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Office ergonomics and productivity usually go hand in hand. When our workspace is poorly laid out, health issues such as back and neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and a whole host of other muscular diseases can creep up, negatively affecting productivity at the same time.
Here are 8 simple ways to increase your ergonomics and productivity in your workspace today.
Find Your Natural Posture
Have you ever experienced stiff neck or shoulders after a long day of work? This is normally due to our hunching shoulders, protruding neck to see our computer monitor better, and hands that are poised at our keyboards for up to eight hours a day, at a minimum of five days a week.
However, when we find our natural posture our bodies can begin to relax. The Cleveland Clinic describes our natural posture as the “position where the least strain is placed on supporting muscles and ligaments during movement or weight-bearing activities.”
Finding your natural posture will also help with:
- Keeping bones and joints in correct alignment
- Decreasing stress on ligaments
- Preventing strain, overuse, backache, or other muscular pains
- Allowing correct spinal positioning
- Decreasing joint wearing, which normally leads to arthritis
When your posture is correct and your body is in correct alignment, you can focus more on the work at hand and increase productivity. In order to maintain proper posture, try:
- Sitting on your sit bones, instead of your butt muscle
- Sitting with your feet flat on the floor
- Keeping your shoulders back
- Keeping your head neutral-facing
Computer/Phone Screen Positioning
Having your computer screen too far upwards or downwards, as well as constantly looking at your phone, puts undue stress on your spinal cord. Instead, try repositioning the screen so that your head is situated in a more neutral position. Make sure that the middle of the screen is in line with your eye-line so that you do not need to strain in order to see.
However, the major culprit nowadays is smartphone screens. Most businesses are very heavily conducted on our phones — however, most people do not know how to properly hold their phone to keep pressure off of the spine. Instead of holding the phone level with your hip and/or chest, depending on one’s arm length, you should hold your phone in line with your eyes, same as your computer screen. This keeps pressure off of your spine while also allowing you to get your work done.
Chair Positioning
Too many people overlook their office chair positioning when thinking about how to increase their workplace productivity. Using a chair that has a flat back, hard bottom, or something that’s too high or low will put excess strain on the body and distract you from your work.
There are a few things in mind when repositioning your office chair:
Height → Make sure that your chair is high enough so that your feet can be placed flat onto the floor without dangling or being spread out. Instead, you need to make sure that your feet can stay close and entirely on the ground.
Shape → A hardback chair does not allow for the natural curves of the spine. Instead, try choosing a chair that allows for a curve in at the base of the spine and a curve out at the top of the spine, which allows for the best pressure alignment.
Length → When you sit with your feet flat on the ground, there should not be a lot of room between the back of your knee and the back of the chair. Make sure to choose a seat that is your size and not much larger or smaller, which can make sitting uncomfortable.
Although it is usually overlooked, having an ergonomically designed chair can also make a big difference due to their focus on good lumbar support, a large back, and good arms and bottom support.
Exercise During Working Hours
The most overlooked ergonomic practice at work is to get up and move during the day. Whether during your lunch break or right before your shift starts, exercising during the work day has been proven to boost endorphins, focus, and overall productivity during the working day.
In fact, researchers at the University of Birmingham studied 56 sedentary workers to see whether or not a simple 30-minute walk per day helped to increase their overall productivity. The researchers found that after 10-weeks, the workers who participated in the 30-minute walk had increased enthusiasm for their work and relaxation during the working day, and decreased nervousness about their working day.
Some companies have jumped onto these findings and have included fitness centers in their workspaces. No matter if your company has a gym or not, increasing your working day activity is directly linked to increased productivity. In addition, increasing your muscle mass will also help to enhance posture and decrease the amount of stress placed on the joints when sitting for long periods throughout the day.
Keyboard/Mouse Placement
Often times, people will adjust their computer monitors to be further away or their chairs to situated themselves more comfortably but will fall short of the correct keyboard and mouse placement. However, by changing the positioning of both of these things, we can immediately feel less tension in the upper body, specifically the neck and shoulders, and increase productivity because we are not constantly under tension.
According to the Mayo Clinic, here are a few guidelines that can aid in proper keyboard and mouse set-up:
- Place the mouse on the same surface as the keyboard.
- Place both the mouse and keyboard within easy reach of each other.
- Keep your wrists straight, your upper arms close to your body, and your hands either in level with or slightly below your hands when you type and/or use the mouse.
- If possible, adjust the mouse settings so that you can use a lighter touch.
- Alternate the hand you operate the mouse with to avoid cramping.
These simple tips alone can go a long way to reducing common ailments such as carpal tunnel syndrome and hand pain.
Reduce Repetitive Movement
Most musculoskeletal disorders occur through repetitive movements, or doing the same movement over and over again until the muscle strains. A musculoskeletal disorder is an injury caused to a ligament, tendon, or other internal muscle due to prolonged strain. In a typical office setting, these strains can be found from the way we hold the computer mouse, to the hand that opens our filing cabinet, to holding the phone between the crook of our neck, to typing at the same speed and with the same four fingers five days a week.
A great way to increase ergonomics in your office is to decrease this repetitive motion. Some ways to decrease the repetitions of everyday working life include:
- Switching the hands that use the mouse
- Using a headset or bluetooth to speak on the phone
- Stretching your hands and wrists every half hour to reduce typing strain
- Squatting down to pick something up instead of bending
Decreasing the amount of tension in your body by eliminating repetitive motion will also help to increase your productivity. Without constant strain on your body, you can move more freely and operate more quickly, which translates into more work done over a period of time.
Give Your Eyes a Break
Not only does staring at a computer screen all day put a strain on your upper back, spine, and butt, but it can also put a strain on your eyes. And everyone knows that strained eyes leads to watering, itching, dryness, irritation, and an inability to focus. None of these attributes are conducive for a productive day!
Instead, here are two ways to reduce the strain put on your eyes:
- Reduce your computer monitor glare. You can do this by turning the brightness of your screen down during working hours to a darker screen, or also shifting your computer monitor away from a window to avoid sunlight refraction.
- Shift your focus periodically throughout the day. You can do this by moving your eyes from one object to another — preferably something non-electronic — every fifteen to twenty minutes to ensure that your eyes stay fresh.
With less eye strain means more work getting done, so make sure that you’re treating your eyes with care!
Reduce Sitting Time
Just like periodical exercising, standing up and stretching is highly beneficial for a productive work day. However, if you don’t have enough time every day to get some kind of a workout in, at least make sure that you’re standing up and stretching every hour or so to increase blood circulation and keep your muscles active.
A great way to implement more standing into your day is with a standing desk. Multiple offices are already shifting towards standing and sitting desks, and even some schools have started adding them into classrooms to keep children more occupied. A standing desk has a multitude of benefits for your work productivity, such as disease prevention and more calories burned per hour.
However, keep in mind that standing desks should not completely replace seated desks. Constant standing each day, according to Harvard Medical School, can cause problems in the back, spine, and legs, just like excess sitting can. Instead, implementing both standing and sitting throughout the day is the most beneficial and productive way to increase work output per day.
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This content is sponsored by Jason Marandola.
Photo: Getty Images