Create an ergonomic environment at home. See all the tips below.
1. Activity-based
Think activity-based workplace also in the home office. Which place is best intended for which tasks? Walk around or take a walk and have an informal conversation. Sit at the kitchen table and write the report. Sit on the couch and read long emails from your colleague. Relocations provide valuable mini-breaks.
2. Keep track of time
Schedule and set the clock for breaks, leg stretchers, fluid breaks. New habits are needed for them to become natural even in the home environment. Schedule lunch, daily activities and breaks as well as meetings and undisturbed work shifts.
3. Change sitting position
Have a pillow behind your back. Have a chair that is at a good level against the table and for your height. Build up the table or chair by putting on books or similar so it will be a good level. Worth the investment in a few minutes. Sit far out on the chair. Relax in the back and stomach but still be stretched then you work with the internal posture muscles and get a deeper breathing.
4. Stand from time to time
Create a place where you can stand at least temporarily. Stack books to raise the computer and screen. ensure that the keyboard and mouse come so that the shoulder can rest against a ground with the forearm at a 90-degree angle to the shoulder.
5. Stop
Stop regularly and make yourself aware of your body’s position. Do you have your legs crossed or the soles of your feet on the floor? do you have the feeling of balance between the seat legs? Does it feel like the head is hanging in front of / between the shoulders or is it balanced on top of the spine? Do you have a tension in the torso and abdomen or a rounded back? Do you either sit with your pelvis leaning against the backrest or do you sit far out on the edge of the chair so that your back does not lean against the backrest, or have you accidentally hooked down and half-lying on the chair with your back in an arch against the backrest? Do you have your arms at 90 degrees from your shoulder or your arm hanging in the air? Where do you have your shoulders up at your ears or comfortably relaxed with your shoulder blades rolled back?
6. Vision
The eyes often determine the body position so that you can see what is and is displayed on the screen. Make sure you have set the zoom on the screen properly and do not neglect glasses if you know you will benefit from it.
7. Start in the right ergonomics
Start each work step with the correct ergonomics. The soles of the feet on the floor, balance between the seat legs, the head balanced on top of the spine, stretched back with relaxation in the outer muscles and breathing with the abdomen, you sit either with the pelvis leaning against the backrest, arms at 90 degrees from the shoulder and shoulders comfortably relaxed and the shoulder blades rotated slightly backwards.
8. Reminder
Put a post-it note on the desk or next to the screen with the word Posture 🙂 and a smile. So effective that you make a difference every time you see the note consciously or unconsciously. You know that a good posture affects the hormones, the cortisol stress hormone goes down and the testosterone action hormone goes up which you need during the work day.
9. Move even while sitting
Rock from side to side on the chair. Extend one or both hands above the head. Tilt your head back so that your back is raised backwards. Lift your legs and walk on the spot or jump up and down with your feet. The purpose of the movement is to ensure good circulation and small movements to get rid of harmful substances that are formed in the body when sitting for too long a small moment of activation of large muscle groups for these harmful substances to disappear. Tighten one muscle group at a time and relax. Touch your jaws and grimace with your face.
10. Your why
All of the above is simple and does not take much time but despite that it will not be done if you do not have your own motivator or purpose why you want to ensure better ergonomics. So what’s your goal? Avoid back pain? Become more efficient? Use the muscles during the working day or get or maintain a good posture?
