This is a not-very-good picture of my new standing desk. Colloquially known in Yiddish as a shtender. In its previous
life, it was a lectern for a German choir group. They sold it to me as part of their fundraiser garage sale yesterday morning.
I have tried the standing desk thing before. I set up a laptop holder on my bar-height countertop. It worked fairly well, but, it was a bit high for my comfort. My typical days include a mix of running around to see clients and sitting at my desk working on websites. This has always ensured enough up and down and switching chairs that I was fine with a less-than-perfect standing option. But lately, my workload has changed. I have been doing more web work and fewer client visits, which means I spent much more time sitting than I used to.
When I sit, I mostly sit in a kneeling chair or on an exercise ball. But even those get tiresome after a while. That is why I was so pleased when enroute to breakfast, I spotted the shtender sitting in someone’s driveway. But, breakfast trumps all, so we didn’t stop to take a look at it. My theory being that if it was still there after breakfast, it was clearly meant to be mine.
We spent more time at breakfast than intended because we got into a conversation with someone about the solar panels on his roof. Nonetheless, the shtender was still there when we passed the sale on our way home. The women who sold it to me was very happy that it was going to be my new standing desk. She had been ambivalent about selling it, but felt much better when she found out why I wanted it.
I am now at hour 2 of standing at my new desk and I have to say I am loving it. We put in a cork floor when we were remodelling and that makes standing that much easier. Neither my back nor feet are hurting. And my arms are at a good 90 degree angle, so I am ergonomically sound.
Now I am playing with the idea of setting a timer to make sure I switch positions every hour or so. I do tend to get so caught up in my work that time just goes flying by. I’m sure that would be better for me and make my chiropractor happier (or not, since I will likely have to see him less often). I think I will first see if I can get into the habit of switching positions before I add in an electronic nudge.