How to Optimize Your Workspace Ergonomically
If you spend most of your day sitting at your desk, chances are you know how awful it can make you feel at the end of the day. Here’s how to create an ergonomic workspace so you feel comfortable and free from injury.
Many of you have probably already started experiencing repetitive strain injury (RSI) from an improperly positioned table. A number of different factors can cause injuries (yes, even at the table), and they may not always be obvious – for example, stooping and holding the shoulders in tension can not only pinch the nerves in the shoulders, but even injure the wrists. If you haven’t thought about the comfort of your workplace, it might be time to change the ergonomics. Here are the most important things you will want to go through and change – both in office equipment and in what you do while at work.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we will assume that you are using a seating table. If you like, many people find standing desks to be an incredible boon for their comfort , and there are many great solutions for the home . If you’re looking for a big change, I’d recommend reading about that too – although we’re going to focus on a more traditional seated workspace for now.
What your equipment needs
While you can go above and beyond and create your own ergonomic desk , all you really need to do is make a few changes to your workspace. This is where you want to place all your equipment and why.
Your chair
People have been talking about ergonomic office chairs for years, such as the super-expensive Herman Miller Aeron line , but you don’t have to shell out a ton of money to be comfortable. Nowadays, you can buy much cheaper ergonomic chairs from stores like Staples, or even upgrade your old chair with some DIY fixes. Note that you can make some functions yourself and others you cannot. In any case, make sure you have the following in your chair:
- Comfortable Pillow : One of the simplest and most obvious things you need is a comfortable seating position. A hard chair won’t do you any good; the right office chair with a cushion will make you much more comfortable. After all, you sit in this chair for hours. If possible, breathable fabric will do.
- Armrests : Again, this is something you probably can’t do with your own hands, but you should have multiple armrests on your chair when you’re not actively typing. They should be low enough to keep your shoulders relaxed and your elbow flexed at approximately 90 degrees.
- Adjustable seat height : Adjusting the seat height is much easier than adjusting the table height. You should be able to adjust the seat so that your thighs are parallel to the floor and your feet are flat on the floor. You should also place your hands at the height of the table (or the part of the table where your keyboard or mouse is).
- Adjustable backrest height : This is one of the first things to use in cheaper office chairs, and it was one of the biggest mistakes I made when setting up at home. You should be able to adjust the back of the chair not only up and down, but also the angle. Typically, you want the angle to be fairly large so that your posture remains the same – the further you put it, the more likely you are to slouch. You will also want the back of your chair to have …
- Lumbar Support : You’ve probably heard this term a lot, but you may not know what it means. Basically, our backs are slightly curved inward, which means that the backs of the chairs don’t have to be straight upright. Instead, they should support our lower back, coming forward. Many office chairs have built-in lumbar support. Of course, you can just as easily tie a rolled towel or something similar to your chair, but you need this support if you don’t want to ruin your spine.
- The ability to turn and / or roll : This feature is difficult to do with your own hands, but a chair with wheels and the ability to turn is actually a more necessary function than you think. When you need to reach for objects on a table, you can tense your body, so expanding an area that’s easy to reach (and see without turning your head) can work wonders.
Your table
Simply placing your mouse, keyboard, and monitor on your desk won’t give you a healthy working setup. Here’s how to make sure everything is in the correct position.
Placement of mouse and keyboard
You want the mouse and keyboard to be as close together as possible, and the alphanumeric portion of the keyboard is centered on the table. This means you need to pay attention to the keys and not the keyboard itself – most keyboards are asymmetrical, with the numeric keypad on the right. Instead of placing the entire keyboard in the center of the table, watch the “B” key. You want it to be right in front of you and in the center of your table (or rather, where you will be sitting at your table).
Whether your desk has a pull-out keyboard tray or not shouldn’t be a big problem, since you have an adjustable seat (right?) That you can put your keyboard on and you can adjust your monitors in a myriad of ways. Below) . If you have a keyboard tray, make sure your mouse is on the tray with it and not on the desk itself. You want your keyboard and mouse to be at a height where your elbows bend at or near a 90-degree angle so that you don’t bend your wrists when typing.
Monitor
While most monitors are not super-adjustable by themselves, we have introduced many DIY monitor stands that are ridiculously easy to build . I myself use a door stop monitor stand and it works great. You want a dot about 2 or 3 inches from the top of the monitor body to be at eye level. You also want the monitors to be within arm’s reach of where you are sitting.
The trickier half of the equation is eliminating glare on monitors. While some monitors can tilt, many cannot, and you can probably fix this with strategic lighting placement instead of monitor settings.
Table height
As you tweak all of your hardware, you might want to take a look at this previously mentioned workstation scheduler . This will help you measure the correct seat height, keyboard height, and monitor height for your setup, so you can double check and make sure you did everything right.
All the rest
The last thing you’ll want to make sure is that the most important items on your desk are easily accessible. You won’t have to reach for anything often, so use the storage space you have available to store the things you need access to. Everything else can be put in drawers or other parts of the office. A swivel and / or swivel chair helps with this: if your chair rotates, you have more room for which things are within direct reach.
You need to make an effort
No matter how “ergonomic” your equipment may be, you still need to be mindful of your body when you work, or you will never reap the benefits of a properly configured workspace. Here are the things you need to look out for every day to be polite with your body.
Pose
We’ve already talked about good posture , and if you’ve done everything so far, you’re in a pretty good position: your keyboard is right in front of you and at the right level to flex your arms 90 degrees. and your monitor is at eye level, so you don’t have to stretch your neck up or down to see. In addition, you should always ensure that you:
- Don’t slouch: This is an obvious question, but some of us have a hard time remembering. I found that my biggest problem was that the back of my seat was reclined too far. You should sit with your back at an angle of about 100 degrees to your feet. By tilting my seat all the way forward and making sure I’m lying on it, it’s much easier for me to avoid slouching.
- Keep your elbows close to your body and your wrists straight. This means that you cannot reach for things like I mentioned earlier – if you find that your wrists or elbows are not working normally, it is probably because your mouse or keyboard is in the wrong position.
- Keep your shoulders and back relaxed: Tense muscles in your shoulders and back will cause a variety of problems. Make sure they are relaxed, which will likely require you not to use the armrests when you type. Your keyboard should already be at the right level where you don’t need to use the armrests, even if it goes against your instincts.
Take frequent breaks.
It’s no secret that sitting in one place and staring at the same screen all day is bad for you. As a general rule, take a break of at least five minutes every half hour or hour. You will also want to set aside some time every 20 minutes or so for the 20-20-20 rule : every 20 minutes, set aside 20 seconds to look away from the screen and something 20 feet away.
Avoid eye strain
Taking breaks like this will not only improve your joints and muscles, but also reduce the eye strain you get from looking at your computer all day. Minimizing glare with proper monitor placement will also help, but there are several settings and programs that can help you. First of all, make sure ClearType is enabled in Windows and increase the refresh rate of your monitor . I also really believe in programs like Flux , which will make your monitor more eye-friendly at night.
These are just a few of the most important tips for creating a healthy, comfortable workplace. They may seem simple or inconsequential, but they will make a huge difference.
This story was originally published in 2011 and was updated on 12/9/19 to provide more complete and up-to-date information.