a significant difference.
Dr Tim Allison is NHS Highland’s director of public health and policy.
