How to finally make the switch to a standing desk

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You know that sitting isn’t healthy, that the hours you spend in your chair cancel out the minutes you spend in the gym.

You know that standing while you work improves your health and can help you drop pounds by burning extra calories.

But you’re still sitting all day

You’ve wanted to switch to a standing desk, and you even rigged up a temporary desk to give it a shot. But after an hour, you started casting longing glances at your cushy desk chair.

Your arches ached.

Your back hurt.

You had trouble focusing on your work.

And after the newness of the idea wore off, it started to seem like a terrible burden to move your laptop all the way over there.

So there you sit

But what if you could bypass the pain and start reaping the health benefits of standing? You’d stand straighter. You’d feel more energized. You’d watch the pounds start to drop away.

If you’ve tried unsuccessfully to switch to a standing desk, chances are you made one of two common mistakes.

You started too big

It’s common to feel a rush of enthusiasm when you’re starting something new. Caught up in the moment, you commit yourself to making grand, sweeping changes.

Starting tomorrow, I’m done sitting!

But that emotional high vanishes at the first hint of resistance, the first twinge of pain or fatigue, leaving you feeling deflated. You struggle to keep your word to yourself, but the outcome is inevitable.

You didn’t make it a habit

Will power alone is rarely enough to bring about lasting change. New behaviors don’t stick unless you’re able to graft them into your day-to-day life and make them as natural as waking up in the morning.

When you walk into your office and head to your standing desk without thinking and without first wishing you could just sit down, you’ll know you have a habit that you can maintain.

To successfully switch to a standing desk, start small and practice daily

The 28-Day Stand Up and Work Challenge will help you make the transition gradually, starting with just a 12 minutes of standing on day one.

You’ll progressively add more time each day, working up to an hour after the first week, and by the end of the challenge, you’ll be standing for half a day.

Here’s how you can get involved:

  • Drop your email address in the signup form at the end of this post.
  • Get a starter standing desk, or cobble together a temporary one.
  • Watch your email for a daily reminder to get your standing time in, including the appropriate length of time for the day.
  • When you’ve completed your daily standing time, check back here. We’ll post a thread every day where you can brag about your progress, ask questions, and commiserate with other participants.

Just enter your email address in the signup form below to get started.


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