Be more confident: How to Set up a Computer Centered Workspace

How to Set up a Computer Centered Workspace

An ergonomic workstation Want to enjoy working at your
computer, thinking better, and getting your work finished
faster? Take a hint from activities that require much more
sitting (like watching TV), endurance (like trucking), and
sustained maximum performance (like car racing). Don't slump
over your work – recline and look up into it! Unless your
job requires it, there's no need to look attentive like a
receptionist (an activity of interruption and stress).
Instead, focus on setting up a computer centered workspace
that helps you to work in a comfortable way.

!! Steps !!

In space, you can work in the fetal position. On Earth, you'll need a
few adjustments. Adopt a neutral posture.[1] [1] Arrange your body
in its natural relaxed geometry. Unfortunately, since that is the
fetal position, you'll have to make a few changes to be able to do
anything. Sit up to free your arms for work. Since doing this puts
weight on your back, straighten out so that the weight not supported
by the back of the chair transfers neatly down your spine without
strain on the back muscles and connective tissues. And balance your
arms and legs so that they don't pull on your back or put stress on
the more delicate extremities. This will free your full attention for
work.

* Use what you have. You might not have a particular kind of
equipment, your equipment might not have a particular adjustment,
or a particular adjustment might be incompatible with your work
(perhaps you're a receptionist required to sit erect). Go through
all these steps and get as close as you can to the suggestions
outlined here. Adjustments to one part of your setup can often
mitigate deficient adjustments to others. Then consider where
money might well be spent on additional equipment to fix remaining
problems.

Manager's chair Select a chair. Look for:

Surface:

* Vinyl[2] [2] or similar smooth plastic requires little care.
("Bonded leather" is essentially vinyl, not leather: don't pay
extra for it.)

* Leather[3] [3] is stylish and also tends to stay clean. "Full
grain" leather is best; "top grain" is a middle grade; "split
grain" is cheaper but can still be fine.

* Cloth is grippy, breathable to prevent sweat accumulation, and can
stay cleaner if treated with fabric protectant such as
Scotchgard[4] [4] by the manufacturer or after purchase,
preferably when brand new to protect as clean fabric as possible
and not seal in dirt.

* If you're buying used, you may prefer an impermeable surface such
as vinyl, shiny leather in good condition, or wood or hard plastic
(for which you'll need an exact fit) because it can easily be made
about as clean as new. Natural materials often require more
careful cleaning than synthetics.

* Support: Mesh is a surface and a support. It allows air to
circulate for coolness. But since each part is supported only by
adjacent parts, it tends to sag like a hammock or waterbed, and
ramp up toward a relatively immovable edge supports. Adjustments
within the middle of large padded areas, such as for the lower
back, and clever design of edges which the body will contact, such
as a rolled-over or foam-padded seat front, can help. Foam
supports better, lifting each small area discretely from
underneath, like a mattress. Avoid thin, soft-when-new foam (or,
with used furniture, foam with softened or compacted spots): it
will rapidly "bottom out" under heavier areas.

* Style: The chair should support the back and the shoulders. This
style is often known as a "manager's" chair. Your neck should be
straight so your head will balance itself and not need the
headrest characteristic of an "executive" chair. While an
executive chair can work, be sure to check that it has the full
range of adjustments. Some are more ostentatious than practical.

* Fit: There are many different kinds of chairs carefully designed
many different ways. Most of them probably fit someone very well
before the manufacturer decided to make many, many copies. More
expensive ones often adjust more to fit more people in more
positions. It's generally best to try out and buy a chair in
person to make sure it can fit you, and well worth paying a
reasonable premium for having the facility to try it and the
salesperson to explain it. Sit in it at a desk as if typing, not
just relaxing or hunching attentively forward. Look for one that
fits well with each of its major adjustments somewhere in the
middle of its range, not all the way at one end: you might decide
you'd like your chair a little different later.

* An old-fashioned highly adjustable wooden chair looks great, but
make sure the contours fit you perfectly and the armrests (which
are typically not adjustable) are at a proper height and will not
interfere with keyboard placement. If they do, they'll support you
just as well as a foam chair your body would mesh to that shape.
These chairs tend not to have upper-back support, though.

* You can even Make a desk chair from a car seat.

