As said I’m a stand-up worker.

There is no math that can help you in finding the right setup to work when standing up. It’s not easy and keep in mind that is a long process made of trials and failures unless you find something that works for you.

To be honest there is some science, what you need is to be sure that:

  • Monitor(s) are in the right place at the correct height;
  • Your back and neck stands in the correct position;
  • The keyboard is at the right height, that is when your elbows are at 90 degrees;

Mouse

I still think that my Microsoft Trackball Explorer is the best choice ever. The reason is trivial: no need to move hand and wrist to move the mouse, just rest your arm and hand on the table and move 2 fingers.

Monitors

I tried for a while to work with one single Asus 28” 4K display, it works and I think that for certain type of work using a single monitor can spin up your productivity because it forces you to concentrate on the thing you are doing. I came to the conclusion that a multi-monitor setup is the best if you chose to dedicate each monitor to it’s own specific task. I’m currently testing the following setup:

  • 1 Asus 28” 4K in landscape mode
  • 2 23” Full HD in portrait mode, each on one side of the Asus one

monitors setup - front view

Why portrait?

It is perfect for reading and long stream of text, such as emails or blog posts or documentation. It is also very comfortable for tool windows (such as the Visual Studio ones) laid out from top to bottom based on importance.

In my setup and given my neck issues I also found very important the angle at which they are positioned:

monitors setup - top view

The above angle forces me to turn the entire body to comfortably look at side monitors instead of simply turning my head, that in the end causes my neck to get worse day by day.

Desk

After working standing up for almost 2 years I decided that the desk is a key aspect as well, that’s why I bough and IKEA BEKANT sit/stand desk.

Why a desk that can be lifted if you are a stand up worker?

Because to stand up you need to be in the right mood and your body must be ready to stand up, if, like me, you wake up at 6 AM and it takes a while for your body to be ready you do not really want a position that forces you to use the coffee mug as a head stand :-)

There are several situations during the day when you feel the need to sit down, may be just to brainstorm or to read a long document, what ever reason it is you don’t want to assume a strange position while standing up nor you want to change room to look for a chair, causing you to change the entire setup as well.

Easy peasy: push the BEKANT button, wait a couple of seconds and you are good to go, it’s so easy that you’ll find yourself doing that much more times than expected during the day.

Finally it allows other people to use your workstation that otherwise is designed for you only.