I like reading in bed. In fact, I spent most of my hardcore university days studying inside it.
I never had a fancy Herman Miller’s SAYL chair
Well, that, and the fact that I’m a lazy motherf***er.
A few months ago I saw a cool infographic on the dangers of sitting down and then read about the “miraculous” benefits of standing desks.
I’ve always been a fan of watching other people’s clever IKEA hacks, mods and DIY projects.
Especially those kinds of “featured workstation setup” photo-posts where all you see is Apple gadgets meticulously organized by their OCD owners, who, by the way, need three 30″ cinema displays just to show off their minimalist panoramic wallpaper.
Such a GREAT source of inspiration…
Anyway, right when I was about to saw off the legs of an innocent LACK coffee table I saw my sister’s green Mammut stool sitting on a corner of her room, collecting dust.
I put it on my desk and, to my surprise, it didn’t only have the perfect height but it could also be moved around the house with ease.
This portable standing desk now follows me, and my macbook air, everywhere I go (inside the house, don’t think I am THAT geek)
I recently put a deck on top of it so I can use my magic mouse and wireless keyboard. I want to raise the macbook higher so it’s at eye level but that will require a little tweaking.
For now, I just tilt the screen back a bit. It works for me.
Back pain is gone and my feet are adapting pretty nicely. I’m sure the fact that I’m using barefoot shoes helps with this.
Some people use yoga mats to eliminate foot pain but I don’t think it’s needed. One of the points of working standing up is to make your feet stronger. And for that you’ll need to find the right balance point on the balls of your feet (never rest on your talons!)
But Why Use a Standing Desk?
Simple: Higher calorie burn and better posture. My last years in college studying in bed (deckchair, in summer days), and other un-healthy habits didn’t particularly contribute to any of that so why not try it now?
Doing this kind of “stupid little things” like walking barefoot, waking up earlier or drinking more water somehow “adds up”.
The best way to eliminate a bad habit is to start small.
Set an easy, sustainable goal wherever you think there’s room for change and go for it. Then, set another one. It will “add up”.
I will be working with this kind of setup for at least for a few more weeks and will report back with my thoughts.
Here is a nice TED talk by Google’s Matt Cutts talking about how to change your habits by sticking to doing little things for at least 30 days.
If you want to try this little standing desk challenge with me, find a way to rise your laptop so that your arms rest at a 90 degree angle while you are standing up and let me know how you are doing on google+ +Alejandro Portela.
If you have any standing desk tips or interesting links to share leave a comment down below :)
You can read more good reasons why you should work standing up in this great post by Gina Trapani at LifeHacker.
I’ve always hated running. Probably because it was that boring warm-up thing we had to do before playing sports, and also the punishment for “behaving nuts” during training. Ah… good times.
