Using a stand-up desk has improved my performance at work

A low-stakes experiment with high upside

In the world of remote work, the experience of standing in front of a group of people and presenting is now gone. Everyone is sitting down at their desks, all the time.

There's no more shuffling to the conference room with your stuff, finding a new seat, or standing up in front of the group to give a presentation. And sitting down gives you a distinctly different energy than standing up.

So, a month ago, I bought a cheap stand-up desk to see if it would affect my work.

Surprisingly, it worked. The standup desk has materially improved my work performance, especially during meetings and presentations.

Why is this?

1. Mindfulness: My mind is clearer

2. Focus: My contributions are fewer, but better

These two factors have become so obvious to me in hindsight that I'm actually embarrassed when I think about my work game performance before this.

Mindfulness: My mind is clearer

When I'm standing all day, it must active some limbic-system, physiological effect that boosts my mental performance. I can't think of any other reason that it would make my mind clearer - but it absolutely, 100% does.

I notice more. I'm paying better attention to the topic, to who's saying what, to the emotional state of people and to the comparative importance of each item on the agenda. I'm finding better, faster ways to note followup topics, ideas that spring to mind, or questions that arise.

(This has, I believe, led me back to Vipassana, which is a topic for another day.)

Fewer, better contributions

Partly as a consequence of the increased mindfulness, but for other reasons I don't quite understand yet, I find myself better able to think before I speak when I'm standing. Because my notes and attention is on higher leverage things, I'm returning to a place of being very selective and focused in how and when I speak up.

It's a bit of a platitude that when you speak less frequently, your words have more power. It's a platitude because it's true, and it's very obvious when it happens in a work environment because you can tell when people are listening, really listening.

I'm not claiming perfect focus, because I do still get off-topic, but there has been a stark difference in my ability to identify and select the highest leverage contribution in any given circumstance at work. It coincides perfectly with my acquisition of the standup desk, so...it's gotta be a factor.

Not expensive

I think I paid $50 for this on Facebook marketplace. It’s not fancy. It’s not high end. But it gets the job done in a humble fashion.

I'm not going back

I do not know why these factors have culminated into a quality outcome for me. Maybe it's because they exist in a feedback loop. Maybe it's because there are other, unnoticed things happening in my life that are also influencing things. It's probably all of the above.

I still have a seated desk that I use frequently - for reading, for long-form typing on the laptop, for relaxing with a hot drink or other misc occasional deep work.

But what I know is: I'm not going back to sitting at a desk full time. The benefits are just too huge for me to ignore.

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