Good Idea, Chap: The Standing- Up Desk- a Life- Saver?

Link to podcast:

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Let me begin by saying that I was quite shocked to find out that ‘sitting down at work’ increases the ‘chance of death by 40%’.

Nevertheless, sitting down at your desk in your office whilst quietly working on your daily tasks does not normally relate to a high risk of death. Thus, if your risk of death is 1%, sitting down will increase it to 1.4%. Wow.

See << http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/11687/stand-up-desk/ >>

On the other hand, it is a lot riskier to constantly be in a rush, running around (mainly in front of passing cars) like a headless chicken; yet, no- one seems to be interested in that (I mean the running around and not the headless chicken; a disturbingly large amount of people are interested in the latter…).

Let us get back to the topic, though. To begin with, it is worth noting that sitting down at work will by no means kill you because zombies can’t write articles (see what I did?). It will, however, make you, for want of a more politically- correct word, plumper.

I shan’t go into detail as to why that is; from a purely logical point of view, the less you move, the less calories you burn and the more your metabolism slows, the more calories your retain. Kind of a Catch 22, eh?

As an example (not even an extreme one, mind you):

You wake up, you sit down to have breakfast in front of the TV/ PC/ Laptop, you sit in your car and drive to work, you go into your office, you sit down at your desk for about fours hours, you go out to grab some lunch, you sit down at your desk/ at a restaurant to have it, you get back to your office and sit down for another four hours, you then sit in your car, drive home and have your dinner whilst sitting down, watching TV.

That’s a mighty lot of sitting down, is it not? To the above, many will say that they work out regularly and can, therefore, sit down for as long as they want to.

As a person who regularly goes out to the gym, I can tell you (from personal experience) that a gym session is about a million times more productive and enjoyable when you have had an active day. If you sit around all day, your body will simply not have the energy for a proper work out.

As demonstrated above, it is incredibly easy to criticise an issue in an almost acerbically sarcastic manner; the difficult bit is to provide an effective solution for it.

With obesity levels on the rise yet again, many US companies have recently started implementing a ‘standing- desk’ policy by effectively getting rid of the comfortable desk chair.

Although the above idea seems brilliant at first, it hasn’t been as big a hit as expected in the US. Most employees have complained of pain in their feet which results in their inability to concentrate and deal with their tasks efficiently.

That statement, of course, is a lot of malarkey; all such employees are trying to achieve is get their comfortable chairs back.

Here’s what their train of thought looks like:

‘I already exert myself on mental level at work; why, on Earth, should I do it on a physical level, as well? I’d much rather sit in my comfy chair, clicking my minutes away.’

Now, I haven’t got a ‘standing- up’ desk but I constantly walk around when I am on the phone to a client because it helps me relax, think more clearly and speak in a more articulate manner.

Not only that but walking around and moving whilst working livens you up and, not surprisingly so (I hope…), wakes you up and makes you about 3, 000, 000/ 1, 000, 000 (three times) more productive.

It would seem then that, although the ‘standing- up’ desk is quite a nifty idea, what we really need is a change of attitude; we must realise that the ‘perfect employee’ is an amalgamation of both mental and physical prowess.

Like Superman, the infamous ‘The Daily Planet’ journalist.

You haven’t heard him complaining, have you now?