take a stand

Although I've seen several standing desk arrangements around the office over the last several years, some recent post I saw about the possible health benefits renewed my interest enough to try it for myself. Before making any drastic changes to furniture at the office, I decided to jury-rig something in my home office and try it out for two days whilst working from home. Ah, Rubbermaid containers - is there anything you can't do?

After two days of trying this arrangement, I've learned the following:

• All the firsthand accounts I read of people trying a standing desk arrangement for the first time are true: you do feel more alert later in the day, but your feet will hurt for at least the first few days!
• Alternating between standing and sitting works best for me - so far, a ratio of 90% standing and 10% sitting every hour seems to work best. 

Bottom line: worth continuing my experiment and rearranging my workstation at the office. I'll follow up with a future posting describing my experience with a standing desk over a month or so. In the meantime, have you some links with more info!

[HBR] The Many Benefits of Standing at Your Desk
http://blogs.hbr.org/your-health-at-work/2010/08/the-many-benefits-of-standing.html

[Smarterware] Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk
http://smarterware.org/7102/how-and-why-i-switched-to-a-standing-desk#