The Treadmill Desk You Already Own

I like the concept of standing desks but hated the cost of them. I've assembled one over the years to allow me the option to stand if I wanted. Turns out I love standing.

With treadmill desks getting attention these days, I've had the idea in the back of my mind for a few months. Today I had an epiphany in that I thought I already owned everything necessary to assemble my own treadmill desk.

Experiment

This is an experiment to build a treadmill desk for writing. Just writing. Emails. Journals. Blog posts. Coding could follow.

It's an experiment to see if I can easily transform my ordinary treadmill into a station where I could view a screen (iPad in this case) and type.

Treadmill

It's an ordinary treadmill with arms on it. That's the key I think in that they are not too high or low.

Shelf

I used a shelf from my bookcase and it turned out to be the perfect fit.

Keyboard

I'm using the wireless Apple Keyboard and on the surface of the shelf was a bit low for me. So I thought, "I think this could work, maybe with a book or something else on top of it. It would need to be stable and wide enough to rest my wrists."

It turns out that the box for the MacBook Pro seems to be just the right height to add to the shelf

"Computer"

I have to admit that my treadmill doesn't have a shelf or platform for me to place my MacBook Pro on, nor the shelf without a great deal of added height and lack of ergonomics.

I usually prop my iPad up on my treadmill and watch screencasts or movies and it just made sense to use it.

I've limited my expectations to using writing most or all of my emails, blogs, etc. on it so as to embrace the limitations.

And there you have it, a treadmill desk I already owned.

I now have the "technology" of a treadmill desk and hope to use it regularly.