Hundreds of millions of people around the world spend most of their day sitting in an office and at home on a couch. The unhealthy effects of sitting for prolonged periods include poor circulation, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Engaging in vigorous exercise daily is highly beneficial, but it doesn’t seem to offset the negative impact. Periodically standing is a partial solution (even the new Apple Watch provides periodic reminders to stand), but an even better approach is to stand while working for a few hours total each day.
I had read about the benefits of standing desks several years ago. I was interested not only in the health aspects, but the productivity benefits of standing which included better focus through standing with good posture and the ability to quickly access other parts of my office or move around my workplace.
It’s not that standing up and sitting down is such a chore, but you are definitely in two different modes when you are standing versus sitting. When you’re standing and working you are engaging your entire body, not just your upper torso; you’re sensing the way that weight is distributed between your legs and feet and your are less likely to be distracted by soreness, itches and other discomforts that develop when you’re on your ass for hours at a time.
I finally decided to get a standing desk for myself and began exploring my options. A straightforward option that doesn’t require special furniture is to simply elevate your current desk by placing an item (another desk, table, stools) under it. The downside of this approach is finding items that will elevate your desk just the right amount so that you can comfortably type (for me the desk surface has to be just under my elbows when I am standing), and sturdy enough not to wobble when you use it. Another downside is that you can’t use the desk as a sit/stand station, where you stand for part of the day and lower the desk to sit at it as well.
I preferred to have a purpose-built desk at my disposal, so I contacted the facilities manager at work. She told me that I could have a standing desk ordered from the catalog that they used to buy office furniture. The only suitable options were over $1000! Besides not being quite what I wanted (having a second shelf to place my monitor and second laptop) it would have been a hassle to get the purchase approved.
The third and final option that I looked at was to see what was already available in the furniture storeroom at work. My eyes fell upon what turned out to be a drafting table, but which would serve my purposes perfectly.
The drafting table that became my first standing desk.
After some emails with the facilities manager and a reprimand not to “poke around” in the storeroom (I saved us $1000 for crying out loud) I got the drafting table put into my office and adjusted the main surface to the appropriate height. The downside of the setup was that I couldn’t easily adjust it to make it a sit/stand desk, but I had another table in my office to use when I wanted to sit and kept my office chair to sit in periodically as well.
Me at my standing desk (originally a drafting table) at work.
Since moving to Poland I’ve done most of my PhD and website work in my apartment, on the couch or in coffee shops around town. This hasn’t been an ideal situation since it involves a lot of sitting and a couch isn’t an ideal place to sit if you want to focus on intellectual work. Its too soft and it relaxes your posture, when you should be sitting erect with a straight back, if not standing.
Since I didn’t want to hassle with buying a special desk (not to mention not having much room to work with) I improvised a standing desk using the method I described earlier. In this case I simply stacked one end table on top of my coffee table and the height turned out to be just right for typing. Since I don’t have a printer, stationary phone, second laptop, monitor or external keyboard, just my Macbook Air, I don’t need much room. I have enough space for a cup of coffee and some books and a notebook if need be.
Me in Warsaw at my improvised, standing desk.
While I don’t stand all of the time, having a standing desk is a great option to vary your work routine and help you focus on your work. You can purchase a custom standing desk that you can elevate and lower electronically such as the LiftPro desk (cool but too expensive in my view) or you can take my modified approach and stack an Executive Stand Steady Standing Desk on top of your regular desk or table. It’s adjustable to the height your prefer and you can use the space beneath it for a printer, phone or anything else you need, but doesn’t need to be in front of you all the time like your computer.
My use of a standing desk coincided with my first experiment with Modafinil and the cumulative effect was massive. I experienced the most productive period in my work career and ultimately decided to move to Europe as a result of it, feeling that I had achieved the most that I could in my current job.
If you don’t currently use a standing desk, I highly recommend that you give it a try, even if you just improvise like I did to see how you like it. If you do get a standing desk, be sure that you also take care of your back by wearing comfortable and supportive footwear and not standing on a hard surface. I used an industrial, anti-fatigue mat while at work.
