A while back, I posted an article outlining my plan for a series of posts about my setup. It’s fallen into the “when I have more time” category for now.
However, part of the reason I haven’t posted is because my setup is in a bit of disarray at the moment. When we moved earlier this year, I was stoked about the 10×10 ft. office built into the oversized garage. It was perfect for me.
Unfortunately, I found out in July that it was not properly insulated, and the windows were horrible, so, even though there was a portable AC unit pumping air into the room, it was unbearable in the Texas heat, so I moved inside, with plans to upgrade before next summer.
After spending the summer with a tiny desk that’s not a good ergonomic fit for me, I’m very ready for the cooler temps so I can move back to the real office.
When I do so, I’m in the market for a new chair. The one I have now is an old OfficeMax managers chair I bought for about $75 10 years ago.
I’ve heard pros and cons of spending a lot of cash on a good ergonomic chair, like the Aeron (including this hilarious review on Dack). I wonder if anyone reading this has any advice, or recommendations based on what you use, or if you’ve gone through my experience in the recent past, and what your solution was. Tim Ferriss has a decent review here as well.
I’ll hopefully be back in the outside office in less than a month, with a new chair, and then I will finally start – and, hopefully, finish – the series.
Here at our office, we got Aeron chairs for everyone, myself included. After a month, I realized that the chair was causing a lot of pain for me… my hips ached, even when I wasn’t in the chair. So I switched back to my old standby (a bit like yours, probably). Everyone else, though. loves the chair. For them, it’s been worth the investment. It just happens that I need a certain kind of, well, “bottom” support.
When this chair wears out, which it appears likely to do soon, I’ll go try out some alternative Herman Miller chairs… I really do like a nice chair. But for now, I wouldn’t give up my ugly chair for the beauty…
(If you want to talk details of body shape and pain points, feel free to email and I’ll be more expressive…)
Thanks for the info, Tim. I know a chair isn’t everything. How I sit is part of my problem. I tried using just an exercise ball for a while. It was a nice alternative, but not something I could do full time. I think I’ll have one in the office to use a couple hours a day, then a nice solid chair for most things. I actually just ordered a cheap chair from Amazon for use in the study in the house, as our current one is broken. I spend so much time in one, I feel like I need to go get fitted for one, like one would for a suit.