jessenoller.com

My orig­i­nal stand­ing desk post — “Switch­ing to a Stand­ing Desk” has gar­nered a lot of atten­tion — and a lot of ques­tions. I’ve also seen a rise in the num­ber of peo­ple try­ing out stand­ing setups due to that post and the near onslaught of new arti­cles and peo­ple con­vert­ing to a stand­ing setups in the months since. It seems to be quite the trend now. More stud­ies have been com­ing out cit­ing that sit­ting as long as we (pro­gram­mers, writ­ers, etc) do is fun­da­men­tally harm­ful — for me, switch­ing to stand­ing was less dri­ven by those facts, than need­ing a change — leg pain, back pain — I needed some­thing more. I sit enough through­out a nor­mal day.

Stud­ies and articles:

• Sit­ting time and mor­tal­ity from all causes, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, and cancer.
• Leisure Time Spent Sit­ting in Rela­tion to Total Mor­tal­ity in a Prospec­tive Cohort of US Adults
• Phys­i­ol­o­gists And Micro­bi­ol­o­gists Find Link Between Sit­ting And Poor Health
• Can’t Stand to Sit Too Long? There’s a Desk for That
• “Why your desk job is killing you slowly” — Men’s Health (HN Link)
• “Your Office Chair is Killing you” — Busi­ness­week (HN Link)
• “Sit­ting all Day: Worse for you than you might think” — NPR (HN Link)

I fig­ured since I’m rapidly approach­ing 6 months into the “exper­i­ment” — I should post a fol­lowup along with my cur­rent thoughts as well as even more infor­ma­tion on how to setup your own rig, new stud­ies, and other arti­cles that have come up.

My orig­i­nal setup was a bit of a rig: I stole (bor­rowed) a table from one of the kitchens in our build­ing and hacked together some­thing that while ser­vice­able, had a few obvi­ous prob­lems — the key one being it was wob­bly (I’m not a light typ­ist). Wob­bly, while annoy­ing, was still tol­er­a­ble and prefer­able to the back pain, lethargy and other things that drove me to try it out in the first place. Other prob­lems included not being at the opti­mal arm-height (it was close) and well — lack of desk space.

Sev­eral months ago, I was lucky enough to have my employer (Nasuni) notice my exper­i­ment and we made a deal — if I stuck to the rig for a month, and still wanted to stand, they would get me an offi­cial stand­ing desk. I exceeded the goal a bit — not only did I stand at the setup for a month — I com­pletely ditched sit­ting the first week. I haven’t sat in a chair in my cube since I started stand­ing months ago. So work pitched in and got me a GeekDesk 2.0 — victory!

Here’s the “per­fect” setup:

The tran­si­tion itself from sit­ting to stand­ing was pretty easy for me — given the num­ber of changes I’ve made in the past year in terms of weight loss, exer­cise, etc at this point I’m prob­a­bly in the best phys­i­cal con­di­tion I have been in my entire life. So ulti­mately I didn’t have many of the tran­si­tion issues peo­ple some­times cite (foot / leg pain, tired­ness, etc) with mov­ing to a stand­ing desk.

The minor issues I had mainly revolved around:

• Feet: I had to find a non-bulky, well made pair of shoes. In my case, I started wear­ing New Bal­ance Min­imus Trail style “min­i­mal­ist” shoes — they’re form fit­ting (mean­ing no socks) and have almost no sole to them. Addi­tion­ally, I had already picked up a good com­fort mat to stand on — that way I had some­thing more giv­ing than the car­pet cov­ered concrete.
• Get­ting things at the right height: I chose the Geekdesk because it’s got hydraulic legs that allow you to set a per­fect height — one where your elbows are at a 90 degree angle when your hands are rest­ing on the key­board, or slightly lower than that. This, plus my stan­dard Microsoft Ergo key­board means my typ­ing pos­ture is prob­a­bly the best that it’s ever been. Addi­tion­ally, while I have a height adjustable mon­i­tor — I used an addi­tional mon­i­tor stand to get my mon­i­tor posi­tion at roughly eye level (I pre­fer the hor­i­zon­tal cen­ter of the mon­i­tor to be slightly below eye level — use what’s com­fort­able). This way I’m not look­ing down/tilting my head an extreme amount, in most cases I’m only look­ing slightly down.
• Switch­ing posi­tions: When we hack/get involved in some­thing we all have a ten­dency to hold dead still except for our hands — instinc­tu­ally even though I was stand­ing, I would some­times find myself stand­ing rigid, feet shoul­der width apart with my back straight. While fun­da­men­tally not bad this can just cause your body to get tired/sore/whatever. I had to start let­ting my more ratio­nal brain allow my body to move, force your­self to gen­tly shift your posi­tion. In my case I’ve even found myself danc­ing to music slightly, even when deep in cod­ing or writ­ing because my body now knows it can move freely.
  • I’ve actu­ally found myself stand­ing with one leg bent and my foot against the inside of the oppo­site knee. This means stand­ing on one foot — I didn’t notice it until some­one asked me if I was doing yoga in my cube. Between this and the danc­ing at my desk, I think the weird-o-meter is maxed out.
• Allow­ing myself a break: I set bound­aries for myself — I’m no super­hu­man and genetic aber­ra­tion. My body needs rest. My agree­ment with myself was this — if I stand dur­ing work ses­sions, I will sit dur­ing lunch and take an after­noon break of 15 min­utes and sit, have a snack, some­thing. This way I give my body a chance to relax.

