I work from home, which sounds lovely.
I spent ten years getting on the 6:57am to London, so to switch to an office with no commute, and where my view is fields and cows, is many peoples’ dream.
But it also means that I spend a lot of time at my desk.
A typical working day for me is about eight hours, and for most of that time, until recently at least, I was sitting down.
My workstation setup wasn’t ideal. It consisted of a trestle table which I’d fashioned into a desk, and a mock-Georgian wooden chair borrowed from the dining room.
If it was from the ergonomic section of a furniture range it would be called, “Things I already had in the house”.
For the past year or so, I’ve also had a slightly dodgy hip. Not quite in hip replacement territory, but sore and annoying. I put it down to running. I run round the local paths and trails when I can, and most weekday mornings I’m at a workout class at 6.00am. I exercise a lot.
So, I assumed it was my age and my exercise conspiring against me to produce the bad hip. Then somebody pointed out something rather obvious.
I might exercise for an hour a day, but I sit at my desk for eight. And when that desk is just lumps of wood, that’s not great.
Suddenly, I saw my daily routine in a different light. Exercise first thing, then spend the overwhelming majority of the day sitting almost completely still on a wooden dining chair.
In fairness I wasn’t totally inert. I occasionally went for a walk to break the monotony, usually into the kitchen to see what was in the fridge.
So, I decided to try a standing desk. More specifically, a JOSHO electric sit-stand desk from Posturite.
The idea is simple. I work sitting down until I think I need a change, then I press a button and the desk rises to standing height that I have saved in the desk’s memory. When I’ve had enough, I press another button and it comes back down again.
I had never worked standing up before and if I’m honest I was sceptical when others told me they did. But it’s remarkably comfortable.
I should probably admit now that I haven’t followed the recommended sit-stand routine with military precision.
The ideal pattern is to change position regularly rather than simply swap sitting all day for standing all day. One suggested approach is 20 minutes sitting, eight minutes standing and two minutes moving during every half-hour.
I’m sure this is excellent advice but it would require a level of organisation I don’t possess. I would need reminders and alarms, and I’d need reminders and alarms to set those.
My version is less scientific. I probably raise the desk three times a day and stand for anything up to half an hour.
Sometimes it’s because I just fancy a change, sometimes it’s because my hip feels stiff, and sometimes I just reach the point where my brain needs something different.
That last bit has probably been the biggest surprise.
I expected standing to feel physically different. I didn’t expect it to affect the way I work, but it does.
Writing is an odd job. You can spend half an hour staring at the same sentence willing your muse to appear and whisper the right words in your ear. But there’s a law of diminishing returns. The longer you wait, the less likely it is to happen.
Changing from sitting to standing breaks that pattern. When I press the button and change position, something seems to reset. I feel more alert and my concentration improves.
That alone has made the standing desk worthwhile.
But there has been another benefit. My hip feels better.
I’m not going to pretend that two weeks with an electric sit-stand desk has cured it, but I know how my hip felt before, and I know how it feels now. The constant stiffness is less constantly stiff.
The JOSHO desk itself is extremely easy to use.
I have programmed my sitting and standing heights into the memory, so changing position requires me to press one button.
It is also a decent-sized desk.
I considered the smaller KOJI standing desk, but I spend my working life surrounded by screens, notebooks, coffee cups and the debris of being a writer, so I preferred the extra space.
Setting it up was straightforward too, at least that’s what the very polite and helpful Graham told me. Nothing was too much trouble. Top tip, when you buy your JOSHO desk, book an installer to build it for you. You’ll thank me later.
There’s also something else I like about it. The JOSHO wooden desktop is made from 100% recycled material and is itself recyclable and will one day be another JOSHO desk.
If I’m very honest, sustainability wasn’t the original reason I wanted a standing desk. My hip was the main concern. But when you are buying a large piece of furniture, and spending eight hours a day sitting at it (and now standing) knowing it’s not just made, used and eventually thrown away, makes the purchase feel a bit more responsible.
The only member of the house who has failed to embrace the JOSHO is our dog, Dolly. He occasionally sleeps underneath it while I work, but he still hasn’t figured out that several times a day I press a button and the furniture above him suddenly comes to life. He still jumps out of his skin every time.
My only minor criticism? The desk has made me slightly evangelical.
When I’m on Zoom calls, I notice other people’s workstations. I see laptops balanced on kitchen tables, people perched on stools, or using dining chairs in ways no Georgian furniture maker ever intended.
I tut inwardly, but then I have to remind myself, “A month ago that was you, so less of the smug act”.
Two weeks ago, I thought my sore hip was an inevitable consequence of getting older. Now I’m pretty sure a large part of the problem was much simpler.
I’m not the perfect ambassador for my new standing desk. I still forget to stand up, and I check the fridge more often than I should. But I move more and I think I concentrate better, and I know my hip hurts less.
That feels like a pretty healthy switch.
Thank you Peter, glad to have your full review of the JOSHO Electric Sit-Stand Desk. The Posturite team will be in touch with you to recommend an ergonomic home office chair we think you desperately need to go with it!
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