This is the best thing I did for myself this weekend*: clean my desk and set it up as a standing desk.
My desk, in the 50 sq ft room that is our apartment's storeroom/ laundry-basket-room/ my study (everything has to multitask in our apartment; the guestroom is the movie room is the husband's study is the outdoor-gear shed) also doubles as a dressing table of sorts,where my moisturiser and sunscreen live - that's on the right-hand side. My jewellery and various other baubles also live there - that silver sculpture-like doodad you see on the top shelf is really one of those flexible bracelet/ necklace thingies.
Prior to this weekend I hadn't cleaned it for (ahem) months and the whole desk was buried under several strata of notebooks, bills, bank statements, invoices, sample-size bottles of mysteriousquackery fluids each claiming to do ever more impressive things for my skin (seriously, every time I go to the store for more sunscreen, someone hands me one of those, or I get sachets of stuff in race swag), etc..
But this weekend I decided enough was enough. Also, my bad habit of slumping on the couch to do work had been doing a number on my back...it's like I'm getting older or something. So I set to work, and this was the result. If I want to sit down in a proper chair, it's easily converted to a regular desk by pushing the boxes back towards the window. Today's Day 2 of working at the standing desk and it's great - now I just have to remember to maintain good posture while standing! Anyone else use a standing desk? Tips?
* Among the other terrific things I did this weekend were: attend a couple of panels at the annual literary festival, hang out with my family, go to a Halloween party, and look up the NYC Marathon results after sleeping through it (wrong time zone). (I do wish Desiree Linden got more love - one day I hope it'll be her turn to shine. She works hard and smart and has come a very long way - I'm a huge fan).
Speaking of altitude changes, I discovered the other day that if my niece is squalling, she can be calmed down if you hold her and do little mini squats, bouncing up and down a little. I don't recall how I discovered this, but I think the usual side-to-side motion just wasn't working and we were all a bit desperate.
Anyway, I spent half of the afternoon doing mini squats with the kiddo. It's an excellent workout. Then I went to do a strength workout with my tri group and what did we start off with? SQUATS. I must've done a couple hundred of them today. My next and final altitude change today will be to go horizontal, I think. Goodnight!
My desk, in the 50 sq ft room that is our apartment's storeroom/ laundry-basket-room/ my study (everything has to multitask in our apartment; the guestroom is the movie room is the husband's study is the outdoor-gear shed) also doubles as a dressing table of sorts,where my moisturiser and sunscreen live - that's on the right-hand side. My jewellery and various other baubles also live there - that silver sculpture-like doodad you see on the top shelf is really one of those flexible bracelet/ necklace thingies.
Prior to this weekend I hadn't cleaned it for (ahem) months and the whole desk was buried under several strata of notebooks, bills, bank statements, invoices, sample-size bottles of mysterious
But this weekend I decided enough was enough. Also, my bad habit of slumping on the couch to do work had been doing a number on my back...it's like I'm getting older or something. So I set to work, and this was the result. If I want to sit down in a proper chair, it's easily converted to a regular desk by pushing the boxes back towards the window. Today's Day 2 of working at the standing desk and it's great - now I just have to remember to maintain good posture while standing! Anyone else use a standing desk? Tips?
* Among the other terrific things I did this weekend were: attend a couple of panels at the annual literary festival, hang out with my family, go to a Halloween party, and look up the NYC Marathon results after sleeping through it (wrong time zone). (I do wish Desiree Linden got more love - one day I hope it'll be her turn to shine. She works hard and smart and has come a very long way - I'm a huge fan).
Speaking of altitude changes, I discovered the other day that if my niece is squalling, she can be calmed down if you hold her and do little mini squats, bouncing up and down a little. I don't recall how I discovered this, but I think the usual side-to-side motion just wasn't working and we were all a bit desperate.
Anyway, I spent half of the afternoon doing mini squats with the kiddo. It's an excellent workout. Then I went to do a strength workout with my tri group and what did we start off with? SQUATS. I must've done a couple hundred of them today. My next and final altitude change today will be to go horizontal, I think. Goodnight!
I did a bit of experimenting with my work space too after reading SO many times this year that sitting was going to kill me. I found out that I can sew standing up but if I want to do really precise work I'm better off sitting down. And my knee will hurt if I spend too much time balancing on one leg. Fascinating stuff hey?!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think sitting down is better for actual precision work. Most of what I do is words, though, and I can type standing up. Interesting! I'm a stork - I tend to stand on one leg with my foot on the inner thigh of the standing leg, but as long as I keep my hips level that seems to be fine.
DeleteI agree that Desi was largely ignored during the race (caveat - I saw very little of the coverage) and before and after! She's my fave!
ReplyDeleteI stand at work all day and have to constantly remind myself to stand straight. It helps to have something to prop one foot on, or to walk away every half hour or so to reset your standing position.