A few months back, my buddy at work Jake got himself situated at the office with a stand-up desk, which is definitely outside of the norm of the work area where we were assigned. All the other cubes in our area in the office were your standard, run-of-the-mill cubicle setups (although I say that knowing full well that Google cubicles are well outside of the “run-of-the-mill” norm), so needless to say, this caught a lot of our attentions once he was setup. It looked pretty cool compared to the desk I was rocking at the time, so ever since I’ve been thinking about making the change.
I read this recent post on the Signal vs. Noise blog, and I think this was the needed prod to get moving on making the shift myself thanks to the benefits that the post mentions:
My attention span improved, too. I noticed an immediate increase in my ability to focus on a problem for longer, and with greater clarity. When I was blocked by some problem, I was able to just walk away from the desk, whereas before the effort of getting up from my chair often made me prefer to just sit and stew in my frustration.
I’m putting in the order for my desk at home, and I’ve already put in the request to make the shift at work. I’ll do a post once I have some thoughts on the switch.
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Nice. I can’t recommend it more. Productivity wise, it’s nice, but there’s also health implications!
http://lifehacker.com/software/health/prolonged-sitting-causes-disease-standing-fights-it-324461.php
Good luck and enjoy being the weirdo with the odd desk!
What’s funny is, work was a little hesitant to let me convert to this. They’ve seen a lot of people request this but they’re noticing a lot of abuse now; people are just sitting in high chairs now. This costs the facilities team a decent amount of time, dollars, and effort, and they almost ruined it for me by not using something they ask for without thinking it through.
Oh well. My desk is still coming soon thanks to my boyish charm and striking ability for persuasion.