Adjust the chair. You may need to fine-tune some settings once the
others are about right.

Adjust the back tilt. The further you recline, the more the weight of
your torso rests on the chair back and the less it presses down on
the backbone. Try 20 to 30 degrees back.[5] [5] This substantial
tilt will also gently pull you back into the better-supported
reclined position rather than letting you slump forward into a slouch
after you lean forward out of, or to show, interest in something.[6]
[6]

* Lock the back in place at the proper tilt.

* If the back can't be locked, see if you can set the maximum amount
of recline and reduce the tension so it readily flops into place.

* If the amount of recline can't be adjusted (on some chairs it may
lock at each end of a range, neither of which is desirable),
adjust the tilt tension so that the chair tends to balance at the
proper angle when you relax in it.

* Reclining more would reduce the stress on your back even more, but
would require odd placement and angles for the monitor, keyboard
and other office equipment.

* Adjust the seat tilt. The seat should be tilted back a little so
that your hips are not extended unnaturally and the angled
downward force from your back doesn't tend to slide you out of the
seat. Some chairs tilt the back and seat as a unit; others tilt
the seat with the back, but not as much, through a more
complicated mechanism often called "synchro-tilt". Some might
allow tilting the seat separately. See which you prefer.

* Adjust the back height. Chair backs often have a more protrusive
part to go under the mid-back and a hollower part for the
shoulders. Adjust the back (or, on some chairs, different parts of
the back) to put these in the right places.

* Adjust the seat extension. Chair seats often have a hollower part
to go under the upper thighs and a fatter part to go under the
lower thighs. Slide the seat forward so that the lower thighs are
well-supported, but not so far forward that there is pressure on
the inside part of the knees or associated tendons. The tailbone
should go all the way against the back of the chair.
Adjust the feet. The feet should be supported at a neutral angle
(extended a little), and at a height such that the legs neither
dangle and pull on the knees and themselves, nor push up the knees
allowing the hips to twist forward and not support the lower back
as well. There should be a moderate amount of pressure on the lower
thighs.

* The best way is an angled footrest. Some are adjustable.

* Don't wear high-heeled shoes; if you must, prop the balls of the
feet on something for a comfortable angle in them.

Adjust the arms. The armrests should be close to the body, so the
arms don't tend to slide out from supporting the shoulders. The
armrests should be at a height just a little lower than that to
which the arms would dangle naturally on their own, so as not to
allow the arms to pull on the shoulders or push them up. The wide
part of the forearm muscles, the central outside surface of the
forearm bones, or both, not the point of the elbow or the wrist,
should rest on the armrests. The forearms should balance in such
a way that the wrists extend straight from them (as viewed from
the back surface of the hand) to a point an inch or so over the
keyboard, propped up gently by the natural relaxed curl in the
fingers which are resting on rather than striking keys at any
given time. This will balance the arms so there is no weight
continually to be supported by the wrists, except a tiny amount
supported by the fingers in their naturally curved positions, or
hanging continually on the shoulders. Allow the upper part of the
upper arms to rest against the chair back, in plane with the torso
(but elbows out a little so the arm muscles can all move freely).
The elbows can rest on the arm rests too, but much of the weight
should be on the fat part of the forearms.

* Broad, convex, padded armrests are best.

* The armrests and their supports should not extend forward much
lest they interfere with the keyboard drawer extension. The
armrests normally extending forward from a post on some chairs can
be reversed side to side to extend backwards. The
then-backward-extending part is ignored, and the forward-extending
part is just long enough to set the forearm muscles on. The
armrest for the non-dominant arm may need to be a little higher
because the muscle leaning on it may not be so large.

* The distance from the armrests to the body is often nonadjustable.
Avoid a chair that is very wide, unless you are too.

* The wrists should not be supported directly, only by leverage from
a well-balanced forearm and weakly by the relaxed and key-striking
fingers. They have many tendons running across the inside surface
that control the hand and wrist with muscles in the arm.[7] [7]
They tend to bob outwards with use and are much more sensitive to
tangential pressure than the arm muscles. Wrist pads can actually
make them sore.

