20 Jul I Took the Plunge to Sit/Stand

I finally did it!

After years of writing about, talking about and recommending sit/stand desks to people, I finally took the plunge and set one up in my home office.  I think there are some amazing options out there, for my set up preferences and needs, I went with the Varidesk ProPlus 48.   And even though it’s been less than 48 hours, I can already tell that I’m going to love it.  In fact, I’m writing this post at my new desk, and here are my thoughts so far.

I love it!

Seriously.  Aside of the fact that it was easy peasy to set up (Ok my husband and brother-n-law set it up for me), it is easy to use and standing while typing feels so natural.  My standing posture is upright without even thinking about it.  In fact, slouching when standing has to be pretty deliberate.

I feel more clear headed for certain projects when I stand – and so far, more energized.  And here’s the best part, when I feel like I am getting antsy standing, or my feet feel like they’ve had enough, guess what……within 3 seconds, I sit back down!   I think this is going to work out superbly!

A few things still left to do (and I suggest you do too!)

1) If you are a laptop user like I am, either get a real external monitor (which I am about to do) or prop up your laptop up like I did (see photo) so that your screen is truly at eye level.  Otherwise, you will slouch.  Trust me on this one!

2) I now see why anti-fatigue mats are important.  I know they are important conceptually, but now that I’m standing, I can tell that my feet, knees and lower back will thank me for it.  Stay tuned on that one, but that is today’s purchase.

3) If you wear glasses, make sure to wear them!  If you don’t you will crane your neck forward and lose that beautiful upright balanced posture of yours.  Trust me on this one too!

4) Lose the high heels.  Tried that for a second and that was clearly not going to work for my feet or lower back.

5) This last one is a little involved, so stay with me here.  IF your keyboard height is not low enough for you in the sitting position – meaning that your keyboard is not level with or slightly lower than your elbows – when your desk is in the sitting position, then you want to consider a few things:

• Get a keyboard tray if your desk allows for it.  This may sound like overkill, in my case, my desk has a built in keyboard tray.  For now, I am manually putting my keyboard and mouse onto my tray when I sit.  But I am considering getting a second keyboard and mouse that sit permanently on my tray.
• If that’s too much for you, then there are sit/stand desk mount models that allow for the keyboard to go below your desk height.  Check out Ergotron’s Workfit S models

And I don’t know about you, but aside of feeling good so far when I am working, when I see more and more articles coming out about the health benefits of sit/stand set ups, ranging from burning more calories, improving circulation and decreasing my risk for breast cancer, I’m all about it!

For any of your sit/standers out there, please leave a comment and let me know what is working and not working for you.  Very curious to hear and learn from you!

Until the next time!

Vivienne