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Work from Home Without Wrecking Your Body

by Monique Sherrett | Apr 22, 2020 | Harebrained Ideas, Underwire Newsletter

Work from home without wrecking your back
5 tips to prevent back pain while working from home.

I love my home office but it's taken me years to figure out a few key details. Let me save your back, literally.

1. Move often. The perfect ergonomic setup for your couch or bed is tricky. The key is to change positions often. Set a 20-min timer (which also helps you focus), then take a 5-min break and reconfigure your next work station location (as in move from the bed to the couch or vice versa, haha).

2. Figure out the best desk and chair height. If your setup is the kitchen table, the standard dining room table height is 30 inches from the ground to the table top surface. The standard desk height is 29 inches. Unless you're 6 ft. tall, this is a problem. I'm 5'6″ and the best ergo desk height is 26.6″ with a chair height of 17.7″. This lets me sit with my knees and elbows at right angles. Sit on a pillow & find a footstool or stack of books to jack yourself up. See the height chart in this blog post.

3. Invest in a separate monitor and keyboard. I use a separate monitor so I can keep my eyes straight ahead vs. looking down at the laptop. The external keyboard lets me sit up straight with my back and shoulders aligned with my hips.

4. Stand up. Standing desks are easy to create if you're a book person or have boxes from online deliveries! Put a small coffee table on the kitchen table and let that act as the monitor stand. Then use a stack of books or stack of Tupperware for a keyboard tray. If you have $500 to spend, I highly recommend EffyDesk. As a note, the height range on the “home office” Effy Desk is 27.6-45.2″ so if you're shorter than 5'6″ I recommend the “business” version. Fun fact: Effy Desk is a Vancouver company.

5. Stretch. Take 5 and stretch it out. I love Bob Anderson's self-published book Stretching. Regardless of your home setup, these computer and desk stretches will save you from a sore back and carpal tunnel. Failing that, here's my popular 1-minute marketing tip on tennis ball massage.