* Don't support the palms directly, either. Without an
unusual-shaped support, this would require bending the wrist,
stressing the tendons running through it, and twisting it, making
finger-control awkward; impede swinging the whole forearm slightly
reach out-of-the-way keys quickly and without finger strain, and
require more key striking force to come from the weaker fingers
than from the stronger wrist, hand and arm, which otherwise shift
about a little as you type.

* You don't need a headrest. The head and neck should be perfectly
vertical so they tend to put all their weight neatly onto the
bones, requiring only small weak muscle movements to maintain the
position.

Microsoft Natural Elite ergonomic keyboard Select a keyboard. An
"ergonomic" style, curved outward and preferably raised at the
center, is best, but takes a while to get used to. It keeps the
wrists straight and at their relaxed state of rotation when the
elbows are at the user's side or out just a little, so that the
shoulders are supported, and the arms turned inward toward the center
of the keyboard.

* The keys should have a snappy feel for feedback when they are
pressed. Don't push them so hard they "hit bottom" firmly; the
shock is very wearing to the body. If you can't stop doing that,
get a buckling-spring type keyboard like an IBM Model M[8] [8],
which can be tapped harder. Those are very loud, though.

* Unless you spend much time entering numbers, look for the absence
of a numeric keypad so that the mouse can be closer to the
keyboard.

* You might like to try a keyboard like the Microsoft Natural Elite
keyboard. Microsoft keyboards and mice work well with most
operating systems and programs, including free software.

Adjust the keyboard. Make it close to flat (retract any rear
props). Place it so the typing "home keys" are directly in front
of you, close to your body, and low enough that your forearms stay
straight, with your wrists straight and fingers curving gently
down onto the keys. That will probably require a keyboard drawer.

* Remember not to rest your wrists on or in front of the keyboard,
even if it has an extended area there.

Optical scroll mouse Select a mouse. If you mostly type, the mouse
is not very important. Ideally, it should be an optical mouse, which
works more consistently than a ball-containing mouse, and on a
cloth-covered neoprene mouse pad for smooth movement. If you're
left-handed, get a left-handed or symmetrical mouse. Some users like
trackballs, which require less wrist movement, but they're less
precise and, because sensitivity thus can't feasibly be increased as
much, slower. A mouse with buttons discrete from a fat rear part upon
which the front part of the palm simply rests (namely, most mice
aside from some Apple ones) allows the hand and arm to stay relaxed.

* A mouse with a cord is lighter and easier to move than one without
a cord. The cord will also keep it from falling off a small
surface like a keyboard tray and getting lost. Secure the cord
loosely to something near the mouse, leaving some slack, so the
weight of most of the cord has no effect on moving the mouse.

* Avoid some more-complicated keystrokes by using a mouse that has
the full range of common buttons, including at least a left
button, right button, and clickable scroll wheel. Five buttons are
the most that is commonly used. A scroll wheel that clicks as it
scrolls is less smooth but more precise and much better for games,
in which each click performs a discrete act such as making a new
selection.

* Some trackballs and touchpads are integrated into keyboards. The
best place for these devices is generally a spot on the keyboard
easily reachable from the typing "home" position, such as in the
plastic flange "wrist-rest" (use thumbs).

Adjust the mouse. It should be near the keyboard to reduce arm
motion and the need to extend the arm to a less-than-optimal
position.

* If you're left-handed, consider switching the left and right
buttons' function in the operating system.

* Increase mouse sensitivity, preferably with acceleration, to
reduce the total distance you need to move the mouse. Gentle wrist
or even finger motion should be all that is needed.

* Select other input devices as necessary. Try to keep them near and
at the same level at the keyboard.

Keyboard drawer with mouse tray Try a keyboard "tray" or "drawer".
The arms and tops of the hands, which contain tendons extending into
the arms by which the fingers are controlled, should extend straight
forward. The easiest way is with a keyboard "tray" or "drawer". It
should be just about on your lap – the precise height will depend
on your arms, their supports, and the keyboard itself.

* A big wide tray is usually best because a mouse can go next to it
and things will not tend to slide off, but sometimes interferes
with armrests.

* The elbows should be slightly outward so the hands need not
themselves turn inward to reach the keys. This will mean the
keyboard needs to be close to the stomach. Pull the tray out, and
pull the chair up to it.

