Standing Desk, 4 months in review

Preamble

First off, I want to say that I was the first person in Rockfish to get a standing desk. There has been some conjecture, but I’m the clear winner.  No more discussion on that.  Anyway, it’s definitely been interesting.  There seems to be a big difference between standing for 8 hours a day vs sitting for 8 hours a day.  Weird, huh?

How I did it

How I actually constructed the standing desk is almost comically easy.  I bought two LACK tables from Ikea (7.99/ea), a shelf (1 dollar), and two brackets (like 49 cents each?).  For total of really effing cheap.  I just set them up on my desk and that’s it.  I am now better than everyone.

I drilled the brackets into the legs of one of the tables, the leftmost one, and put the shelf on it.  I also duck-taped the brackets to the leg because they are hollow and I knew that one ill-placed elbow was going to send my forehead straight to the corner of the desk. That would suck.

John, how has it been?

Thanks for asking!  It’s actually been very good.  The first week or two are the most noticeable.  You don’t get as tired after lunch.  You don’t find yourself being lazy or closing your eyes early in the morning.  You focus more.  I get more excited and exclamatory as I’m coding... I wave my arms and stomp my feet and generally irritate my deskmates much more than I did when I was slumped in my chair pretending to be awake. (Just kidding, Rockfish, I was always awake)

Secondly, it makes you a hell of a lot more sociable.  You walk around more.  You talk to your neighbors more.  You’re generally more likely to walk around to see someone else’s screen.  I don’t know about every work place, but here we often IM when we could talk.  That’s often because we’re  complaining about some bug we can’t fix and our diatribe is laced with profanity, but still.  Now I can curse from a standing position vocally.  It feels better.

Overall, it’s just been a great experience.  I’d recommend it to anyone.  I also got a tall stool that I can sit on if my knees get tired, which they do sometimes.  I also walk to work about a mile so sometimes my feet are hurting.  I do need one of those anti-fatigue pads.  But I’m too lazy after standing around all day to get my ass in the car and buy one.

Anyway, let me know what you think about standing desks!

Edit: People are saying the image of the desk is too small.  So, here is the largest one I have.  You'll also notice I bought a 'TALLASS" chair from Ikea, it was 4.99 or some such nonsense.

The Healthy CTO

Why I do it

One of the most important aspects - and I mean actually important - of my life working full time and for  a small company as a CTO is fitness.  It's super important and it can be one of those things that helps you move from being kind of awesome to goddam incredible.  The immediate benefits to having a active workout routine are:

1. Confidence
2. Energy
3. Better sleep schedule
4. Larger, more defined 'glamour' or 'beach' muscles to impress people.
5. For whatever reason, and it's probably the sleep, but you'll have a sharper mind and a more extroverted personality.

So, I work out early as all hell in the morning at this thing called ELMNTL Fitness.  The guy, Kevin, has us running around in the woods in the dark carrying rocks and logs and doing a bunch of other crap.  Long story short: while our competition is still asleep in bed I am dragging a log down a gravel trail in the woods.  I'm home, showered, fed and reading the news by 7:30 AM and most other startups aren't even out of bed.  It's a definite advantage.

How I do it

It's not as easy as I'm making it sound, and it certainly takes a little bit of getting used to.  A huge part of it for me is working out with a group of people. I can't stress that enough.  Trying to get up and get on the treadmill in my building just never happens.  I always put it off.  Kevin, however, plans out the days exercises based on how many people and who they are.  If you skip, you screw up not only yourself, but everyone else scheduled.  You never want to be the asshole.

Sleep is another big thing. To wake up at 5am every day you have to start going to bed earlier.  I know a lot of devs and startups think they need to work until 4am, but that shit's out.  I like to work earlier when I'm the most productive, and use my late afternoon and evenings for leisure time and events.  No one ever plans a happy hour at 8am.  So instead of skipping events so that I can workout or do work, I just schedule that stuff earlier.  It's ridiculously simple if you think about it.

Oh yeah, eat well

Every morning I have a smoothie for breakfast.  This contains: a banana, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, peanut butter, protein powder, spinach and soymilk.  Every day.  That is the breakfast of champions.  It's delicious, it's easy, and it's healthier than anything you'll eat all day.  Not to mention the fiber.  I also try to eat one salad per day, either for lunch or for dinner, and I eat a crapload of nuts.  Pistachios, almonds, cashews, whatever.

Do not ever eat fastfood ever.  I'm telling you, don't do it.  Also, don't drink pop (or soda for you weird people).  Drink water and coffee and as much alcohol as you want.  Pizza is okay, because if you're in tech you can't give up pizza.  But never go to McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-a, any of that stuff.  That stuff will kill you.

Do I need to say something about smoking?

TL;DR;

Exercising will make you a better CTO and a better person than your competition. Eating healthy makes you awesome.  Follow these instructions and you'll get rich. Or at least skinny.