10 Tips & Things You Should Know About Using a Standing Desk

Post date: Mar 21, 2013 3:43:19 AM

Reserved from http://crackberry.com/standing-desks

By Kevin Michaluk on 28 Feb 2012 11:10 pm

The TV crew from France who interviewed me in fall 2010 thought I was nuts to stand and blog

Over the last couple of years I've logged a LOT of standing hours. I've still logged a lot of sitting hours too. Look. Standing all day isn't easy. And it's not really my goal to actually stand all day. My goal wasn't to completely replace sitting with standing, but to simply make sure I wasn't sitting at the desk from 8am to midnight each day, which was often happening (when I get into the zone, I zone out and forget to eat, stand up, etc.). These days I'm at a pretty good balance and have really integrated the standing desk into my everyday work life. Here are some of the things I've learned that may help you:

1. Start the Morning Standing - When you leave the office for the night, leave the desk in the standing position. If you start the morning sitting, you're screwed. You'll never raise the desk.
2. Stand for Phone Calls - If I'm sitting and the phone or a Skype call rings through, I immediately start raising my desk as I answer and say hello. Make it a rule. If you're talking, you're standing. In a company where you have too many long boardroom meetings? Raise the board room table so everybody is forced to stand. Watch how much more productive and shorter board meetings become!
3. Pretend you're on the Starship Enterprise - Seriously, when you start doing work while standing, you feel powerful. Simple tasks like sending an email somehow give you a feeling ofa mission accomplished. At first I didn't realize why I felt so much more powerful while doing the same work I would do sitting. Then I realized, it's like you're on Starship Enterprise. You're not sitting at a desk. You're at a command console. Stand me up Scotty!
4. Stand After Lunch - I usually find myself starting the mornings standing for a couple hours, but as 11am roles around I'm lowering the desk. When I leave for lunch I raise it again. Standing after eating helps beat that post-lunch drowsiness. Even if you eat a big meal, standing after eating will help you beat it and stay productive all afternoon.
5. View Chairs As Thy Enemy - I used to love chairs. Now when I look at them I see pure evil. Well, not quite. But I definitely don't look at chairs the same way I used to. My subconcious is much more aware of the time I spend sitting now. I don't think about it, but I just can't sit like I used to. It's now a habit to want to stand up on a regular basis. If I sit too long I get antsy.
6. Work Up to Standing Slowly - If you are used to sitting at a desk all day, ease into standing slowly. Your first few attempts at standing will result in crazy burning calves. Work up to longer periods of standing over time. Rome wasn't built in a day.
7. Music Makes You Move - When you're starting out with standing desks, keep the music playing. Turning standing into desk dancing will trick you into forgetting you could be sitting, and you'll find yourself standing for longer periods of time. Need to really fight that urge to sit?Watch this Sexy & I Know It Workout Video.
8. Get a Standing Mat or Balance Cushion - Depending what the floor you're standing on is made of, you're going to want to get a mat to stand on. Concrete floors and hardwoods are unforgiving. In the video above you'll see I have a fatigue mat and also a standing balance pad thing which is fun to stand on (I don't have a lot of co-workers in the office so get away with going bare feet).
9. Figure Out Your Footwear - I could write another essay on footwear. If you're going to aim to stand a bunch during the day, you need to make sure the things strapped on your feet are going to aid you on that mission. This is going to be somewhat of an individual thing. The big thing to avoid are bad shoes. If you try to stand and your feet are killing you, try another pair. Or go barefoot, which I find is pretty good. If you don't care about looks and are going for something fit and healthy, I'm a big fan of Nike Free running shoes (which I wear barefoot). I have a couple pairs of those crazy Vibram finger shoes and have worn them too, but I personally find them too uncomfortable for long wear use indoors (I know there are a lot of Vibram fans out there, and I get that). Personally I'd rather go barefoot or go Nike Frees.
10. It's STILL OK TO SIT! - I still sit for a good chunk of the day. I find when I'm taking care of short tasks or ones that are operational -- emails, phone calls, quick blog posts, quick editing videos like the one in this article, etc. -- I can do that all perfectly well while standing. But when it comes to a task that's going to take a lot of concentration and a lot of time, I often find I need to sit so I can just buckle my brain down and power it out. Overall I personally aim to be standing for 50% or more of my work day. When I beat that I feel good. When I don't, which does happen, I make sure I beat it the next day. Beware the slippery slope of wanting to sit!

If you worked through all ten standing desk tips and you're closer to thinking "I could do this" rather than"The guy writing this article is crazy" then you might be in the market for a standing desk yourself.