Wraparound LCD monitor array Select one or more monitors. LCD
monitors are pretty much universal now and tend to cause less
eyestrain than CRTs. Use digital connections such as DVI (no need for
expensive cables; a major benefit of digital transmission is that a
problem not large enough to turn "zeros" into "ones" has no effect
whatsoever). Some monitors do not support digital connections; some
video cards do not support digital connections or resolutions over
1920x1200, many do not support two monitors, and few support three.
Getting these features is more a matter of looking for them than
paying much of a premium, except perhaps for triple-head video cards.

* If you have a CRT monitor, turn up the refresh rate (60 Hz or
slower is badly noticeable as flicker; 70 Hz is better; 85 Hz or
higher is good) and consider a glare filter. If you're choosing a
CRT monitor, look for one that is vertically or entirely flat, so
that its entire surface faces the same way (with respect to at
least one axis) and by tilting slightly can reflect glare from a
given direction unnoticeably away from you across its entire
surface.

* The monitors should cover a wide enough area that you can have all
of the documents you would work with at once open simultaneously
and showing enough data that you don't have to regularly click or
scroll back and forth, wasting time and struggling to remember
their contents.

* Place multiple monitors side by side. The neck unbalances when
tilted up and down, and the eyes do not move very far up and down
on their own, so there is little to gain from stacking monitors.

* Bezels can be distracting, particularly between multiple monitors.
Choose a monitor with a narrow, unobtrusive, non-glare bezel,
preferably matte black or gray. Huge monitors are more expensive
per unit area than medium size ones, though. One or more 2560x1600
30 inch (76cm) monitors are great, but 1920x1200 24 inch (61cm)
monitors would be a better bargain for most.

* The higher the resolution, the better (generally). If text is too
small, you can scale it up to be bigger but very sharp.

* Covering an area wider than your forward field of view with
monitors brings diminishing returns.

* Avoid glossy monitors. They look better when turned off, but not
much different when turned on, and create glare by reflecting
bright lights behind the monitor.

Comfortable monitor placement Adjust the monitors.

* Place them toward the back of the desk to reduce too-close
focusing. This will reduce eyestrain and possibly nearsightedness.
The most-used monitor should be directly in front of you to
facilitate keeping the body straight. Others should be on one or
both sides.

* Identify the most-used monitor to the operating system as the
primary monitor so items such as program menus can be placed on it
automatically. If your monitors are different sizes, use the
biggest one.

* With your head straight, raise the monitors so their centers,
height-wise, are roughly directly in front of your eyes or even a
little above. This will prompt you not to slump.

* Tilt them so that they are perpendicular in both axes (i.e.,
normal) to your field of view. Multiple monitors should be in an
arc, with their centers equidistant from your head. This keeps as
much of them in focus at once as possible; your eyes won't have to
refocus as you glance around.

* Match monitor illumination to ambient light. Don't work in the
dark. Keep ambient light as diffused as possible and adjust its
intensity to keep white objects in the room not much dimmer than
white areas on the monitor – which is pretty bright. You can
also adjust the monitor brightness, but with most monitors will
likely prefer that turned down most of the way. Match the white
balance on the monitor roughly to the ambient light, generally
with a setting on the monitor or in the operating system.

* Make your papers an extension of your monitors. Just as it's
easiest to switch attention between computer documents by having
them near one another across a wide monitor area, it's easiest to
switch attention between paper documents and a computer by keeping
the paper documents near the computer and a similar distance from
your eyes. Prop a paper document up on a stand next to the
computer if you'll just read from it, or on a sturdy stand in
front of and tilted up toward the monitor if you'll write on it
too. Make sure the stand can't bump or scrape the screen.
Adjust your work environment.

Galileo thermometer showing a comfortable 76 degrees *Temperature*.
Keep warm. Cold numbs, stiffens and slows the fingers. Excessive heat
or cold numbs, stiffens and slows the mind. 72 degrees Fahrenheit
(22 degrees centigrade) is best for most people.[9] If the office is
too cold, wear something that is warm and, particularly around the
wrists, loose-fitting. If too warm, wear less-covering, thin, loose,
and porous clothes, and cool off with a fan [9], preferably quiet, or
a natural breeze.

