Quit Your Aching With Effective Home Office Ergonomics

Home office ergonomics is essentially designing and arranging home office equipment to work more efficiently and safely. Here's some pointers about getting the most work done with the fewest
aches and pains:

Be able to adjust your home office workstation. You'll need to make adjustments sometimes to ensure a safe working posture and be able to make a few changes in posture while you're working.

Be sure to minimize glare from overhead lights, desk lamps and windows by arranging your workspace accordingly.

Choose a place that has appropriate air circulation. Stale air will make you feel you stale too and your productivity will drop like a rock.

Be sure you don't sit directly under air-conditioning vents that would force cold air right on top of you.

Vary your tasks and change workstations to lessen the effects of working. Move to a different desk or table for writing or phone calls, for instance.

Use adjustable equipment that allows you to change your working posture. The use of easily adjustable furniture will increase your comfort level and use different muscle groups occasionally.

Switch between keystrokes and mousing, especially if you mouse a lot. Staying in either working position for too long can cause problems later. Differing postures mean less wear and tear on you.

Take regular breaks from the computer. When you do, take a couple of minutes to stand, stretch and bend. Your body will love you for it. Avoid the laps to the fridge.

Switch between computer tasks and non-computer tasks. The changes in posture and motion help give muscles and eyes a chance
to recover and refresh.

Your Home Office Ergonomic Workstation

Use a properly designed and appropriately adjusted desk for you. It should have sufficient room to move your legs around as needed.

Place your computer monitor directly in front of you, at least 20 inches away.

Don't keep stuff under your desk that restrict leg movements and shifts in body position, such as files, CPUs, printers, books, etc.

Keep your keyboard, mouse and phone within easy reach. Reaching too far will lead to repetitive stress injuries. Having this equipment nearby greatly reduces your chances for such injuries.

Keep arms, hands and wrists away from sharp-edged surfaces, such as the square edge of your desk. They're called distress points for a good reason - causing you distress! Use a wrist rest or cover the desk's edge with cushioning. Strongly consider buying a rounded desktop.

Never sit too far away from your workstation. Shoulder, back and neck pain can be caused by reaching too far for components.

Raise or lower work surfaces to suit you approximately 20 to 28 inches above the floor to give your thighs enough clearance. Remove the center drawer of your desk if you need more clearance.

Get a different chair if your current one feels uncomfortable.

Speaking Of Office Chairs...

Try out a lot of chairs before buying. Really, a lot. A good fit is more than worth the time and trouble.

Buy the most adjustable chair that's also the most comfortable for you.

Your chair's backrest should nicely fit the natural curve of your spine and give good lumbar support. If your chair of choice has no built-in lumbar support, try using a rolled up towel or a removable back support pillow to help maintain the natural curve of your spine.

The seat of your chair should be comfy, not too hard and allow your feet to rest flat on the floor or a footrest if you prefer.

Armrests should be soft and allow shoulders to relax while keeping elbows close to your sides. If not, either lose them or find another suitable chair.

Your chair should have a five leg base fitted with with casters to allow you to glide on the floor. Less legs means tipping over.

You should be able to lean back while sitting at least 15 degrees. The backrest should lock in place for safety and allow tension adjustments to contain lower back movement.

Keyboards

Keyboards, pointing devices and desktops that are too high or low lead to bad wrist, arm and shoulder position which lead to injury. When your keyboard's too high, you may unconsciously elevate your shoulders to raise your arms in order to reach it. Split keyboard designs allow keying without bending your wrists inward.

Place your keyboard directly in front of you.

Your shoulders should be relaxed and elbows resting at your sides. Your wrists should be straight, in line with your arms.

If you use a keyboard tray, it must be adjustable for height and tilt. it sholuld also provide good leg and foot clearance. Of course, it must also have enough room for your mouse and keyboard.

Tilting your keyboard by raising the legs on the back of the keyboard will cause your wrists to bend upward. Smaller keyboards, such as those on laptops, will also cause stressful wrist positions. Awkward wrist positions will cause "contact stress" to your tendons, that must move more while keying.

Monitors

Make sure you sit at a comfy distance away from your monitor so that you can easily read text with your head and body in an upright position, with your back properly supported by your chair.

Be sure you have enough desk space to fit your monitor. Pull your desk away from the wall if it's too big or use a flat panel model. Move yourself back and use an adjustable keyboard tray for a deeper and better spaced working area.

The center of your monitor should always be right in front of you and not more than 15 to 20 degrees below your direct line of vision.
People who use bifocal glasses tend to look at their monitor screen through the bottom lens of their glasses, with their head tilted back if the monitor is sitting too high. This will soon cause neck stress and back pain.

Stop looking at your monitor occasionally to lessen eyestrain. Studies have shown that eyes blink fewer times while looking at monitors. When resting your eyes away from your monitor, blink a lot
to moisten eyes or do something non-computer related.

Dan Reinhold works at home as best he can with two boys, a dog, a cat, two rats, a wife and a household to keep together to boot. Learn how to cope with all those day-to-day home business hassles and hold on to your sanity at www.WAHumor.com.