Noth­ing ground­break­ing, really. Allow your­self to move/change posi­tions (my default is back straight, feet shoul­der width apart, knees slightly bent) — get some­thing nice to stand on / some good shoes and set expec­ta­tions. Rev­o­lu­tion­ary sci­ence and advice, I know.

After just a few weeks I noticed a change — I had more energy, I felt more active and alive, I breathed bet­ter (not hunched), I was actu­ally calmer, more reflec­tive and able to focus when needed. My body felt great — my legs felt stronger, my back a thou­sand times bet­ter, my neck bet­ter, etc. I’ve had all the upsides and few down­sides. I lost more weight/gained more mus­cle in my legs and back — good times!

I will say that peo­ple get con­fused — peo­ple walk­ing by, when they see a programmer/hacker hunched over a key­board in a chair, deep in thought see a giant “do not dis­turb” sign. When you’re stand­ing, hack­ing away deep in thought peo­ple tend to have the instinct that you’re more approach­able. And they like to pop in for a quick chat. Noth­ing bad in and of itself — a break never hurt any­one. But cowork­ers who don’t notice your ear­buds in your ears might get con­fused when they have an entire con­ver­sa­tion with some­one who is com­pletely checked out, stand­ing there.

No, I’m not being rude. While I do do yoga, I have not quite reached the level of being able to sense a dis­tur­bance in the force.

Approach­a­bil­ity works both ways though: I find myself more approachable/less hos­tile to peo­ple drop­ping in to talk. I’m more relaxed, less aggres­sive and ulti­mately more at ease when some­one inter­rupts me, or catches me in between things to talk. I enjoy white board­ing with them more, I don’t spin around in my chair and snarl at them because I was elbow deep in an epic yak shav­ing. I just take a breath, turn around and start talking.

I feel more refreshed; and switch­ing “into work” and “out of work” (mean­ing, in and out of a task) is easier/more approach­able. My body feels bet­ter — so much bet­ter that sit­ting actu­ally feels awk­ward to me. Ask my wife, any time I work at home I whine because I end up sit­ting. Sit­ting has become some­thing I do when I want to relax, or because I have to — not some­thing I do auto­mat­i­cally. Not to men­tion, you sim­ply burn more calo­ries stand­ing than sit­ting still. It will help you pay down that debt you had for lunch!

Don’t get me wrong — I like kick­ing up my legs with my lap­top in my lap, and beat­ing away on my key­board. It’s just those times are dif­fer­ent now — almost more spe­cial and valu­able to me rather than the default-of-lethargy that I had before sit­ting all the time. I can say sit­ting here on a plane typ­ing this may quickly drive me insane however.

My two sec­ond review of the Geekdesk? It’s awe­some — it’s the per­fect height, and it can carry enough weight my four year old can ride it like some­thing at a car­ni­val. I’ve stacked my mac pro/books/etc on it and the hydraulic legs don’t even flinch. I can set it at any height, or drop it down to sit (although I never have). It’s well build, sturdy, and had a lit­tle cable run­ner thing attached to the bot­tom of the desk where I can squir­rel cables away (but as you can see in the pic­ture — I’m much to lazy for that). The desk space is enough for me to have my note­book to one side and my lap­top to the other and key­board on the cen­ter with room to spare. It really is great.

That said — is the Geekdesk for every­one? Yes!

Is it pro­hib­i­tively expen­sive, hence why I don’t have one at home right now? Also yes!

Most peo­ple (myself included) can’t find it in our bud­gets to finance some­thing like this — heck, it’s the same thing with good chairs — they run seri­ous cash. Most peo­ple will look to put together a more eco­nom­i­cal solu­tion. In most cases, you can avoid build­ing some­thing your­self if you live any­where close to an Ikea — the cheap­est option I’ve found for some­thing that comes close to a basic set of specs:

• Decent amount of desk space
• Doesn’t look like crap
• Can have the main work area set to the opti­mal height

Is the Ikea Fredrik desk — this used to be called the “Galant” desk, and its setup allows you to put together a stand­ing rig approach­ing a ratio­nal price for your home. It’s also ok for propos­ing to bosses who would beat you with a rolled up news­pa­per if you sug­gested spend­ing 800$ on an ergonomic desk (although — why are you work­ing for some­one like that, Stock­holm Syndrome?).

