On the Ball, On My Feet

by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 02/28/10 at 4:15 pm

Day 59

Three of us meet often in the little office where one of us works. He sits behind his desk. The other person sits in the one visitor’s chair. They always offer to bring in a chair for me, but most of the time I prefer to stand. I work better on my feet.

I have created a precarious tower of books to hold my desktop computer at eye-level, because I prefer to work standing. My next desk will be a stand-up desk. I thought about getting the Steelcase Walkstation the minute it went on sale several years ago, but it doesn’t fit in my home office (and I don’t love its looks).

I improvise by standing one of these doohickeys with my laptop brought to eye level by setting it on a cocktail table perched on a counter. Yes, it’s silly-looking, but it works for me.

When I visited the home/office of Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks, they introduced me to a cool stool called the Swopper, but there are dozens of alternate forms of active seating (if you must sit). I like my Swopper, but if your seat doesn’t have to look like furniture, sitting on an exercise ball is probably as effective and definitely cheaper.

I never knew why I seemed to be hardwired to want to work standing or sitting actively instead of plopping in a comfy chair. Now it turns out that preference is good for me.

While for some people a sabbatical might mean more time sitting, my sabbatical has been the opposite. Ironically, I’m sitting while writing this. I haven’t got a strategy for standing and writing here on the porch yet. Gotta go. I can’t stand sitting still.