* Heat doesn't flow well from the heat-producing, contiguous,
insulated body core to the fingers when one is just sitting at a
desk, so insulating yourself with heavy clothes to conserve enough
heat to keep the fingers supple in a cold environment may overheat
your core (and head) a little and make you sleepy. A sufficiently
warm environment makes this trade-off unnecessary.

* Feet don't usually need to do much at the computer, but can
distract you relentlessly if they get cold. You can heat them
selectively with a heated footrest, or with a heater under the
desk – preferably the forced-air type so it can't set fire by
radiation, and with all modern safety features – which will
consume much more energy and heat the legs and torso significantly
too.

Window open for fresh air *Air quality*. Keep it clean. Perhaps
scented if you're good with aromatherapy.

* Stenches, excessive dust, or other pollution will be distracting,
and will have to be dealt with according to individual
circumstances.

* Carbon dioxide can build up in densely populated areas and cause
lethargy and a distracting general sense of "stale air".[10] [10]
Houses generally leak in more than enough fresh air for their
limited number of occupants, but one can use a carbon dioxide
meter to adjust ventilation equipment for adequate air replacement
in a big building. (Too rapid air replacement wastes heating
energy in winter and cooling energy in summer.)

* Too-low humidity commonly causes dry skin and sinuses in winter.
Correct it with a portable or automatic permanently-installed
humidifier. Too-high humidity can, most often in summer, cause
mold, leading to bad smells and illness. Air conditioning will
generally correct excessive humidity: it chills the air and the
condensate is drained away or evaporated outdoors. (A
dehumidifier is essentially an air conditioner whose warm coils
are indoors too; it's generally better to use an air conditioner
and keep the cooling.)

* Pleasant aromas can improve mood and attentiveness. For instance,
citrus may increase alertness, flowers may calm and improve
concentration, and forest scent may relax.[11] You can tend to
become acclimated to and not notice scents [11] after a while.
It's therefore a good idea to alternate them with scent generators
on timers: buy an integrated unit, or simply plug an electric
vaporizer into a timer.

Bright, soft office lighting *Lighting.* Darkness probably makes
you sleepy. It strains your eyes to focus precisely, and your mind
as, having shallow depth-of-field from dilation, a lag for focusing
precedes seeing much when you shift your field of view.[12] It may
come as no surprise that dark winters can even depress [12] you.[13]
[13].

Bright, even light is best. Aim for at least two 27-watt-plus compact
fluorescent light bulbs (or four-foot fluorescent tubes) to light a
small room; four for for a big one.

* Incandescent bulbs require wasteful or even
dangerously-hot-running wattages for this kind of light. And the
color temperature is wrong.

* Fluorescent troffers with diffusers, shop-lights inverted atop
shelves to reflect off the ceiling, or multi-bulb torchieres are
best.

* You may prefer the look of a table lamp, but high-wattage
compact-style fluorescent bulbs are hard to fit in them. Use a
plain white synthetic fabric, namely, largely translucent, shade
to diffuse the light while blocking as little as possible. A
Sylvania 65W Dulux-EL bulb is particularly small for a
high-wattage bulb and a 12 inch (30cm) lamp harp can be bent wider
(at the top and back again at the bottom) to fit around it.

* Even relatively diffuse light has "hot spots", typically the
fixtures themselves or the ceiling spots above them, specular
reflections (glare) from which can distract. A dark, matte desk
surface is best. If yours is light or shiny, try a plastic desk
pad. Look for one with a soft-looking, leather-like surface, not
just a texture in a shiny surface. A visor or baseball cap keeps
overhead light out of the field of view from entering the eyes
directly or off the cheeks to produce subtly distracting and
tiring veiling flare.[14] [14]

* Fluorescent lights should have "electronic" ballasts which flicker
unnoticeably thousands of times per second, not "magnetic"
ballasts that flicker noticeably, especially in peripheral vision,
or at least annoy subconsciously. Cheap compact fluorescent bulbs
and fluorescent fixtures often have the magnetic type.

* Color temperature (tint).[15] Incandescent and "warm white"
fluorescent bulbs (2800-3400 K color temperature) are orange, like
early-morning and late-evening light. "Daylight" (5000-6500K)
bulbs are blue-white, like noon sun and sky light. "Bright white"
or "cool white" (4000 K) bulbs are in-between, common in kitchens
and commercial buildings. Daylight bulbs look distinctly blue next
to the other kinds, but you'll probably get used to them over
time. And, because the tint suggests to the body that the time is
mid-day, they increase alertness [15].[16] [16] Bright white
provides a partial benefit.

