Standing Desk Experiment

Like a lot of developers, my job has me spending a LOT of time sitting in front of a computer monitor. So much so that I'm constantly struggling with discomfort of one sort or another, be it a sore back or stiff neck or aching shoulders. By the end of the day I'm struggling with fatigue and my legs feel weak as I stand up to walk.

This cannot be good for me.

So after months of thinking about it, I decided to try working standing up. Last week I placed a few 12-inch-tall plastic file boxes on my desk to use as platforms for my dual LCD displays and keyboard and mouse. The setup is the opposite of elegant, but it lets me conduct my workplace experiment without dropping hundreds of dollars on a new desk or other hardware.

I'm five days in, and the results so far are encouraging. Yes, my feet are getting (really) sore, and there is some fatigue in the legs, but the sundry back, shoulder and other pains I was suffering have disappeared. Just as important, I'm feeling much more alert throughout the day than I was before the switch. And I've not even mentioned the potential long-term health benefits of getting off my backside.

I'll probably go another couple weeks with this setup to see how things develop, before making any decisions. But I'm anxious to hear from developers who have explored alternatives to sitting at a desk all day. Have you moved to a standing desk or found another solution to the problem? Let me know in the comments section, or email me at mmeditor@microsoft.com.