[consulting] OT: Keyboards and RSI

[Laura Scott]

In a previous life, I did legal wordprocessing to pay the rent.  
Believe me, when you type 40 hours a week for a living, you find  
stress points fast. Then, with video editing, again spending long  
hours in front of the computer, more learning the hard way. Here's  
what I do. YMMV....

-Monitor just below eyeline. Too high and you get neck and shoulder  
pain.

-Chair where you can sit upright, leaning back slightly. (If you need  
glasses to make this work, do it. It reduces eye strain anyway.) Too  
upright and you put unnecessary stress on your lower back. (My back  
doctor last year confirmed that sitting bolt upright may work for  
meditating monks, but the rest of us need a little angle on the lower  
back to reduce stress in the lumbar area.)

-Arm rests. I also push the keyboard back from the edge of the desk,  
so that I can rest my wrists on the desk itself.

-Wrist position. Basically you want a straight line from your forearm  
down your pinky finger. Twisting your hands outwards can cause carpal  
tunnel syndrome. That's why the ergonomic keyboards angle the way  
they do. I use the stock iMac keyboard now, but cheat my hand  
positions a bit to keep this angle. It's not ideal, but I like the  
light touch of the keyboard.

-Keyboard position. I see so many people who prop up those props at  
the back of the keyboard. I try to work that way and I'm in pain  
within minutes. I prefer a flat keyboard. Having to arch your fingers  
upwards to reach the keys causes stress.

-Mighty mouse. I've had no mouse-related problems since using that  
tiny little trackball. I love it! Those Big Wheel mice all went in  
the garbage.

-Breaks. +1 on that! Stop, flex your hands, make fists and stretch  
your fingers out. Shake your hands like you're trying to shake a bug  
off of them. Get the blood flowing.

This thread was way off topic, but a great one, considering how much  
computer time we all must put in every day.

Best,
Laura





On Aug 12, 2006, at 4:41 PM, Bèr Kessels wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Op vrijdag 11 augustus 2006 17:41, schreef Andrew Cohill:
>> --Finally, few doctors know a darn thing about any of this stuff, and
>> are often too eager to recommend surgery.  The stats on RSI surgery
>> are very grim--surgery often makes the problem MUCH WORSE.  There is
>> a huge bundle of nerves passing through the muscle sheath on your
>> wrist, and going in their and hacking away is extremely risky.
>> Surgery should be a last resort only after spending as much as needed
>> on better furniture and giving your body time to repair itself.
>
> As I have been on the brim of getting serious RSI too, my doctor  
> gave me but
> one real advice. Off course she recommended me to get a proper  
> environment,
> but since I had everything set up balanced already that is not a  
> lot of work.
>
> Breaks. Get a break of ten seconds every 6 minutes and a 2 minute  
> break every
> 40minutes. This is very annoying to get used to. I use some special  
> software
> that simply locks my environment for the required minutes  
> completely. Sure,
> its annoying. But once your are used to the rithm, its something to
> anticipate on (my RSI helper notifies me for about one minute that  
> I need to
> break, before forcing me to break). And during the break it shows  
> me nice
> pics of my holidays :)
>
>  * RSI break, KDE http://www.rsibreak.org/index.php/Main_Page
>  * Workrave, KDE, Gnome, Windows: http://www.workrave.org/welcome/  
> (features
> very good animated excercises to do while forcing the break)
>
> Again: most people are turned off by the forced break (damn, I was  
> just
> finishing that Jabber conversation...) But its something to simply  
> get used
> to. After a few months you will notice the difference in your  
> wrists, while
> the breaks feel like something natural by then.
>
> Bèr
>
> PS only danger is a coffee overdose: Don't grab every 6 min break  
> to get a new
> cup :)
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