* Balance brightness and color temperature. Bright light and
blue-white high color temperature are best, but they need to go
together.[17] [17] Just as a blue sunset rather than an orange one
would make the world look very strange, a daylight-type bulb's
blue-white light looks odd if there isn't very much of it.
Conversely, intense warm-white light looks dingy. If you find
bright light distracting, or don't have enough light fixtures for
the intensity needed to make daylight bulbs' light look right, use
bright-white.
Eventually you'll need sleep, even if only a little. Constant
bright, blue-white light can make you lose track of time and extend
your energy past your bedtime and past your intelligence. You may
not want too much of it at home. Notice the light outside if
possible and glance at the clock occasionally to leave work on time
and leave your home computer at a reasonable time.

* You could put a daylight bulb on a timer to turn off on a schedule
leaving a dimmer, yellower bulb behind as a gentle reminder to
finish each day. There is even a program available, Redshift, that
will automatically adjust your monitor color balance to mimic
nature as the hours go by.[18] [18]

*Sound*. Quiet is usually best. White noise is better than
distinct, distracting sounds.

Reduce noise, including computer noises, as much as possible.

* Keep noisy office equipment above or below you, shielded by
furniture, and with noise-emitting orifices directed away if you
can't move it elsewhere entirely. But don't block its vents.
High-speed printers can sometimes be set to run a little slower
and much quieter.

* Noisy office driving worker to distraction Earplugs or
noise-blocking or canceling headphones can calm excess noise. A
white-noise generator can mask more-distracting noise, but keep it
near you so its volume can stay low and contribute little to the
overall noise level for everyone.

* Fast, cheerful music (try Internet radio) can help keep your mind
semi-occupied rather than frustrated and pace you through simple,
repetitive tasks requiring little concentration. But don't
distract others: consider headphones.

* *Shift and stretch*. Even with the best workspace, you'll be more
comfortable if you shift about in your chair occasionally. Stretch
or walk every couple of hours to relieve and redistribute
pressure, stress and strain, and see and hear a few new things.
Maybe even humans.

!! Tips !!

Receptionist's ergonomic workspace If you have to look attentive:

* Recline less, but not so much that you tend to slump forward when
relaxed.

* See and be seen past your monitor (or two little monitors). If
you are short, raise your seat and footrest higher. Lower your
monitor so you can see and be seen over it, but not so much that
you have to lean your head down into it and strain your neck to
keep it from slumping further. Maintaining sufficient distance
will reduce the angle by which you have to look down. Consider a
desk with a beveled corner in which to arrange the computer for
comfort but see people in your peripheral vision.

* Readjust your monitor angle perpendicular to your line of sight
toward its center, and your footrest angle to prop your feet
slightly extended.

Laptops present a few options, depending on how much extra
equipment you want to have at the place of use:

Connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, directly or through a
docking station, to use a laptop almost exactly as a desktop.

* A laptop as a desktop does introduce a few compromises. The fan
is often loud and high-pitched compared to a desktop's fans, and
the laptop often can't practically be placed on the floor to
distance its noise from you. Often carpet would cover the air
inlet. Laptops rarely support dual monitors or resolutions over
1920x1200 externally, or ECC RAM for improved stability in
extended operation.[19] [19]

* Connecting accessories with radio links built into the computer
such as Bluetooth, or with small wireless adapters that sit almost
flush with the edges of USB ports and can be left in place,
reduces the chance of dropping the computer or breaking connectors
by accidentally pulling on the accessories or pushing on their
plugs.

* Elevate a laptop on a less-slippery rubber-footed stand, or, in a
pinch, a more-slippery box or books to put its screen at a correct
height, and connect an external keyboard and mouse to optimize
everything but monitor size.

* If you're just using a laptop by itself, try putting it in a
keyboard drawer (a big one with a rim, to avoid dropping the
laptop).

* Or simply recline in a chair with it in your lap. Rest your arms
on the armrests or simply in your lap. While resting your
forearms on your lap or resting your palms in front of the
keyboard and angling your hands up into the keyboard area isn't
ideal, it's not nearly as bad with a laptop as with a regular
keyboard because a laptop is typically thin and the keyboard is
slightly recessed. Check that your leg isn't blocking any bottom
air intake; a laptop with air intakes and exhausts on the edge
rather than the bottom is best.

