# Tracking Standing Desk Time
**URL:** https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832
**Category:** Akrasia
**Created:** [January 20, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832 "2016-01-20T00:13:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@icole](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/icole)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/1 "2016-01-20T00:13:19Z")
Figured I would share this new integration of beeminder in my life. Despite having a sit/stand desk, I have found myself increasingly falling in to the quicksand trap of sitting. The solution? A Raspberry Pi logging my standing time to a beeminder goal ([www.beeminder.com/icole/standing](http://www.beeminder.com/icole/standing))
The raspberry pi set up is documented here for those interested:
> **[Adafruit's Raspberry Pi Lesson 12. Sensing Movement](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-12-sensing-movement/)**
>
> In this lesson, you will learn how to use the digital inputs on the GPIO connector with a door sensor and a PIR motion detector.
I used the initial script in the tutorial to read the magnetic sensor and added some simple logging of the minutes to beeminder [https://github.com/icole/beeminder\_glue/blob/master/standing/desk\_sensor.py](https://github.com/icole/beeminder_glue/blob/master/standing/desk_sensor.py).
Here are some pictures of the set up [http://imgur.com/a/vhIau](http://imgur.com/a/vhIau)
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### Author:  [@insti](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/insti)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/2 "2016-01-20T20:22:25Z")
Cool, standing desks should come with these sensors built in.
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### Author:  [@andrewlu](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/andrewlu)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/3 "2016-01-23T21:50:45Z")
Wow, this is a really cool solution! Previously, I had thought of putting a NFC tag in another room or floor (and when your phone’s GPS shows you are in the general vicinity, you have to scan the NFC tag every X minutes), but I figured that was unnecessarily complicated. This solution is much more elegant.
For anyone with a similar goal, but is less tech-savvy, I’d recommend starting out with a little applet called [WorkRave](http://www.workrave.org/). I have it set to remind me to get up every 30 minutes and walk round a bit. It won’t track how many minutes you’re standing rather than sitting, but as I understand it, most of the harms of sitting come from prolonged inactivity of the legs, rather than total minutes standing.
I beemind each time I skip one of these prompts, and WorkRave also keeps its own internal stats. It’s still sometimes tempting to indulge in a skip, and less honest users can either not enter the skips into Beeminder. Still, it’s an effective enough nudge most of the time.
I might look into this Raspberry Pi implementation just for fun though. I’ve been meaning to get a Raspberry Pi to play around with for a while now, and this seems like a easy project to jump in with.
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### Author:  [@guysoft](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/guysoft)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2018, 7:54am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/4 "2018-06-28T07:54:31Z")
Hey, I have a Varidesk pro 30 plus and I also was thinking on how to do this. Although I am pretty good with Pis I was actually thinking of using an ESP8266.
However, I also build raspberrypi distros. So if you think we could build something more complicated, like having a web sever where you login and see your progress, we could do that too.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/7 "2019-10-28T14:59:54Z")
This topic is temporarily closed for at least 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/8 "2019-10-28T19:00:00Z")
This topic was automatically opened after 4 hours.
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### Author:  [@ppete47](https://forum.beeminder.com/u/ppete47)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832/9 "2020-12-15T01:13:58Z")
I’m revisiting this as I’d like to track this as well. Thinking of a few options:
1. Use a magnetic switch sensor to track position, and a motion sensor to track activity
Pros: Simple
Cons: Would require multiple sensors for each position I have it in, unless I just go for binary but that would likely be unreliable (unless I possibly added additional magnets?) - movement of my desk to any other position (possible) would be problematic
Inspiration found at [Tracking Standing Desk Time](https://forum.beeminder.com/t/tracking-standing-desk-time/1832)
2. Place/wire a secondary button next/on top of existing buttons
Pros: Easy to do, doesn’t change workflow
Cons: Requires more manual work/intervention
3. Rewire/program the whole thing (something like [Home Made Standing Desk Raspberry Pi Controller | Timmy O'Mahony](https://timmyomahony.com/blog/home-made-standing-desk-raspberry-pi-controller))
Pros: Looks awesome
Cons: Looks like a lot more work 😛
4. Manually bug me every time to enter information like someone mentioned above
Pros: No technical work required
Cons: Not really “automatic”