Tufts Admissions
SMFA at Tufts
En EspaƱol
  • Quicklinks
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Explore Majors & Minors
    • Calculate Cost
    • Check Application Status
    • Our Blogs
Discover Tufts
Academics
Life at Tufts
Tufts Blogs
Jumbo Magazine
Tufts Traditions
History of Tufts University
Tuition & Aid
Tuition and Aid
Types of Aid
Applying for Aid
Contact Financial Aid
Connect With Us
Open Houses
Join the Mailing List
Contact
Read Our Blogs
Admissions Instagram
Privacy
Visit
Plan Your Visit
Virtual Tour
Audio Tour
Tufts For You
Open Houses
Parking & Directions
Dining on Campus
Places to Stay
Apply
First-Year Students
Transfer Students
International Students
First-Generation Students
Undocumented Students
Counselors & Teachers
Advice & Getting Started
Profile of the Class of 2028
Essay Questions
Interview
Search
Navigation

Tufts Blogs

Jumbo Talk

Inside Admissions

Tufts Admissions Team

Standing Desk Rocks My World

Dec 19
Jumbo Talk

I got a standing desk this year and it has made an overall better human being.

 

Motivation

I had an awesome job this summer, but a 21 year old shouldn’t be complaining about lower back pain. Also, I normally have to change focus every hour or two but this was ridiculous. I normally attribute that to not being interested in the material, but my project was bomb and I still couldn’t work for more than two hours straight.

 

Opportunity

I moved into an off-campus house for the first time this summer, which means I needed furniture. I got a couple of black wire shelves and put boxes on them to store all my clothes and stuff (I could do a long post on my organization system, but I’ll save it for another time). I’m aesthetically picky enough that I wanted my desk to match the look. I had never met a traditional sitting desk that made me think, “wow, I could work here all day”.

 

The Leap

Standing desk! I figured I’d go for it, if it was horrible, I could just turn it back into a shelf. Rather than spring for one of the ridiculous, adjustable, $1000 convertible desks, I got this:

 

 

Biggest hurdle: the shelves have holes. Large ones. Luckily, as long as I place my pens diagonally, they don’t fall through.

 

Accessories

Highly necessary accessories include the anti-fatigue mat (two and a half inches of cushy goodness under my feet), the headphone hook (an S-hook I found on the street keeps my headphones off the surface but in easy reach) and the external monitor (stacked on top of a couple of old textbooks [#college] puts it at the perfect height so I don’t throw my neck out of whack).

This is 100% how I "work" at the desk.

 

Outcome

The desk has totally changed my life. I normally wake up early, but now I actually get stuff done in the three hours before class. I’m less antsy when I have to sit down throughout the day, and I can fall asleep more easily even when I haven’t left the house all day because my pent-up energy gets wiggled out. When it’s crunch time, I can focus for more than two hours. True testimonial:

 

All hail the standing desk. Making a 10-hour work day not suck.

— Marcella Hastings (@marsella_h) December 12, 2014

 

Comment if you want me to take a picture of the set-up when I get back to campus in January!

About the Author

Related Topics
Academics Engineering Fun Stories Pop Culture
Tufts University

Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Bendetson Hall
2 The Green
Medford, MA 02155

617-627-3170

Visit tufts.edu Contact Tufts Admissions Non-Discrimination Statement Privacy Statement
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Discover Tufts
Tuition & Aid
Connect With Us