* Try the Dvorak keyboard layout to reduce finger motion by
assigning more-common letters under more-easily reached and pushed
keys. You simply tell the operating system to "remap" (recognize
different symbols for) the keys, and re-label them if you like;
you don't need a new keyboard and can switch back easily. Your
finger dexterity won't go away, but the new key positions will
take some time to learn.

* Lose Weight so there's less of you to support, and Build Muscle so
you can support it better.
Wear lower-body garments, including underwear, that when you stand
are loose around your waist. Sitting will tighten them as it pulls
the back down and pushes the front up so they fit around you
obliquely. When you sit for hours, they should still be somewhat
loose and comfortable. If you relieve the pressure by slouching to
widen the angle your abdomen and legs form by curving your lower
back, you'll trade the gentle support of your chair and strength of
a straight spine for straining a bent spine. So, instead, eliminate
the pressure.

* A garment suspended from the shoulders, like a pair of pants with
suspenders or a dress, is best because it doesn't need to hold
onto the waist to not fall down.

* A garment that doesn't fit tightly around the legs, such as a
loose skirt, shouldn't pull itself crooked as much. But it might
tighten as you sit as some body areas push upward. Look for one
just snug enough in areas that tighten little or not at all to
hold it up, and loose in the areas that do constrict.

* A garment suspended from the hips only, like pants without
suspenders, can if necessary for moving about be tightened
temporarily with a belt. Or it can snug itself gently with
elastic or an elastic-bearing belt.

* Compare elastic-bearing garments carefully. Look for ones with
plenty of extra length in the pleated and interwoven non-stretchy
cloth associated with the elastic so it stretches with tension
that is not high and increases only modestly over the range it
will stretch as you sit, stand, and move about.

* Leaning back in the chair with your feet forward a little but
supporting your knees pushes the chair backward. If it tends to
roll away from its most comfortable position, avoid a slick
plastic chair mat or even add a rug with a non-slip pad to keep it
from rolling too easily.
Keep these principles in mind as you adjust other kinds of seats and
controls, such as those on a car.

* Sometimes there's a tradeoff between relaxation and leverage. In
a power-everything, cruise-controlled car, keep your seat low and
rest your heel on the floor so you need only extend rest and
extend your foot periodically to stop or go. Keep your elbows
rested to the sides, preferably on level armrests, and hands
rested in a self-leveling fashion around the eight and
four-o-clock positions on the wheel-not an unstable position near
the top. You may need to offset your hands a little so the car
tracks straight (or very slightly away from oncoming traffic)
without constant strain if your arm rests aren't level, or
something isn't entirely symmetrical. For a vehicle or driving
style requiring greater or more frequent effort, you might prefer
to sit up over or closer to the controls to bear down on them. No
matter what's most comfortable, make sure you have enough reach
and range of motion to manhandle the controls in an emergency.

The most expensive part of most computing systems is not anything
in the computer, but the operator in front of it.[20] [20] So,
removing bottlenecks in the operator's sustained focus, clarity of
thought and data-entry speed and accuracy is a great place to start
efforts to improve productivity.[21] [21] Soft armrests might save
much more time in transferring data to the fingers than a fast CPU
would save in shuffling it around once it's reached the keyboard.

* Keeping the space around a computer well-lit and at proper
temperature will pay for itself many times over through increased
productivity.[22] [22]

* To save energy on climate-control of a big, mostly-empty house,
choose a cool area in summer, and a warm area, space heater, or
electric blanket in winter.

!! Related WikiHows !!

* How to Set Up an Ergonomically Correct Workstation

* How to Sit at a Computer

* How to Recline and Use a Computer

* How to Select an Ergonomic Office Chair

* How to Buy a Computer Desk

* How to Build a Powerful Quiet Computer

* How to Get Rid of Bad Back Pain

!! Sources And Citations !!

* Cornell University Ergonomics Web, http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/
- research source

!! Article Tools !!

* Read on wikiHow

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Saturday 12 February 2011

How to Set up a Computer Centered Workspace

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