Ergonomics for the Healthy Writer and Faroween!

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Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Tools of the Trade Ergonomic Edition." Because, let's face it, writers are notorious for experiencing various physical pains. Comes of sitting for hours everyday, hunched over a keyboard or paper (writing and reading!), forgetting to move but never forgetting those important snacks that keep our brains going. So, what do I do? I walk!

Yes, I have a walking desk with a treadmill, and have had one for nearly ten years now. Best investment I ever made! The current treadmill is from iMovr and goes from 5mph to 2.5mph. I usually walk between 1.5 and 2.2mph - the variation is really important! I have a hydraulic desk, the same one all these years, originally made by GeekDesk, which I can adjust to allow me to sit, stand, or walk. The minute height adjustments are particularly great, allowing me to have my forearms and wrists flat on the desk, my back straight, and my monitor at eye-level. I also vary them slightly from day to day and even hour to hour, so my body won't solidify into the same position for too long. 

No more butt in chair, hands on keyboard, people - get that writer body moving!

 

How Not to Hurt

I’d been ready to say that I didn’t think much about ergonomics, but then I took a look around. The lifelong pursuit of anything that might keep migraine pain to a dull roar has given me a whole lot of tools in my ergonomics toolbox. Some are things I just like. The rest are attempts to mitigate or prevent pain.

In the ‘I just like it’ category:

• Positive click keyboards. Straight. I expect some acknowledgement from the keys when I type. I need that sensory feedback or writing isn’t writing and I will be deeply dissatisfied.
• Writing in front of the fake fireplace on the sofa, usually with a cat in my lap – NOT ergonomic but warm, cozy, and purry.
• Writing in bed. Also not ergonomic, but at the end of a day, it’s a lovely segue into sleep.
• Noise canceling headphones. I swear to you these are why I am not currently doing life in a deep, dark prison somewhere.
• Creeptastic playlists. Ambient music has grown up on YouTube. I can find SciFi themed creepy stuff, I can find stuff that’s themed to particular fandoms – Alien, Cthulhu, zombie movies all kinds of stuff to write mayhem to.

In the ‘No Pain, Please’ category:

• Putting my monitor at eye level and my keyboard at waist level. I have an adjustable laptop desk with legs that can be adjusted any number of ways. I use it to get my laptop up high enough, so I look straight ahead at it. I use an auxiliary keyboard and mouse on my work surface to promote upright posture and to keep my head in a neutral, upright position rather than tilted down or carried forward of my spine. There was physical therapy involved in learning that this posture was my goal.
• Stand/sit desk – this is basically a desk that lets me stand when I want or sit when I need to, I also have a treadmill desk with one shelf set at eye level for the laptop and a waist high work surface for the keyboard and mouse. Variety, it turns out, also helps prevent pain.
• Blue blocker glasses. These really help reduce migraine pain. Not incidences of migraine – but with blue blockers, I don’t start a migraine and go from 0 to 60 on the pain scale in a few seconds flat. The blue blockers give me a much gentler ramp to ‘hey stupid, get flat’. If you need these, don’t cheap out. Real migraine glasses target two specific wavelengths of blue light. Cheapy glasses just throw a filter on some plastic and call it good. The real thing gives you targeted protection that’s worth the extra cash.
• Taking a daily 20-minute NSDR break. This isn’t just for posture. It’s for the brain and your entire nervous system.
• Exercises - I have a set of specific back and neck exercises designed to keep the shoulders pulled back and to counteract overstretch in the back of the neck. Those help.

In the normal course of generating a story, writing shouldn’t hurt. If it does, there’s likely a reasonable ergonomic solution. Sometimes, it means getting a professional like a physical therapist involved. Sometimes it means breaking up a repetitive motion cycle and giving weary muscles a rest. Ergonomics come down to you conducting a set of informed experiments to find out what helps you. It’s hard to have fun when what you love hurts you.

Ergonomic Free Here!

This is my writing view today. Beautiful, pine covered hills, blue sky, and a hand-made pine table. Which is definitely not in line with the week’s theme: the Ergonomic Edition.

No, this pine table doesn’t adjust. But it’s smooth and filled with wood grain character. No, the matching hand-carved pine chair definitely doesn’t adjust and turns the butt numb after an hour. But it’s got arms for me to rest my elbows on as I gaze out at nature and imagine what our near-future sci-fi world is filled with. And no, my laptop doesn’t support my wrists and gets a pretty good glare when the sun comes up. But it can travel from table to patio table with ease, enabling me to smell the pine and hear the wind rushing through the needles. 

At home I have a split keyboard which my wrists do love. I can work for hours without pain. And my desk chair at least goes up and down, but the best part about it is that it has a wide seat so I can sit crosslegged when I want to. 

Out of all the ergonomic options, I wish I were adept at using voice to text. How wonderful would that be! To walk around, pace the room, stroll outside while simultaneously writing? Amazing. But I haven’t trained my brain to use that tech yet. Someday, maybe. 

How about you? What ergonomic tools do you use and love?

I'm Not The Poster Child for Ergonomics

 This Week's Topic: Tools of the Trade Ergonomic Edition

Split keyboard or straight, laptop or desktop, phone, voice-to-text, etc.

This is another post where you'll likely not want to emulate me. Despite being a middle-aged broad, I don't give much thought to ergonomics and my writing setup. 

I don't write at a desk or a table, which is where a lot of ergonomic preventative measures are applied. Instead, I am Goldilocks, sitting in whatever comfy recliner, armchair, or couch fits my mood. Sometimes I use a cushioned lap desk to elevate my screen; though most often I just eat more holiday cookies to fluff up my thighs. {cough} {looks askance}

I write on my laptop (backlit keyboard + number pad). I don't own a desktop, and the few times I've used my phone for working on the WiP were total disastrophies. I've had the big ol' 18-inch screen and the small tablet 11-inch, but find a 14-inch or 15-inch is the sweet spot for text-heavy work. The only thing I hate about composing on my laptop is that the trackpad is centered under the QWERTY keyboard instead of the whole keyboard. I'm forever right-clicking when I want to left-click because of that. (Yes, I'm a PC user. Yes, I must have the number pad or I'll really go 'nanners.)

I don't use voice-to-text for drafting; though, that may be a "yet" statement. Mostly because speaking the punctuation breaks my train of thought faster than seeing the world's longest run-on sentence on my screen. For me, there's something almost subconsciously affirming about the clickety-clack of typing that keeps me in the creative thrall. That said, I do use text-to-voice for editing. I like having the computer read my mss back to me so I can catch missing and redundant words, along with nonsensical statements. 

So far, I'm fortunate to not suffer carpal tunnel, so I don't need a wrist brace. I am diligent about getting up and taking a short walk every two hours to avoid blood clots (my dog is trained to pester me at the appointed hours).  

Looking up/away frequently from my screen to allow my eyes to shift focus happens whenever I think, so I've got that guidance well covered. My computer screen is permanently set to "night mode" to minimize blue light. Recently, the news that viewing the world through rose-colored glasses helps relieve light sensitivity for migraine sufferers crossed my feeds. The power of FL-41 tint could be pure marketing hype or it could be scientifically proven, either way, I just received my pink glasses. 

So, uhm, yeah, thar' be the ways this couch potato avoids the ouchies of sitting on her ass all day. 😇