Joy Paley is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online degrees for the Guide to Online Schools.

As a writer, I spend all day sitting at my computer. I’ve tried all sorts of contraptions to keep my back from feeling achy and stiff. I’ve had those bulky executive leather chairs, and I’ve stripped down to the bouncy exercise ball thing. I’ve tried kneeling chairs and stools. Nothing was really workable for an extended period of time. I would switch seating arrangements every hour and a half, trying to find one that kept me from holding all that tension in my lower lumbar area.

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of trying a  Humanscale Diffrient World Chair and have finally found one that I can sit in for hours, without feeling like Quasimodo when I stand up. This chair feels better than any other office chair I’ve tried, likely due to the high level of engineering that went into the thing. Consider it the Mercedes of office chairs. It looks simple and elegant, something that is a natural product of good mechanical and industrial design.

The basic design of the Diffrient World Chair is a mesh seat and back, held together by aluminum connectors. If you’ve ever tried a mesh office chair, you know that it hugs your back and reduces pressure points better than the softest, most swivelly office chair. For me, the mesh kept stiffness from building up in my thighs, from supporting my own weight in one position for a prolonged period. The major selling point, though, is the way this chair intuits when you want to lean back and when you want to sit up straight. There is no lever that you have to pull to bend the seatback up and down – the thing simply adjusts depending on the pressure you put on the two areas of the seat’s frame. And, it doesn’t give that unsupported falling sensation that some chairs do, when you lean back; it adjusted to my body, but not in a way that left me jerking forward, fearing for my life.

As a bit of an enviro-nerd, the final selling point on the chair for me was the company’s commitment to earth-conscious design. The Diffrient World Chair’s simple design means it takes less material to make, making it more sustainable from the start. The material the chair does use is 77% recycled. The company itself has given over $1 million to the World Wildlife Fund, to help with its conservation efforts.

The only downside of the Diffrient World Chair? It’s not cheap, and runs from $740-$800, depending on the vendor. If you can get the funds though, your back will certainly thank you, and you’ll never waste money on another office chair again.