Setting Up Your Office

You may own the best ergonomically designed office chair in the world, but if the rest of the furniture in your office isn’t set up correctly, you will undo a lot of your chair’s benefits. So let us have a look how you should set up your office.

The Goal

You want to work in an office where you can easily find things, without having to leave your chair too often. There should be minimal strain on your eyes, your chair should be comfortable and you want to experience no physical discomfort or pain.

Steps to achieve this:

Setting up your computer monitor

Chances are good that you look at your computer monitor more than at your partner. Hmmm. Scary thought, but true in most cases. But please don’t tell them; jealous partners have been known to show destructive behavior at times. But let’s leave that thought behind and move on.

Since you look at your monitor so much, you can just as well make the experience as enjoyable as possible.

The following will help you to achieve this:

1. Put the monitor as far away from your eyes as your eyesight and work area will allow. But be careful not to strain your eyes – you should be able to see the words on the screen without any extra effort. A minimum distance of 25 inches is advisable.
2. You want to eliminate or reduce glare, so choose a spot that will achieve this. If you can, place your computer monitor at a 90% angle to the windows or any other light source. This is not always practical and an anti-glare screen may be your best option. The more modern flat LCD screens are also much easier on the eyes than the older type monitors.
3. Place the monitor at a position lower than your eye level. Yes, you should look down on the monitor and not the other way around. We don’t have time for snobbish computer monitors here. Most ergonomist advice you to look downward with a minimum angle of 15%, but with a maximum angle of around 45%. Why is this important? Scientific studies have proven that it puts less strain on the eyes to look downwards at these angles.
4. You should tilt the monitor so that the top is slightly further away from your eyes than the bottom. Why? Read a book with the top closer to your eyes than the bottom. Now read it with the top further away than the bottom. Notice the difference? Same principle applies with the computer monitor.

Choose the Correct Size Table

To begin with, you should choose a table of the correct height. The height of a table is not as easily adjustable as that of a chair, so it is important to get this right.

The following is a quick guide to help you choose the correct height.

1. Rather go for a low table than one that is too high. As long as the table clear the top of your legs and leave some space for a keyboard you should be fine.
2. Measure the length from the floor to the top of your knee. That will pretty much be the height of your chair’s seat when set up correctly.
3. Measure the length from your tailbone to the top of your eyes.
4. Add 1 and 2. This will give you an indication how high your eyes are when you sit.
5. Now measure the height of your computer screen or laptop screen and deduct it from the answer you got in 3. Allow for another few inches so that you can look down at the computer screen with a minimum angle of 15%.

That should give you a rough indication of the height to look for. If that is too much effort you can always go for an adjustable table. They are more readily available in the market these days.

Next thing to look for is the size. This will depend on the size of your office and how many documents you need to place on the table at a time.

Setting Up Your Keyboard and Mouse

 Place the keyboard at a position slightly lower than your elbows. This will allow your wrists to remain straight while you work. A very handy piece of equipment to help achieve this is a keyboard tray. A good keyboard tray allows you to adjust the height and angle of the keyboard so that your wrists remain straight and in a comfortable position.

A keyboard tray is one piece of equipment where the benefits far outweigh the costs. You should think seriously about getting one if you don’t already own one. And here is a quick tip for you. Do not adjust your keyboard so that the back is higher than the front. It will cause your wrist to be in an unnatural position and will cause pain.

Next is the mouse.

The mouse should be right next to the keyboard and easy to reach, without moving your arms from the armrests of your chair.

Document Holders

 The purpose of a document holder is to hold documents in a position that limits the movement of your head and neck when you type. If you place a document flat on a desk, you have to look down at the document, then up at the screen, then down at the document again etc. And if the documents are to your left or right another movement or two is required. Neck discomfort and a headache will follow soon. The document holder should be placed in an area where you can move your eyes from the screen to the document in a split second without moving your head. An area that is the same distance and height away from your eyes as your screen, work well. Another option is to get an inline document holder that is placed lower than the screen in front of you.

Other

Documents you work with frequently should be placed within easy reach.

Also see: How to Setup Your Ergonomic Chair