Over the Xmas break I decided it was time to try moving to a standing desk. Working from home I quite often spend over 12hrs straight sitting at my desk and it can’t be good for me. So off to Ikea we went.
I decided to blatantly copy one if I on this ikea hack. So we got all the bits home and put the legs on the table top and wound it up to the correct height for me and it was WOBBBLY! I really wasn’t confident about putting my gear on it and it being particularly sturdy. The lady from the original hack was significantly shorter than me so my legs were a lot taller.
So I wound the desk down about 20 cm and it was heaps sturdier..hmm..not very useful. So after looking at even more hacks I decided to add a 2nd tier – which mean going back for another top and the bar connectors (very expensive). Back to Ikea we went. The top is a good size and is the limit of what we can fit in the back of the Volvo.
So we ended up buiding a 3-tier desk. It actually works quite well as I can put a bunch of stuff I want to get to but don’t need all the time on the bottom tier. I find having the monitor tier gets the monitor high enough that it isn’t partially covered by my laptop screen – so if nothing else if i ever go back to a sitting desk I’ll put one of these tier on it.
How did I go using it?
The first 2 days, but the end of the day my feet and legs were SORE! I would finish up and go and lay down in bed just to get my feet up. Each day seemed to get easier and easier. Now I find I stand a lot, have a stool nearby to sit 5 mins here and there. If I’m on the phone or writing notes I go find somewhere to sit. So my office couch is getting lots more use now. I’m finding I feel much more alert when I’m working and my legs and feet tell me when I’ve been working too long. The other night after working for over 12 hours my legs and feet were sore and told me I had to get away and go sit down somewhere.