The Fredrick is the best option I’ve found that’s “off the shelf” — there are plenty of plans out there that describe how to build one — and I applaud those who have the wood work­ing skills needed. Here are some of the var­i­ous plans and pre built desks float­ing around out there that I cite when asked:

• Pre Built
  • Anthro Adjusta­bles
  • The GeekDesk
  • Table Legs MD
  • Ergo Depot
  • Adjust­Ta­bles
• DIY Solu­tions
  • Build an Adjustable stand­ing desk with a pipe and a eke clamp
  • The 5 sec­ond stand­ing desk
  • Hack­ing together a stand­ing Ikea desk
  • Another Ikea Solution
  • DIY Stand­ing Desk
  • Stand­ing Desk for 20$
  • Of course, the google image search will give you a bil­lion ideas
  • Holy Moly Elec­tric plans

Oth­er­wise, if you’re stuck in a cube or office where you can’t chuck the exist­ing decor for some­thing more civ­i­lized (mean­ing, it’s bolted to the walls or the cube farm would col­lapse like a hobo vil­lage built out of card­board boxes if you removed your L shaped cube desk) here’s a set of the best “hacks”  or attach­ments I’ve seen (feel free to share your own:

• Ergotron Work­fit — a review is here
• Sit-Stand addi­tions for cubicles
• Try­ing the Stand­ing desk
• Stand­ing Desk in a cubicle
• Tell me about your stand­ing desk — paleohacks
• Stand­ing Desk: Cubi­cle edition
• DIY Stand­ing Desk Cubicle

Now — remem­ber, even if your stuck in a cube in most cases, the height of the main desk area can be changed/raised — you just need an office man­ager will­ing to lis­ten. Most desks in cubes can eas­ily be moved lower, or higher depend­ing on needs. Some­times you may have to get rid of your shelves — but what do you put there other than pret­zels and books you don’t read? Sta­bil­ity, sta­bil­ity, stability!

For the home? I’d start trolling craigslist for podi­ums or lecterns if you aren’t good with tools or you lack an Ikea. Or, if you can forgo aes­thet­ics you can go the home-depot-cinderblock route. This is the eas­i­est if you just want to exper­i­ment. Just mea­sure what height your cur­rent desk is, then mea­sure the height from your bent-90-degrees and stand­ing on a com­fort­able mat elbows to the floor. Sub­tract the height of your cur­rent desk and either go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy cin­derblocks and a piece of nice, sanded and pre-finished or stained hard­wood to stack on top of your cur­rent desk to raise your key­board, mouse and mon­i­tor to the needed heights, or just buy the same to place under your desk legs to move it up.

In the lat­ter case, if you have a desk with a key­board tray, this works in your favor as you can get the key­board at the 90 degree angle and give your mon­i­tor a quick boost. Cin­derblocks or bricks, while not look­ing cool, are obvi­ously sturdy and sta­ble. Of course, if you have a glass-topped desk at home (as I do) I would rec­om­mend against putting it on top.

Me at my setup recently:

Fun­da­men­tally, it’s just a mat­ter of get­ting your hands and eyes at the right heights while stand­ing. Every­thing else is aes­thet­ics and noise. Switch­ing has helped me immensely and for the bet­ter. Will I never be a “a sit­ter” again? Never say never. I will say that it’s def­i­nitely not for every­one, and while I might sound like a card car­ry­ing cultist — even I real­ize it’s a tough thing to swal­low for most hackers.

As for the now noto­ri­ous study that came out recently that stated that you would sud­denly develop vari­cose veins and die if you stood all day? The data the researchers cited dis­agrees with them (take a look at the hacker news thread). While I don’t dis­agree with the fun­da­men­tal mes­sage: move reg­u­larly, stu­pid — I don’t agree with the breath­less results and report­ing and age-old rehash­ing of “per­fect key­board angle and age old ergonom­ics”. No one lis­tens to ergonom­ics experts any­way, and most com­pa­nies put +ignore on basic ergonom­ics. Stand­ing while you work is a per­fectly good way to improve your­self in a vari­ety of ways, not just improv­ing how long you can sit star­ing at a screen all day.

Try stand­ing — seri­ously. It may not be for you, but you might be sur­prised. I didn’t think I’d be doing yoga, didn’t think I’d be stand­ing at a desk, didn’t think I’d be a dad, eat­ing Paleo/Keto and lis­ten­ing to heavy metal. Some­times a change or try­ing some­thing out that seems crazy or daunt­ing is just what you need.

Other good stand­ing desk reads:

• My Stand­ing Desk Exper­i­ment (zenhabits)
• Stand­ing at work: Mark’s Daily Apple
• Why and How I Switched to a Stand­ing Desk
• This pod­cast (Build and Ana­lyze Episode 21) has a good bit on stand­ing desks vs. exer­cise balls
• “How Do you avoid sit­ting down all day” — Lifehacker
• “Stand­ing Desk Tips” — Boing Boing
• “Sit­ting down makes you fat” — Treehugger
• Stand­ing Desk — 1 year later

My orig­i­nal stand­ing desk post — “Switch­ing to a Stand­ing Desk” has gar­nered a lot of atten­tion — and a lot of ques­tions. I’ve also seen a rise in the...