I’ve been toying around with the idea and implementation of a standing desk for some time. Inspired by my friend Ben Lew and having read a couple articles (like this one) about the benefits of standing and working I’ve been wanting to give it a shot. I was however pretty nervous about going cold turkey and getting rid of my chair all at once.

My ideal scenario was to get a sit-stand desk that could raise and lower easily. As you can tell if you clicked that link, the desks are pricey, and currently outside of my desk budget.

I also came to the conclusion that I would probably lower it all too often thereby negating the advantages of having a standing desk, and that if I was going to do this, I just had to bite the bullet and go for it 100%.

I decided at the end of last week that I would go ahead and try it. I would spend a week standing at my desk, but I didn’t want to invest any money in the project until I knew I was going to be able to make it work. So I propped up a bunch of boxes and had my first experimental standing desk arrangement (the picture was taken with Instagram hence the style).

It worked well and I started to see a lot of benefits from standing. Here are a few of them:

• More energy and alertness. I used to get really tired about an hour after lunch, and would have a hard time focusing. Slouching in my chair I would nearly fall asleep sometimes, resorting to some afternoon coffee or just trying to get through the rest of work at a lower capacity. Since I’ve been standing I don’t feel as tired.
• I am happier overall, this is hard to quantify, but I get more enjoyment out of my work. I think the physical act of standing, being able to move around definitely makes my sometimes monotonous job a lot more enjoyable.
• Health benefits. As outlined by the article above, there are numerous health benefits to standing. While I do go to the gym (most) mornings, it doesn’t make up for the 10+ hours I spend sitting.

So after seeing these benefits I decide it was time to get a more permanent setup. For just under $60 I was able to build this setup, which so far (1 week in) has been amazing. I love having so much workspace and it’s the perfect height, without any adjustments to the bookshelves.

The simple list of items I used:

1. Hollow core slab door
2. 2 Bookshelves (I found these for $16 at my local Target)