My Standing Desk Experiment: Week 1 (Or, How I Hacked Together A Standing Desk for Free)

In the past couple years, I’ve read many blog posts and news stories about how sitting is killing us, and we were not made to sit stationary for hours at a time. Along with that, more and more people are trying out standing desks, to avoid some of the pitfalls of sitting.

I like the idea of standing desks, but don’t really want to invest any money into it until I try it out, so I hacked one together with stuff I already have:

It’s just a table on a table, with some stuff on the ground to stand on, to reach the right height.

Some initial notes:

• Sore feet! I’ve only spent a few hours standing so far, but my feet get quite sore. Walking around once in a while helps!
• Typing feels much more natural. I think this is the first time I’m actually typing in an ergonomically-correct way, and it feels great!
• I probably need a stand for my monitor, so I don’t have to look down at it.
• I walk around a lot more, and can easily pace back and forth when I need to think about a problem.

Where to go from here?

• Standing desk or not, I need to get an actual desk. The Frederik desk from Ikea is adjustable, so it should work as either a standing or sitting desk.
• I’ll try this out for a few weeks and see how it goes! I only use this computer on evenings and weekends, so it’s not too crazy to stand for those times.

Side note: Also visible in the photo is the exercise ball I was using as a chair previously.