Rys Sommefeldt

Standing in 2017

Almost 2 years ago I got a standing desk, with the idea to mix up sitting and standing while I worked at my computer at home, along with some plans to build a system to automate the sit-stand motions to the heights I like, and then track statistics of how long I spent in each mode as I was here.

I never built the automation device and I never tracked the statistics. In the latter case, even if I’d built the device to set the desk height on command, really there was no need: I’ve sat probably 99% of the time since getting it that day in April 2015.

I’m changing jobs soon though and I’ll start working from home almost full-time, so the ability and incentives to mix it up will be greater. I might not take advantage in any real way, but it’ll be better than the mixed environments of the home office and the corporate one. The habit formed in my corporate setting of sitting all day was all too easily brought home. That and I’m staggeringly lazy.

That changes this year because I’ll be here a lot more often. So I will build the device and I will track the statistics and I will make them public and I will try and quantify the benefits and downsides of it all.

Could do with a new mat though. Maisie’s chewed it quite a bit. It’s a good job she’s cute.