How to Turn Your Desk Into a Standing Desk

marco-arment-soda-can-standing-desk

Marco Arment’s temporary standing desk.

So you’d like to try working at a standing desk but you’re not ready to fully commit. And that means you’re certainly not ready to fork over $500 or up (way up) for a designer standing desk. What you need to know is how to turn your desk into a standing desk. Your existing desk–the desk you have now. Once you’re sure you can work this way–and it does require a certain level of commitment–then you can either make your temporary standing desk more permanent or you can fork over for a purpose-made standing desk, whether that turns out to be an adjustable one or not. Here are some options.

Most people who want to try working at a standing desk usually just look for something in their vicinity to put on top of their regular desk in order to raise their computer and keyboard to the appropriate height. That something is most often a cardboard box or a stack of books. (Last year we featured three people who used soda cans, a chair, and a baker’s wire rack respectively to craft temporary standing desk solutions.) This is a great first step, as long as you take care to get the height right.

standing-desk-ergonomics-tinkering-monkey

As you can see from Tinkering Monkey’s diagram, your keyboard should be resting on a surface that is at (or just below) elbow height. Your screen, however, should be somewhat higher. (On a related note, laptops are ergonomically bad for you and if you work at one for many hours a day, you really should raise it up, even if you sit all day, and use an additional keyboard, either wireless or attached to your laptop via a cord, so that you can spend that time in a safe position.)

So go ahead, look around you and find something, anything, with which to construct a temporary standing desk, but bear in mind that you won’t get a real sense of how it feels to work at a proper standing desk unless you get the ergonomics right. You’re probably looking for two objects, one to rest your keyboard on and another one for the monitor.

We’ve seen people use plastic storage boxes, packs of printer paper, shoe boxes, plastic buckets, and so on. You name it, somebody’s probably tried it. If it works for you, go for it. (And remember, instead of placing something on the surface of their desk, some people like to raise up the desk itself, by propping its legs on something, like sturdy boxes. You can work from the bottom up, too, if you prefer.)

stand_steady_review

Casey’s Stand Steady.

After getting a sense of whether standing all or part of your work day will work for you, the next step for a lot of people is to purchase a relatively inexpensive, smaller purpose-made desk that sits on top of your existing desk, rather than transitioning immediately to an expensive ready-made standing desk or forking out even more money for an adjustable one. These desktop desks, if you will, range from very basic versions like the Upstanding Desk recently crowdfunded on Kickstarter to the Original Stand Steady Desk to adjustable versions that can be raised and lowered, like the Varidesk, the Kangaroo Pro, and the Ergotron WorkFit Dual Sit-Stand Workstation.

One of our reviewers, Casey, reviewed the Executive Stand Steady and gave it a big thumbs up. One of these other versions would work, too. There you have it. If you’ve been wondering how to turn your desk into a standing desk, now you know. That’s the easy part. The trick is to successfully make the transition to using it on a regular basis. We’ve got some advice to help you with that, too.

ergotron-workfit

The higher-end Ergotron Workfit.

(Visited 7,587 time, 1 visit today)

6 comments

  • Hi there. Have you seen our new product? It’s way cooler and more unique than any other patented standing desk. 🙂 http://www.deskstand.co

  • OOOВалок_Валерий

    RE:How to Turn Your Desk Into a Standing Desk – DeskHacks НПП Валок крановые и трамвайные колеса перфолисты обогатительного и сортировочного оборудования

  • http://www.fiatpuntoevo.pl/do-samochodu/planujemy-zakup-auta-kupic-nowe-czy-uzywane
    Looking for a new or used automobile can be quite a hard approach unless you know what you are carrying out. By teaching yourself about automobile store shopping before you decide to go to the car dealership, you can make issues much easier on your own. The following tips may help your next store shopping journey be a little more enjoyable.

    Constantly deliver a mechanic coupled when shopping for a new motor vehicle. Auto dealers are notorious for offering lemons and you do not need to be their next sufferer. If you can not get a auto mechanic to consider vehicles with you, no less than be sure that you have him look at your ultimate option prior to buying it.

    Know your restrictions. Before you begin store shopping for your auto or van, decide how much you can manage to spend, and stay with it. Don’t forget to feature curiosity about your estimations. You are likely to pay about twenty percent as a down payment at the same time, so be ready.

    Before seeing a car dealership, know what kind of vehicle you want. Analysis all you choices just before shopping so that you can evaluate which works for your financial budget and family members demands. Shop around to determine how much you must pay for any possible vehicle.

    Before you sign any contract take the time to read through every single series, such as the fine print. If there is anything at all detailed that you do not fully grasp, usually do not indication till you have an answer which you comprehend. Unsavory salesmen may use an agreement to put many costs that were not reviewed.

    Should you keep the preceding assistance in your mind the next time that you just go buying a auto, you will certainly be more likely to get a good deal. Purchasing a vehicle does not have as a headaches. Only use the ideas out of this write-up and you may have the automobile you need at a very good selling price.

  • Love the point about using anything and everything to make a standing desk. I used a cat travel crate and a lapdesk for my laptop and mouse. I can’t decide which one to buy… so I haven’t yet! LOL!

  • Hey did you see these varidesk alternatives?

  • I have noticed you don’t monetize deskhacks.com, don’t
    waste your traffic, you can earn additional bucks every month with new monetization method.
    This is the best adsense alternative for any type of website (they approve all sites), for more details simply search in gooogle: murgrabia’s tools

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *