Getting serious about ergonomics is an interesting combination of large up-front expense and cheap little hacks and exercises.
Budget $2000. I'm serious about this. The things you buy will last you for years, and $2000 will pay for itself if it saves you two weeks of sick time or a couple of doctor visits.
You may not actually have to spend all of that, but you are going to want:
* An excellent chair ($800 range. Feel free to try the cheaper chairs... I have an Aeron but frankly have no idea if it's worth it. I bought it after using one at work for six months, and discovering it was okay. Testing chairs is difficult and expensive, so I recommend starting out in the midrange rather than spending months working your way up from the $50 OfficeMax chairs. If you find that the more expensive ones are 5% better for you, spend the money.)
The goal with chairs is adjustability. I recommend a chair with adjustable arms, because sometimes when my shoulders get sore I move them up to brace my elbows during rest periods.
* An excellent keyboard. MSFT natural keyboard is a great value, but I switched to the Kinesis Advantage Pro six months ago, and it kicks butt: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/ ). It costs something like $350. It looks like it was designed by aliens. You will feel like an idiot for the first week as you relearn all your typing and gradually remap all the keys to your favorite locations. If you don't know how to touch type... you will learn. But then you will experience the joy of feeling like you are typing while barely moving your hands.
* I concur with the Ergotron monitor arms. Being able to adjust the monitor to exactly the right position is important.
* A proper keyboard drawer. You want the kind with the arm that lets you adjust the keyboard to arbitrary angles and heights, and slide it in and out. If you use the mouse, you want to be able to mount the mouse at one side. Something like the ones on this page: http://www.ergoindemand.com/keyboard-tray-adjustable-shelf.h... . I would tell you the brand I use, but I picked mine out of the trash by the side of the road. (Arlington, MA -- there are real advantages of living in a startup hub!)
Then you have to hack. Once you've spent money on the raw materials, ergonomics is a game of inches. I have one of those damned expensive Aeron chairs, but just this year I discovered that it doesn't provide enough upper back support, so I strapped a cushion to the top with a bungie cord :). Cost: maybe $20, and the pain is gone. My right arm got sore using the mouse. I discovered that if I took my mouse support off the keyboard drawer and reattached it using a different bolt and some homemade washers, I could raise it by four inches. And, just like that, the pain went away.
See a physical therapist. If you do nothing else, do this. The good ones are amazingly smart. Don't wear wacky gloves or wrist braces without consulting one. It turns out that most of my own occasional wrist pain is caused by nerve pinches in my neck, and treating the wrists is mostly a waste of time...
Oh, and of course: don't type on a laptop keyboard for more than an hour or two every week. Laptops are ergonomically terrifying. Sorry to have to break this one to you. :)
First, thanks for the great advice.
But, any ergonomic advice at all for MacBook/MBP users (aside from just don't do it)? E.g. can anyone recommend a good keyboard replacement or app or something else?
Oh, my main machine is a MacBook. The secret is to realize that laptops are for occasional use in libraries or lectures or hotel rooms, not for real work. It turns out that there really is a reason why pros work in real offices with real desks instead of at a table in the local coffeeshop.
To save yourself from your Macbook, pretend it's a desktop as much as you can. Buy an external keyboard. (I recommend the Kinesis, of course, but even a cheapo standard keyboard is better than the one on the notebook itself.) Buy the nifty Ergotron arm that lets you sit the laptop, open, on a tray and then move the tray around in space until the screen is at the proper height and distance. (http://www.provantage.com/ergotron-45-192-194~7ERGT06R.htm )
Now, since you're stuck at a desk anyway, buy a real monitor -- I have a 20" widescreen -- and another Ergotron arm (they have very nice 2-packs -- follow links from here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000959.html) and mount that on your desk, then have the laptop drive it as a second monitor. Now you are more productive, because you have more screen space, and you also have a real desk with a real keyboard that you can mount where it needs to be: in your lap.
The problem with laptop keyboards isn't the keyboard, per se; it's the fact that the thing is attached to the screen. You either have to stare down into your lap or raise your arms almost to the level of the screen. Either of these things can eventually cripple you. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on how old you are, how much you type, your physical condition, your genetic heritage and the phase of the moon -- but, once you even start to think that you're feeling pain, you should immediately get serious about ergonomics.
I've been thinking about how to travel and still get work done. It's not an easy problem to solve. Carrying around my Kinesis and some sort of contraption that lets me elevate the laptop and its screen would be great. A sort of clamp-on, foldable, lightweight, portable keyboard drawer that could attach to the edge of a hotel desk and hold the keyboard at lap level would be truly great... though perhaps rather difficult to implement.
I'd strongly encourage you to rent some screens and a keyboard while you're abroad, buy them (used, if possible) and sell them used when you leave, buy them abroad and ship them home to yourself, ship them to your destination and then ship them back...
Whether or not you will be able to find any desk space abroad is, of course, a different problem.
Keyboards and monitors are now lightweight and cheap. I'm hoping to make this fact work for me when next I need to relocate temporarily...
Literally all there is to my job is typing, and after 4 days on a cheapo keyboard I couldn't type anymore. Switched to a Kinesis and have been fine for months.
"I would tell you the brand I use, but I picked mine out of the trash by the side of the road. (Arlington, MA -- there are real advantages of living in a startup hub!)" ;)
Comments
Getting serious about ergonomics is an interesting combination of large up-front expense and cheap little hacks and exercises.
Budget $2000. I'm serious about this. The things you buy will last you for years, and $2000 will pay for itself if it saves you two weeks of sick time or a couple of doctor visits.
