There has been a significant rise in the number of people working remotely in the past few years, given the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic – this has also led to more people trying out side hustles from the comforts of their home, for example, dropshipping, blogging, affiliate marketing, making money on Instagram, etc
More time working from home means more time spent sitting in front of the computer. Is your work environment enabling you to succeed or impeding you instead? Do you frequently experience exhaustion at work, difficulty concentrating, or aches and pains in your neck, shoulders, back, or fingers?
The ergonomic design in your work-from-home office can increase your productivity and general well-being in addition to reducing pain and injury.
When setting up a home office, it’s crucial to choose the appropriate ergonomic equipment or make use of what you currently have so that you may have a productive workspace.
The way you sit, where you put your equipment, how you use it, and how you go about your everyday tasks are all factors that contribute to office ergonomics. You’ll be surprised that even small adjustments can provide amazing benefits to your posture and productivity.
In this article, we will go through the best practices to create an ideal ergonomic workspace in your work-from-home office and help you to avoid injuries such as back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc.
What are the best ergonomic practices for your work-from-home setup?
1. Choose the right office chair
Image Source: X-Chair
Finding the best ergonomic office chair is the first step and by far the most crucial factor for an ergonomic workspace. The right ergonomic office chair will determine the best possible posture for your shoulders, back, arms and legs – this will increase productivity and minimize your fatigue while sitting throughout the day.
The best kinds of ergonomic office chairs typically have a ton of different adjustments and features such as:
- Seat height adjustment.
- Tilt adjustment with tension control of the backrest when reclining.
- Adjustable seat depth.
- Adjustable armrests that can not only be adjusted in height but also depth, width, and angle.
- Lumbar support that fits the curvature of your back and provides ample cushioning.
- Material of the chair fabric – typically breathable mesh that is also strong.
The greater the adjustability of the ergonomic chair, the better it can be adjusted to suit the different postures of different people.
2. Sit with the correct posture
Perhaps you do not have the budget yet to invest in a good ergonomic chair, however, just adjusting the way you sit can help you avoid a ton of problems for your back, neck, and shoulders.
This is how you should sit:
- Sit upright with your back preferably supported.
- Head and neck completely upright with shoulders relaxed.
- Arms should be resting on the armrests and at the same height as the desk.
- Thighs parallel to the floor and weight distributed equally across your hips.
- Knees bent at a 90-degree angle with feet resting on the floor (use a step stool if your feet are not touching the floor).
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3. Adjust the height of your monitor or laptop screen.
First of all, your laptop or monitor should be centrally placed and about an arm’s length (about 20 inches) away from you such that you do not need to turn your head to see the screen – turning your head for long periods of time can lead to tension and stress on the neck area.
The top portion of the screen should be at the same level or slightly lower than your eyes, and the monitor should also be tilted backward about 10-20 degrees. This is so that you are able to see your entire screen by just shifting your eyes, without having to tilt your head.
For laptops, use a laptop stand in order to raise the height of the laptop screen so that the top of the laptop screen is in line with your eye level.
In addition to this, you would want to use an external keyboard on your desk in order to keep your arms parallel to the desk. This posture allows your arms and shoulders to be more relaxed, which would otherwise be strained if you had to incline your arms to type on your laptop keyboard.
4. Use an ergonomic mouse
We are all so used to using a traditional mouse, however, we often do not realize the ergonomic risks it has on our wrist. Using a traditional mouse forces us to pronate and twist our wrists in an unnatural downward position, this compresses the median nerve which over time leads to numbness of the hands. In extreme cases, it can lead to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and repetitive wrist injury which requires surgery to rectify.
The wrist should be placed in a natural handshake position and the only way to achieve this is by using an ergonomic mouse or vertical mouse. These types of mice normally restrict your wrist movement as well such that you should not be moving your wrist but your entire arm instead, this allows you to use the larger muscle groups of your forearm rather than your wrist.
5. Room and screen brightness
Ensure that your room is adequately lit with as much natural light as possible. The setting of your monitor screen brightness depends on how much ambient light there is in your home office, the screen brightness should increase if there is more ambient light.
Also, try using ‘night light’, ‘night mode’, or ‘dark mode’ settings for your browsers and screen which use warmer lights or a dark contrast. These settings allow less harmful blue light to be emitted from the screen.
If you are someone who wears glasses, try to get a pair that comes with a blue-light filter, these types of lenses also help to filter out harmful blue light from our computer screens.
Conclusion
It’s encouraging to know that there are things you can do if you’ve experienced pain and discomfort due to your work.
Your physical and emotional health will be enhanced by setting up a cozy, ergonomic home office. It may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worthwhile especially if you now work from home or plan to in the near future.
Start now by making one helpful change, then gradually progress to designing the ideal ergonomic workspace for your work-from-home office!
Author Bio: Daniel Thomas
Daniel is a full-time blogger and founder of Basigue.com, he also runs an online store Rytrus.com. Daniel has experience in dropshipping, creating Shopify online stores, affiliate marketing, and running pay-per-click digital advertisements like Facebook and Google Ads as well as SEO. In his free time, he loves playing games or watching anime with his wife.
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