Standing desks are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to more traditional desks, and with their health and productivity benefits, it’s not hard to see why. This popularity has also made them a much more accessible option, meaning that it’s easier than ever for you to enjoy the benefits of a small standing desk at home or in the office.
The Benefits of Using a Standing Desk
Before we outline how to choose the right standing desk for you, it’s worth spending some time to know exactly what benefits you can expect from using one.
Switching to a standing desk can reduce your risk of a number of serious health concerns, lowering the risk of weight gain and back pain, and helping to avoid elevated blood sugar levels. There is even evidence suggesting that spending more time standing can reduce your risk of developing both heart disease and diabetes.
Beyond the physical health benefits, using a standing desk could also help to support your mental health, with those who use them feeling more energized and experiencing less stress and fatigue over the course of their day. As well as improving your subjective well-being, this can also translate into increased productivity levels, helping you to accomplish whatever tasks you need to complete.
Choosing the Right Standing Desk for You
Although the benefits may be consistent across all standing desks, choosing the right small standing desk for you personally will help you to maximize the advantages you experience from it. The following are some of the key factors you should consider when choosing the right standing desk for you.
Size
It’s important to choose a desk that fits within your physical space while still offering enough surface area for whatever you’ll be using it for. Although most of the small standing desks you’ll find on the market will fit comfortably into most workplace and home office spaces, you will still need to consider the desk’s dimensions, especially if you’re tight on space.
Height Range and Adjustability
Standing desks can be adjusted, allowing you to set them at a height that is comfortable for you and which allows you to maintain a good posture, something which is essential for realizing all the benefits that standing desks have to offer. The range of available heights isn’t the same for all desks though, meaning that you’ll want to make sure that your ideal height falls within the range for your chosen desk.
Many standing desks can also be lowered enough to be used as a regular seated desk, with some people opting to spend part of their workday seated and part of it standing. If this is something that you’re considering, you’ll need to choose a standing desk that can be set low enough.
Adjustment Type
There are three main types of adjustment methods for standing desks: electric, pneumatic, and manual. Standing desks that use an electric motor are generally the quickest and most convenient to adjust, making them a good option if you expect to switch between sitting and standing often or if you think you’ll be frequently adjusting the desk for any other reason.
The price also differs between the three types, however, with electric typically being the most expensive and manual generally being the cheapest but slowest to adjust, with pneumatic desks being somewhere in between. Whether the increased cost of an electric desk is worth it depends on how often you expect to adjust it and how much you like the desk as a whole.
Aesthetics and Style
Whilst it’s easy to focus on the practicalities when it comes to office furniture, the style and aesthetics also make a big difference to how your environment feels and your overall experience. If the desk will be used in your own home, you have a lot of freedom to choose based on your own personal preferences.
On the other hand, if the desk will be used in a workplace, it’s more important to consider how well it fits with the existing décor and, especially if it is in a client-facing environment, the image it projects.