You may not actually have to spend all of that, but you are going to want:
* An excellent chair ($800 range. Feel free to try the cheaper chairs... I have an Aeron but frankly have no idea if it's worth it. I bought it after using one at work for six months, and discovering it was okay. Testing chairs is difficult and expensive, so I recommend starting out in the midrange rather than spending months working your way up from the $50 OfficeMax chairs. If you find that the more expensive ones are 5% better for you, spend the money.)
The goal with chairs is adjustability. I recommend a chair with adjustable arms, because sometimes when my shoulders get sore I move them up to brace my elbows during rest periods.
* An excellent keyboard. MSFT natural keyboard is a great value, but I switched to the Kinesis Advantage Pro six months ago, and it kicks butt: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/ ). It costs something like $350. It looks like it was designed by aliens. You will feel like an idiot for the first week as you relearn all your typing and gradually remap all the keys to your favorite locations. If you don't know how to touch type... you will learn. But then you will experience the joy of feeling like you are typing while barely moving your hands.
* I concur with the Ergotron monitor arms. Being able to adjust the monitor to exactly the right position is important.
* A proper keyboard drawer. You want the kind with the arm that lets you adjust the keyboard to arbitrary angles and heights, and slide it in and out. If you use the mouse, you want to be able to mount the mouse at one side. Something like the ones on this page: http://www.ergoindemand.com/keyboard-tray-adjustable-shelf.h... . I would tell you the brand I use, but I picked mine out of the trash by the side of the road. (Arlington, MA -- there are real advantages of living in a startup hub!)
Then you have to hack. Once you've spent money on the raw materials, ergonomics is a game of inches. I have one of those damned expensive Aeron chairs, but just this year I discovered that it doesn't provide enough upper back support, so I strapped a cushion to the top with a bungie cord :). Cost: maybe $20, and the pain is gone. My right arm got sore using the mouse. I discovered that if I took my mouse support off the keyboard drawer and reattached it using a different bolt and some homemade washers, I could raise it by four inches. And, just like that, the pain went away.
See a physical therapist. If you do nothing else, do this. The good ones are amazingly smart. Don't wear wacky gloves or wrist braces without consulting one. It turns out that most of my own occasional wrist pain is caused by nerve pinches in my neck, and treating the wrists is mostly a waste of time...
Oh, and of course: don't type on a laptop keyboard for more than an hour or two every week. Laptops are ergonomically terrifying. Sorry to have to break this one to you. :)
The Kinesis keyboard is available on Amazon for $269 from a third party seller:
http://www.amazon.com/Kinesis-Advantage-USB-Keyboard-black/d...
First, thanks for the great advice. But, any ergonomic advice at all for MacBook/MBP users (aside from just don't do it)? E.g. can anyone recommend a good keyboard replacement or app or something else?
Oh, my main machine is a MacBook. The secret is to realize that laptops are for occasional use in libraries or lectures or hotel rooms, not for real work. It turns out that there really is a reason why pros work in real offices with real desks instead of at a table in the local coffeeshop.
To save yourself from your Macbook, pretend it's a desktop as much as you can. Buy an external keyboard. (I recommend the Kinesis, of course, but even a cheapo standard keyboard is better than the one on the notebook itself.) Buy the nifty Ergotron arm that lets you sit the laptop, open, on a tray and then move the tray around in space until the screen is at the proper height and distance. (http://www.provantage.com/ergotron-45-192-194~7ERGT06R.htm )
Now, since you're stuck at a desk anyway, buy a real monitor -- I have a 20" widescreen -- and another Ergotron arm (they have very nice 2-packs -- follow links from here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000959.html) and mount that on your desk, then have the laptop drive it as a second monitor. Now you are more productive, because you have more screen space, and you also have a real desk with a real keyboard that you can mount where it needs to be: in your lap.
The problem with laptop keyboards isn't the keyboard, per se; it's the fact that the thing is attached to the screen. You either have to stare down into your lap or raise your arms almost to the level of the screen. Either of these things can eventually cripple you. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on how old you are, how much you type, your physical condition, your genetic heritage and the phase of the moon -- but, once you even start to think that you're feeling pain, you should immediately get serious about ergonomics.
I've been thinking about how to travel and still get work done. It's not an easy problem to solve. Carrying around my Kinesis and some sort of contraption that lets me elevate the laptop and its screen would be great. A sort of clamp-on, foldable, lightweight, portable keyboard drawer that could attach to the edge of a hotel desk and hold the keyboard at lap level would be truly great... though perhaps rather difficult to implement.
This is great stuff. Thank you for posting this!
I normally have a dual-screen setup powered by desktops plus a nice keyboard + mouse.
But I'm in the process of moving abroad and will be living out of my laptop for a little while.
You see some people at startups working straight off their laptops, day in and out. After 1-2 days on my raw Macbook, I have no idea how they do it.
I'd strongly encourage you to rent some screens and a keyboard while you're abroad, buy them (used, if possible) and sell them used when you leave, buy them abroad and ship them home to yourself, ship them to your destination and then ship them back...
Whether or not you will be able to find any desk space abroad is, of course, a different problem.
Keyboards and monitors are now lightweight and cheap. I'm hoping to make this fact work for me when next I need to relocate temporarily...
Stands like the iCurve ( http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-iCurve-Laptop-Stand... ) take up almost zero space inside a suitcase.
Another vote for the Kinesis.
Literally all there is to my job is typing, and after 4 days on a cheapo keyboard I couldn't type anymore. Switched to a Kinesis and have been fine for months.
"I would tell you the brand I use, but I picked mine out of the trash by the side of the road. (Arlington, MA -- there are real advantages of living in a startup hub!)" ;)