My office is in the fifth floor of Soda Hall, and is part of a larger laboratory that consists of several open cubicles in the center, surrounded by shared offices (for graduate students and postdocs) and personal offices (for professors). Thus, I can peek into other offices to see what people are doing. And the graduate students I observe are almost always ensconced in their chairs.

I know that even Berkeley students take breaks now and then, but I still think that many us end up sitting down for five to six hours daily. (That’s assuming graduate students work for only eight hours a day … definitely an underestimate!)

I don’t like sitting down all day. In fact, I think that’s dangerous, and lately, I’ve joined the crowd of people who alternate between sitting and standing while at work. My original plan when I arrived in Berkeley was to ask my temporary advisor to buy a computer station that has the capability to move up and down as needed. Fortunately, I haven’t had to do that, because I somehow lucked into an “office” that looks like this:

office

Heck, I don’t even know what those metal-like objects are to the left. Fortunately, they’re set at the perfect height for a person like me, and they’re really heavy, so it’s provides a firm foundation for me to put my laptop there and stand while working. My current work flow is to default by standing up, and then sit down only when my feet start getting sore. Then I stand up once I start feeling stiff. Seriously, it doesn’t get any easier than that. You don’t need a fancy treadmill desk, though it’s an option — one faculty member at Cornell has this in her office. All you need is a nice stack of sturdy objects to put on top of something. And especially if you only plan to use your laptop, I can’t believe anyone (e.g., a boss) would complain if you built a simple station yourself. For more tips, you can also check out this excellent Mark’s Daily Apple article about standing at work.

There are other ways of avoiding the curse of a sitting-only job. For instance, some people might benefit from long walks during work, a thought that came to me due to a New York Times article that appears to have turned some heads. Personally, I find walking overrated. Every time I go for a walk, I can’t focus on my work — my mind always switches to whatever random thought happens to be flowing around. So I prefer to just sit and stand as needed during a pure work day, and I hope that other students (and faculty!) consider doing that.