Ergonomics in the Workplace Tips: The Best Advice for Creating the Perfect Ergonomic Workstation
If you work in an office, there is a pretty good chance that you spend a whole lot of time sitting down at a desk every day. Studies have shown that the average American adult spends almost 7 hours each day seated. It would help if you tried to make the most of this time by making it as comfortable as possible. There are tons of ergonomics in the workplace tips that you can put to good use to ensure that you’re as comfy as can be throughout the workday.
Thankfully, there have been quite a few companies that have made ergonomics a top priority for their employees. In a perfect world, you would work for one of these companies and have an ergonomic workstation set up for you. But even if you don’t, you can still create the ergonomic setup that you need. It’ll just take a little extra effort on your part. Check out some of the top tips for putting together an ergonomic office below.
Begin by Investing in a Really Great Chair
When you’re designing an ergonomic office, your first instinct might be to try and find a desk to put at the center of it. But the truth is that the chair you pick out for your office will be the most important aspect of it.
You can get your hands on all the ergonomics in the workplace tips that you want. They’re not going to do you much good if you don’t have a chair that caters to all your needs. You’re going to want to practice good posture when you’re sitting down in your chair. It’s why you’ll need to keep the following features in mind when shopping for a chair:
- Height
- Backrest recline
- Backrest tilt
- Seat depth
- Lumbar support
- Armrests
It would help if you also searched for a chair made out of materials that will prove comfortable when you sit down on them. It would help if you didn’t have to worry about slipping and sliding all over your chair when you’re seated in it. Once you have a chair all picked out, make sure you learn how to sit in it. This might seem obvious, but there is a right and wrong way to sit in an office chair.
Find the Right Desk to Pair With Your Chair
After you’ve picked out a chair for your ergonomic workstation and you’re satisfied with it, that’s when you can start shopping for a desk to go along with it. Just like with a chair, you’re going to need to consider a wide range of features when buying a desk. First and foremost, the desk that you buy should be the right height. You don’t want it to be too tall for your chair since that could put a strain on everything from your forearms to your neck when you’re using it.
You also don’t want to buy a desk that’s going to be too low for you. You’re going to have to hunch over a desk like this, which will result in you experiencing shoulder and neck pain regularly. Outside of considering the height of a desk, you should also check out how long and wide it is. You want a desk that’s going to give you enough space to put everything that you’ll need to keep on it without it feeling too cramped.
Consider Turning a Regular Desk Into a Standing Desk
More than a few reports in recent years have suggested that sitting might be the new smoking. This might be a little bit of a stretch, but evidence shows that sitting for extended periods of time might be bad for you.
With this in mind, you may want to think about either buying a standing desk or turning a regular desk into a standing desk with a special converter. It’ll allow you to spend more time on your feet each day, which will get your blood pumping and stop your neck, back, and legs from tightening up on you.
Position a Computer in the Right Place on Your Desk
Almost everyone does all their work at their work desk on a computer in this day and age. If you’re going to be putting a computer on your desk, you need to pick up the right one. Laptops will provide you with the portability that you need from a work computer. One of these great options from Lenovo could be the answer to all your prayers.
But no matter which computer you choose for your desk, you’re going to want to strategically position it so that it doesn’t take a toll on your neck and back. You should have the screen for it about 20 inches from your face, and the top of it should be at or just below your eye level. You might also want to pick up a pair of special glasses that will block blue light. They’ll help you avoid putting too much of a strain on your eyes while you’re working on your computer day in and day out.
Choose the Right Keyboard and Mouse for Your Computer
If you buy a laptop for your desk, you might be able to get away with using the keyboard and mouse that came with it. But nowadays, there are lots of ergonomic keyboards and mice on the market that you might want to consider going with instead.
Anyone who spends almost all their time with their hands on their keyboard and/or mouses needs to keep ergonomics in mind. You might end up suffering from a condition like carpal tunnel syndrome if you don’t take ergonomics seriously enough.
Many traditional keyboards are designed to tilt up and towards you, which is not good for your wrists at all. It would help if yInstead, you tried to find one that tilts away from you since it’ll reduce the strain that you put on your wrists.
Organize Everything That You Put Onto Your Desk
If you can steer clear of doing it, you should try not to put too many things onto your desk at one time. The more things that you have on your desk, the more cluttered it’s going to be. And the more cluttered that your desk is, the more likely you’re going to be to set up things like your computer and your keyboard in the wrong spots. So instead, you should provide everything you’re going to put onto your desk with a place and work to keep your desk organized. You may even want to go as far as to set your desk up in zones like this:
- Primary Zone: The space that sits directly in front of you with your keyboard and mouse in it
- Secondary Zone: The space that sits right above the primary zone that contains some of the things that you need to grab every so often
- Third Zone: The space that sits at the top of your desk that contains your computer monitor and other things that you hardly ever need to touch at all
By separating your deck into zones like this, you can ensure that you can access the things that you use the most easily. This should work wonders for your ergonomic setup.
Try Not to Spend Too Much Time Parked at Your Desk
You can follow all of the ergonomics in the workplace tips listed here and create a truly ergonomic workstation. But that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be OK for you to sit at your desk all day long and not move.
Regardless of how ergonomic your desk is, you’re still going to put a strain on your neck, your back, your eyes, your wrists, and other parts of your body if you’re sitting in your office chair all the time. So it would help if you made it a point to get up and walk around in your office every 30 minutes or so to stretch your body out.
Or better yet, you should prioritize getting out of the office at least once or twice throughout the course of the day. The movement will help your body, and the sunlight and fresh air you get will help your mind. In addition, it’ll make your ergonomic setup even more effective for you overall.
Use These Ergonomics in the Workplace Tips to Transform Your Office Space
A lot of people can’t get around spending the bulk of their days in offices. It comes with the territory when you’re in certain lines of work. But you don’t have to let sitting at a desk all day bring you down. It’s not going to take a heavy toll on you when you follow the ergonomics in the workplace tips listed here.
Put some of these tips to the test today to see how well they can work. You’ll be surprised by how much better they make you feel at the end of a long workday. Please browse through the other articles on our blog for more advice to help you at work each day.
