Stand Up for Creativity
Four weeks ago I made the move to a stand-up work desk. For typing, note-making, proof-reading, and drawing work on both tablet and screen, as well as pen on paper, I decided to get up off of that thing and be upstanding. The idea and the motivation came from our close friend in the business of costume design, who became upwardly mobile himself just a few weeks before, and couldn’t speak highly enough of it. It is an extraordinary revelation.
Having taken the measurements for my working requirements, and made all the necessary adjustments to the kit around me, I assembled a raised plinth (a recycled part of an unused coffee table) for the existing desk. With further simple additions to protect the carpet from increased shuffling, and ensuring I had the right footwear and footholds around me to compensate for increased stresses and strains on ankles and calves, I was ready to go.
I’ve found that working up and off the chair facilitates the perfect balance of mental and physical engagement in the creative act. It keeps you involved and it keeps you present - present in what you’re creating and how you are creating it. By necessity, the whole body feels connected; counter-intuitively, you’re locked in by the freedom to move. Standing connects you to the space around you - with the really useful and healthy advantage of regularly resting your eyes by quite naturally adjusting the space between them and the thing you’re working with. My back and shoulder aches have disappeared, and I sense this is because I am using a greater physicality, spreading the workload around, as it were.
I work faster, and leaner and more responsively, and now I’m in a position to pass on the recommendation to others. If you’re able to, and think it could benefit you too… stand up for creativity, and a whole new perspective on feeling connected to your work.
