Making a Standing Desk

March 7th, 2020
standing, tech
With it looking like I might need to remotely for a while I've been thinking about how to make that more ergonomic. There's no position where I can use a laptop for very long without hurting either my wrists or my neck. A couple months ago I made a folding couch monitor to use while sitting, but (a) that's in the living room and (b) I generally prefer to work standing up. So I made a small standing desk in our bedroom:

It's a one-monitor version of my work hardware setup (which is still the same three years later, except that I have 27" 2560 x 1440 monitors now). I use the laptop keyboard and trackpad because that feels better on my wrists than any external keyboard and mouse I've tried, and I don't use the laptop monitor because that hurts my neck.

While I'm calling it a desk, it's really a shelf. It was easier to attach a shelf to the wall with brackets than build something freestanding, and a standard desk would take up a bunch more space.

It's very small, but all I need is space for a monitor and my laptop. The top is a 22.5" by 17" piece of 3/4" plywood painted white. I rounded the outside corner for safety. I could have made the top a couple inches narrower if I hadn't been trying to match a specific space. It's 41" off the ground, which is in the ~2" window where my elbows can be close to a right angle.

The monitor stand doesn't go high enough on its own, so it's elevated 6.25" with a 10.5" by 7.5" pine box. I made it out of 2x6 scraps I had, with a 3/4" plywood top for the monitor stand's base to sit on. I didn't paint this, though I might at some point.

I'm pretty happy with it, though all I've used it for so far is writing this post.

Referenced in:

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong

Recent posts on blogs I like:

The Weekly Anthropocene Interviews Me

I have been interviewed by The Weekly Anthropocene. It’s sort of a grab bag of all the topics we talk about on this blog—some effective altruism, some general life advice. I really enjoyed getting to talk to Sam Matey, who’s a very smart guy. Check it out!

via Thing of Things January 6, 2025

Dance Calling By The Numbers, 2024

This post contains javascript content and must be viewed on site.

via Harris Lapiroff January 6, 2025

Handling emotions better over time

Developing skills and mellowing with age The post Handling emotions better over time appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise January 2, 2025

more     (via openring)