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Working from home, especially if you’re doing it for the first time, can be overwhelming. Now, there are a lot of tips that focus on productivity and how you can get started.
But this article isn’t one of those. This one is focused on providing you tips so you stay healthy and pain-free in the long-run.
Here are a few tips from Judi Edmonds, an occupational therapist from Auckland, to help you work from home to avoid aches and pains.
3 Tips for a Pain-Free Work From Home Setup
Unless you have your own home office setup, oftentimes, you will work from a laptop—whether that’s a company-issued one or your personal laptop.
While sitting on the couch with your laptop in your pyjamas may sound like a dream, it’s also likely to end in neck, shoulder or back strain. You might be able to get away with this for the first few days, but you’ll soon realize that you need to move to the dining room table.
Laptops were not designed to be worked on for eight hours at a time, and a separate keyboard will help prevent you from hunching forward and potentially straining your neck or back.
Judi Edmonds
1. Get an External Keyboard (and Mouse)
The first thing you’d want to do is get an external keyboard. One that’s not attached to your computer.
Whether that’s a wireless or wired setup, it doesn’t matter.
Get whatever works for you.
2. Keyboard Placement
In the office, you might not have thought about this much because you’ve been going there for a while or it’s set up for you properly. But at home where you have space that’s not designed for work, you might find working for 8 hours a day a struggle.
The first thing to do is find your ideal keyboard placement.
Sit in your chair and let your hands hang at your side. Then, bend them at 90 degrees from the elbow. That should be where your keyboard should be.
If you have an adjustable chair, that’s great. But if you’re stuck with a regular dining chair, it’s best to either find a different table or find a way to adjust the height of your seat.
3. Monitor Height
The next thing you’d want to do is find the appropriate monitor height.
In the office, you might have the luxury of working with dual monitors that have adjustable height placement. But you can’t do that with a laptop.
Since you got yourself an external keyboard, you can adjust your laptop so that the top of the monitor is at eye level (or slightly above it).
This is the most ideal position if you want to reduce neck strain.
You can achieve this by stacking books, reams of paper, or maybe a dedicated laptop stand that allows you to do so.
Conclusion
Working from home might sound like a dream come true for most people. While you won’t have to deal with a daily commute or travel, it does come with its own downsides.
Your home isn’t built to keep you productive all day. It probably doesn’t have all the tools you need to do your work efficiently either. So, if you want to continue working remotely in the long-run without pain, follow the 3 tips in this article.
Do you have other work from home tips that helped you reduce pain? Let us know in the comments below.
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