I Had a Standing Desk for Two Years. I Used It for a While, Then I Just… Didn’t

Standing desks are sold as the answer to everything. Here’s why I quietly went back to a normal one.

Photo by Jessica Bryson

Standing desks have been sold to us as the answer to basically everything — better posture, more energy, fewer aches, and a longer life. So when Flexispot sent me one of their motorised standing desks to review a couple of years ago, I was really excited to get going with it. This felt like the upgrade that would change how I worked.

And for a while, it did. It looked the part, it felt like a proper grown-up setup, and I genuinely believed I’d be one of those people who stand up to work for a few hours a day.

As it turned out, I was not one of those people.

The Problem Wasn’t the Desk — It Was Me

Let me be straight with you: there’s nothing wrong with the Flexispot. It’s a well-built desk. The motor was smooth, it was sturdy at every height, and if you’re someone who actually uses the standing function, it does exactly what it promises. It’s a great desk, and I’d happily recommend it to anyone who genuinely wants to switch between sitting and standing through the day.

The problem is that I used it for a while, and then I just… didn’t.

For a good stretch at the start, I was genuinely good with it. I’d raise the desk, stand for a bit, feel pleased with myself and my healthy new working style. But somewhere along the line, I just stopped using the standing function. It got less and less — shorter sessions, further apart — until I was barely using it at all. I’d occasionally remember it existed, raise the desk with good intentions, stand for five or ten minutes, and then just decide I wanted to sit again.

Being Honest About How I Actually Work

This is the bit that took me a while to get my head around. I’d been using the standing desk based on how I thought I should work, not how I actually work.

The truth is, when I’m in the zone — writing, editing, doing admin — the last thing I want to do is interrupt that to faff about raising my desk and rearranging everything. I work in long focused stretches, sitting down, and I’m happiest that way. No amount of owning the right gear was going to turn me into someone who works standing up.

And honestly, that’s fine. The “best” setup isn’t the one with the most features. It’s the one that matches how you genuinely work. Once I accepted that, the decision made itself.

What I Switched To

I went the opposite direction — simpler, and cheaper. I now use an IKEA Karlby worktop sat on two IKEA Alex drawer units.

It’s just a standard desk — a normal, non-standing one — which is the whole point of getting it. The Karlby’s walnut-effect top looks far more expensive than it actually is and pulls my whole setup together, and the two Alex units underneath give me a load of built-in drawer space, so there’s no separate filing cabinet and a lot less clutter. But mostly, it just works. It’s solid, it’s spacious, and it doesn’t ask anything of me. It’s a desk. I sit at it. Job done.

The whole setup cost me very little, and I’ve not missed the height adjustment once.

And the Standing Desk? It Got a New Job

Photo by Jessica Bryson

Here’s my favourite part. I didn’t get rid of the Flexispot — it’s still going strong. It’s just got a new job in my office space.

It now lives behind me as the desk for my 3D printer. And honestly, this is where the height adjustment finally comes into its own — being able to raise and lower it to get the right angle when I’m fiddling with prints is genuinely useful. The standing function I’d basically stopped using at my desk is actually handy here.

So the desk wasn’t a waste at all. It just turned out it was better suited to a job nobody expected it to do.

[embed]Flexispot E7 Pro Standing Desk Compact and Sturdy to fit into most office spacesmedium.com

The Takeaway: Buy for How You Work, Not How You Think You Should

If you genuinely use a standing desk — if you switch positions through the day and feel better for it — then keep it, they’re great. This isn’t me saying standing desks are bad.

It’s me saying that I had an expensive feature I never really used because I’d been told it was what a good setup looked like. And the moment I was honest about how I actually work, the simpler option turned out to be the better one for me.

That’s the real lesson, and it goes well beyond desks: the best tech isn’t the one with the most features or the best reviews. It’s the one that fits how you actually live and work. Everything else is just expensive potential you’ll never use.

Anyway, if you’ve got a standing desk quietly gathering dust, I’d love to know what you’ve repurposed it for. I refuse to believe I’m the only one.

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Disclosure: The Flexispot desk was provided to me by the brand for review purposes. All opinions here are my own and, as you can probably tell, entirely honest.