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The Ultimate Buying Guide for Office Desks

22 April 2021

Your sofa might be an important piece of furniture in your life but nothing is as important as your office desk. You use your office desk and chair for at least 9 hours each day or more which means having the wrong one can drastically impact your health, mood, performance, and motivation. 

How the Wrong Desks Can Impact Health

Selecting the wrong desks can have severely adverse impacts on your health. According to research, below are some of the common non-ergonomic office conditions that affect you:

1. Chronic Pain

Using the wrong office furniture can lead to people developing chronic body pain due to their muscles getting strained at odd angles. Chronic pain is extremely difficult to manage and can barely be addressed through common pain killers.

2. Neck Stiffness

Having the wrong office desk might make you turn your head in uncomfortable positions and continue working that way for hours. This regular issue leads to neck stiffness and soreness and can become a routine health concern if the desk is not replaced.

3. General Physical Health

Continuously sitting in a bad posture not only causes pain and back problems but also hurts your overall health. Persistently maintaining postures that strain your muscles can put unnecessary pressure on your organs, causing them to suffer as well. 

Regular office desks also promote a sedentary lifestyle that can lead to obesity, cardiovascular problems, anxiety, etc. These factors can create lasting health problems that will later affect your quality of life.

4. Stress

One of the less obvious but equally concerning impacts of poor office furniture on our health is the added stress. Bad postures and uncomfortable positions are stress-inducing in their own right. However, they also negatively affect our job performance which only makes matters worse and more stressful. 

Continuously feeling stressed due to poor ergonomics can also take a toll on your mental health, creating more lasting and difficult problems for you to manage.

Therefore, getting the right office desk needs to take priority. However, selecting the right office desk is not as simple as it seems. Office desks come in varying sizes, styles, features, and designs, all of which play an important role in determining their suitability and value.  

To help you make the right choice, we have prepared the ultimate buying guide for office desks for you. 

Ultimate Buying Guide for Office Desks

Our buying guide will focus on factors and features of office desks that make the maximum difference in determining their value. 

1. Identify Your Needs

The first step in the process is to identify your own needs. You will need to determine what is lacking in the office desk you are using right now. The answers can range from adjustability and flexibility to material preference.

You will probably need to consider the adverse health effects of regular desks. Standard desks highlight some of the problems with sitting for too long and, therefore, need to be changed to help you change to a less sedentary lifestyle.

2. Ergonomic Design

The most important part of selecting an office desk is the presence or absence of an ergonomic design. Office desk ergonomics can make a huge difference in your life considering how much time you have to spend sitting on that desk to complete your work.

Some of the most prominent ways you can determine this factor is by testing it for the following:

  • Angle of Looking at Screen

Keeping in mind your workplace chair and computer, test out what height the table will provide for the screen. You should ideally be on eye level to reduce the amount of strain in your neck and prevent stiffness. Therefore, if the desk is unable to provide you this feature, it will not work out for you.

  • Provision for Arms While Typing

An ergonomic design is made keeping in mind the typical healthy postures people need to reduce the negative impacts on their bodies. Test out if it is comfortable for you to place your arms on the desk while you type away. You need to get this feature right because otherwise, you will end up with sore arm muscles.

  • Extra Space for Documents/Supplies

The ideal office desks are spacious enough for us to place some important documents and office supplies on them. While most of the stationary and documentation can be stored away, several items are used so routinely that keeping them within arm’s reach is important to continue working efficiently. 

3. Quality

Determining product quality can be tricky, but it is an important step of the process. The easiest way to do this is to select popular names with a positive reputation in the community. However, if the better-known brands are not budget-friendly and you want a more affordable option, you can always ask around to get the opinion of people who may have used the service.  

Budget-friendly furniture is usually very popular, and you will be able to find the quality you are looking for in no time.

4. Adjustability

The reasons you need an adjustable desk are mostly efficiency-related. The more adjustable the chair, the less hassle you have to go through to find the most comfortable position for yourself. However, ensure the adjustability doesn’t come at the cost of reducing product quality.

5. Desk Type

The type of desk you opt for is important because it can help you choose the one that makes working in your field better for your posture and your health. Following are two important types of desks for you to select from:

  • Standing Desk

A standing desk is a recent introduction to the market, developed as a result of mounting research that sedentary office jobs are worsening physical and mental health.  Most of the benefits of a standing desk are obvious.

  • It is a great way to practice being more active during your routine.

  • Allows people to experience a better work experience than when they had standard office desks.

Recommendation – Adjustable Standing Desk Pro Series

Our favorite standard desk out of all the ones we have had the opportunity to try out is the Adjustable Standing Desk Pro Series. This product is exceptionally versatile and technologically advanced with an ergonomic design.

Adjustable Standing Desk Pro Series has all the benefits of a standing desk combined with adjustability and space optimization. Its features easily make it stand out among other similar offerings in the market.

Features

Following are some of the most prominent features of the product:

  • Dual Motor Lifting System

The system controls motors in each of the product’s legs, increasing its stability and speed. It also improves weight capacity, making the Adjustable Standing Desk Pro Series strong and sturdy.

  • Stability

This standing desk is made with premium power-coated steel tubing that resists scratching and stains due to adjustment.

  • Programmable Presets

The Adjustable Standing Desk Pro Series has programmable presets which you can use to set your preferred height adjustments. This feature is efficient because instead of finding the right setting each time, you can just choose the programmed preset to get the table to adjust.

  • Keypad Control

The standing desk has an All-in-One keypad control you can use to click for presets, adjust the table manually, and set reminders with. The reminders can help you optimize your time between standing and sitting.

  • Sleek Design

This product has an elegant and sleek design that makes it uplift the look of the entire room it is placed in automatically. It is modern and comes in different material and color options to help you pick your preferred aesthetic.

  • Computer Desks

A computer desk is a type of standard desk made to optimize efficiency and performance for people whose work involves working with a computer. It is usually made to be spacious enough to easily accommodate necessary equipment like CPU, keyboard, and mouse. 

6. Desk Material

Choosing the right desk material is incredibly important to ensure it is comfortable for you to work on the office desk. You can choose from wood, metal, steel, etc., and also pick out which finish you like best. The texture and color often have a subtle impact on our performance so ensure you select a material and color that works best for you.

The factors mentioned above have the most significant impact on the value of an office desk. Some of them highlight reasons you need an adjustable desk while others offer perspective on the problems with sitting for too long. Generally, they will help you make the right choice.

Bottom Line

To sum up, the ideal office desk needs to fit your needs, have an ergonomic design, should be adjustable, and preferably be a standing desk. Several experts have pointed out the benefits of a standing desk and the need to incorporate them in our offices to reduce our health risk.

If you are looking for more ergonomically designed office furniture, visit the FlexiSpot website. Their products are premium, advanced, and sophisticated and will look perfect in your office and home.