Not every standing desk is worth the investment, but the ones that are can change the entire rhythm of your workday. Switching between sitting and standing not only encourages movement and better posture, but it also breaks up the long, sluggish stretches of time that come with desk work.

The team at WIRED has been testing desks at home for years, putting each one through several weeks of daily use—mostly standard desk work, but also tasks like building Lego sets and wrapping holiday gifts. These are the models that stand out: durable, comfortable, practical (some even come with techy upgrades), and they make it easy enough to make standing a small, everyday habit.

Electric vs. manual? Our guide focuses largely on electric standing desks, which have motors in the legs to smoothly move the table up and down. However, if you just want to be able to adjust the height of your desk and won't be changing it all that often, then maybe look at manual standing desks as they're often cheaper.

Watch your wires! After setting up your standing desk, make sure you keep an eye on every single wire that's connected to something on the desk when you start raising the desktop. I have unboxed and set up several desks over the years, and yet I recently made a very rookie move—as I was raising a desk, I didn't realize my Ethernet cable was taut, and it broke cleanly off the back of my PC when the desk reached a certain height.

This also means it's not easy for our small team to test every single desk out there. You may see a few missing brands from this guide like Uplift, Vari, and Autonomous, but we'll be testing more desks soon in the coming months.