Back in February I fell down a set of icy stairs. It was painful. Luckily my hip was not broken or fractured. But it sure hurt like hell. Doctor said it was going to take a while to recover and to allow my body to heal at its own pace. All of this good news considering it was a very long way down a set of concrete stairs with metal edges. I definitely counted myself lucky and more likely blessed to not have a break. I'm older so these types of things are life changing.
However, that recovery has been slow. I get frustrated and then remind myself that my fall down the stairs was an unkind thing to do to my body and that I need to let it heal in it's own time. So, I've put off rearranging my studio and some of the house projects I had in mind. Seeing some of the clutter in areas I had hoped to put to new purpose continues to frustrate. But since I'm in the long game of being here for my health and made the decision to put on blinders to not see the mess. Plus, as I've become more mobile and better able to do more, I have done small projects and those small wins have brought me peace and happiness.
So what does all of this have to dow with using a recliner as an office chair?
It was that fall that caused me to rethink work. I spend a whole lot of my days sitting at a desk, staring at waveforms and videos as I edit podcast episodes. That fall changed everything. No longer could I sit at all. So I had my family move my production computer to the tall dining table so I could stand to edit. Which was okay for short spells. But editing takes time and only being able to edit in spurts was not going to cut it. Thankfully I have a team of editors that could pickup my slack. Still there are things that only I can do and these short work bursts were killing my productivity. Then I remembered Mike Dell from Blubrry casually mention to me a couple years back during a support call that his office chair was a recliner. At the time it struck me as odd and yet also sounded like a comfortable way to work.
Fast forward two years later and all of the sudden Mike's idea sounded like something I could put into action. But how to do it? I had a recliner, a laptop, and a lap desk. But my production needs my 34" curved gaming monitor to really get things done. Luckily my sister had a small rolling desk that was manually height adjustable that she wasn't using. So, I went about setting up a recliner workstation.
The first time I sat down, rolled the desk to fit over the reclined leg part of the recliner, I laughed out loud.
Mind you, I'm still in the mode of needing a medical grabber to help me do most things. Using it as a makeshift cane to make sure I don't fall given my hindered state. I'm using an ergonomic seat cushion to sit anywhere. Even so, I'm not able to sit for long. I spend a lot of time shuffling between different states of being: carefully sitting, reclining, laying down, standing, walking. Being in any one position for any length of time is not possible. I say all of that to express just how much this new setup changed everything.
Using a recliner as my office chair meant I could lean back to give my hip a break when it was tired. I could keep my legs and feet elevated which promoted better blood flow. Too much sitting wasn't good for my legs and feet before the fall. After, it was worse. I was stretching more which felt good. Those stretches were supported by the recliner so I was less likely to overdo it and hurt myself. And that's really been the key to all of this. My mind has been frustrated at the glacial pace of my healing. Here we are three months later and while I am much stronger and in less constant pain than I was in those early days, there are still things I am unable to do yet. I am getting stronger. I can definitely feel myself healing.
My business and work has grown in these last three months in a way I could not have sustained unless I was able to invest the time in actually working. All of that has happened and my clients were none the wiser. Everything was delivered on time and thanks to the support of my team, I didn't have to do it all by myself.
If you've gotten this far here is what I want to express clearly: a recliner as your office chair shouldn't be something that is setup after an injury. I wish I had taken Mike's casual comment more seriously. I wish I had created this setup so much sooner. I feel like this is a better wholistic way to work for our physical bodies. Sitting upright at 90º angle for hours day after day after day isn't healthy. I'm pretty sure our bodies weren't built to spend our days that way.
So, if you have a recliner in your house, consider turning that into your office chair. You might find it to be the dream work chair you never knew you always needed.
