How A Standing Desk Makes Working From Anywhere Better

• Jamie Orr from Cowork Tahoe has been trialling a standing desk while working from home.
• She found that an adjustable height desk has a number of productivity and wellness benefits.
• Here are 4 things to consider if you’re considering investing in standing desks for your home or workspace.

What the future holds for office design, whether it’s a home or corporate office, has become a popular topic as many companies and office space providers prepare for a post-pandemic future. The work from anywhere trend means that the focus is no longer solely on fixed workstations in traditional offices, but rather on how to support flexible work environments wherever the work is being done.

Despite owning and operating a coworking space myself, I personally tend to be a kitchen table worker when working from home. Most of my heads-down work in the past has been done sitting at the table with a dog at my feet. When at my coworking space, I can usually be found either sitting in an armchair or standing at the counter in the lobby, both options that allow me to quickly shift to addressing member or space needs as they arise.

However, one thing the pandemic taught me is that to be more productive, I desperately needed to make some big improvements to my personal work from home setup. At the same time, the changing work schedules and needs of my coworking space members has also made me reevaluate how the space can be better designed to help them be more productive. 

The key for both myself personally and my customers is flexibility. Flexibility not only in where and when we work, but how we work.

Standing desks are one simple way to introduce more flexibility into the design of a workspace.

Advocates of standing desks point to a number of potential benefits of using a desk that allows workers to stand while working rather than remaining seated, including increased productivity and overall health benefits.

Recently, I redesigned a space in my home to use as a home office, and included an Autonomous SmartDesk2 standing desk, designed specifically for home office use, to complete the transformation.

The desk comes with a keypad that enables you to program 4 custom height presets, which made it an excellent option for use by myself and husband to program sit and stand heights for ourselves. With just the touch of a button, the almost silent dual-motors adjust the desk between my favorite sitting and standing positions. I also loved that I was able to customize the desktop and frame to ensure an aesthetically pleasing addition to my home design style. 

If you are looking at purchasing a standing desk for your own office, there are a few key things to take into consideration:

Cost: 

If you are looking to upgrade your WFH setup, cost may be a driving factor depending on who is paying for it — you or your employer. Standing desks are an investment that typically cost several hundred (US) dollars or more per workstation. For corporate offices or coworking spaces, it may be easier to justify a higher price tag as a cost of doing business in order to increase worker satisfaction, productivity, and wellbeing.

Functionality:

In order for the investment in a standing desk to be worthwhile, the desk has to have the right functionality. For the home office, this can include a range of heights that suit your sit and stand preferences, a large enough working surface that still fits in the space you have available, and a quiet enough motor to not be distracting. For the office, functionality considerations also include the ability to have multiple different users able to easily use the desks and adjust them as needed.

Durability and Safety:

The safety and stability of any equipment used for work should always be a key consideration. For standing desks, it is particularly important that all of your equipment remains in place and safe while shifting positions. Products that will last for years of use are worth the investment as well. For the office, look for desks that are contract or commercial grade and carry proper safety certifications, such as a UL certification.

Style: 

Finally, anything you are going to invest in for your home or your office should look good. Your personal or company aesthetics should be met in order to create a workspace that you or your employees will enjoy working from. Luckily, many standing desk options are highly customizable with lots of options for both the desktop size and material, as well as frame color.

After personally using the Autonomous SmartDesk2 for several weeks, it has already become a vital part of my work day.

While I still occasionally use the kitchen table for task work, the standing desk has made it much easier for me to be productive when I really need to spend time focusing on projects. I have also found that I much prefer the ability to take video calls while standing, which has been an unexpected benefit to upgrading my workspace. The dog still gets to be at my feet.