Even if you exercise regularly, but sit for most of the rest of your day, you’re still at risk for higher cholesterol levels and heart disease, according to studies reported on NPR.  This doesn’t bode well for us writers, who intend to spend as much time sitting at our desks as possible.

If I only had a laptop shelf

So what can we do? It dawned on me that I could ride my recumbent bicycle, which is in my writing room, while I read email, research, tweet and catch up with Facebook friends… if only there were a shelf or table to hold my laptop. A search for a do-it-yourself exercise bike shelf wasn’t much help until I found someone who built a shelf from cardboard for his bike.

I spent a Sunday afternoon with stacks of corrugated cardboard, wood glue and a utility knife, building my own shelf. I enjoy this kind of problem-solving and building– I guess I inherited some of my father’s engineering skills, as rudimentary as they might be!

First attempt

Finding the right angle that supported the laptop from the back was trial and error. I thought I could make it a strict cantilever, but I found it needed a vertical support bar.

The support bar was really annoying, plus it wasn’t stable.

Second attempt

I started fresh, and came up with a shelf that’s simple and unbelievably sturdy, and it doesn’t need vertical support! The base is a box with a width that accommodated  my laptop. All it took was some cutting and trimming, and lots of layering with heavy cardboard. The shelf is three layers, plus a couple of layers inside to tilt the laptop to a good angle. the back has four layers. The most important thing is to have the corrugation go in opposite directions with each layer. Corrugated cardboard, when layered this way, is unbelievably strong.

This is what I started with, in case you feel ambitious:

It took me about an hour to construct, plus some drying time for the glue. Now I can keep my body moving while I’m working (or playing) on my laptop.

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Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of the award-winning novel In the Context of Love, a gripping story about one woman’s need to tell the truth without shame.

Angelica Schirrick has been running from her past ever since the devastating discovery that her life is not what she thought.

2017 New Apple Book Awards Official Selection
2016 Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist
2016 USA Book News Best Book Finalist
Great Midwest Book Fest Honorable Mention

“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters