Increasing your exercise helps reduce the risk of serious diseases and also helps you shed pounds faster. If you’re like many people in our country, your job is at a desk and often on the computer. It’s important to take frequent breaks to walk a bit and improve blood flow, but that’s not always possible, especially if you’re on a big project. The alternative is to have a standing desk. The best is one that converts from sitting to standing very quickly. Some of these are quite costly and the expense may not be justified by the benefits you receive. However, it doesn’t take much to build a standing desk and if you’re handy, you can even build one that is suitable for both standing and sitting.
How tall should it be?
You want the desk to be tall enough so that when you’re using your best posture, standing up straight, you can look at the screen and easily see the top third of it, since most of the time, that’s where your eyes are focused. It’s as though an imaginary line is drawn from your eyes straight to the screen top. If you hold your arms to your sides and bend them at the elbow to 90 degrees you should be able to lightly touch the keyboard.
Building a standing desk doesn’t have to be a complicated project.
If you want a simple project that costs under $60, a few pieces of wood, a reclaimed door or large piece of plywood, two saw horses, some paint, nails and a bit of effort can create a great standing desk that has the industrial décor look. The saw horses become the legs for the desk and the door or plywood is the top. The extra wood is to create shelves in the legs of the saw horse for storage. You can get a chair that is taller for the desk for those times you just need to take a break from standing or have more intense work that requires total focus.
Try a table on the wall.
A great idea that’s relatively inexpensive, just about the cost of dinner for two at an average restaurant, about $20. build a small table to go onto your desk. You need wall shelf brackets and wide shelving or premade desktops. Identify the ideal height of your standing desk. Measure twice (or more) to insure it’s the proper height. Screw in the shelf brackets and put on the desktop without permanently attaching it. Use a level to ensure it’s level and then attach it permanently. It takes less than an hour and costs very little. You can put this shelf above your regular desk.
- Use an Ikea lackside table for a tabletop desk. Simply use brackets to attach a Viktor shelf for the keyboard. It works best if you have two monitors and a program to switch the two.
- Check out one of the top shelves of a book case. This would require moving the monitor and keyboard and is best if you have a laptop.
- Scott Rumschlag has created plans for a wooden convertible standing table that uses counterweights. You have to be handy in the shop to create it, but with perseverance anything is possible. It costs about $30 to make.
- You may be tempted just to stack up some books for the monitor to set on and a stack for the keyboard. It’s okay to use to find the height for a project and maybe test it for a few days, but too wobbly over the long haul. You’re better off spending the $20-$30 dollars to see if you like a standing desk.