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Creating an Ergonomically Sound Workstation
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The setup of your workstation, essentially your
desk, is the most important aspect of keeping a healthy work style.
Using the guidelines described here you can create comfortable and
healthy working environment. This covers how your desk, chair, monitor, keyboard and mouse
should fit with in your working environment.
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Your Desk
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Your desk is the main surface that you work on, and
needs to fit your height in order to comfortably support you while you
work. In order for it to
accomplish this, your desk should fallow these guidelines:
- Your desk should be about 5 to 6 inches above your thigh.
- It should be deep enough that it supports at least 6 inches of your writs
- It should be at a height so that your elbows create a 90 to 110 degree angle
- Your forearms should be parallel with the floor as well
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Your Chair
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As with your desk, your chair is another important
aspect to a comfortable workstation. Your
chair should fit these guidelines:
- First,
make sure you have a good quality chair that fits your body
- Make
sure you have a chair with good arm supports
- The
curve of the seatback should fit with the curve of your lower back
- If
your chair has insufficient support for the back, consider using a towel
or lumbar pad
- Adjust
the height of the chair so that it fits with you legs and the height of
your desk
- Your
feet should sit parallel with the floor or if not on the floor on a foot
rest
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Your Monitor
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Your monitor is just as important because it is what
you stare at all day long, and if not used properly, it can cause damage to
your eyes. Check to see if
your monitor fits these guidelines:
- Your
monitor should be directly in front of you while you work
- Place
your monitor so that it is 18 to 28 inches from your face
- The
height of your monitor should be so that it is as high or lower than
your eye level
- If
your screen is too bright, adjust the brightness and contrast so that is
at a pleasing level
- Your screen resolution my also help to reduce strain, a
good standard is 1024x768
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Your Keyboard and Mouse
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The main tools of the computer, these two items are
surprisingly the two that can be the most confusing at times. To make it easy, just fallow these guidelines:
- Consider
getting a keyboard and mouse designed with ergonomics in mind, they
usually fit best
- Your
wrists should be straight at all times
- Your
keyboard should be raised about 2 inches at the back
- Consider
getting a wrist support for both your board and mouse
- A
mouse with a wheel make it a lot easy to scroll through documents and
web sites
- Consider
getting a trackball mouse to help reduce the amount of movements your
wrist makes
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Run Free
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With these basic guidelines in mind you can
create a fairly ergonomic and comfortable workstation that you will not
dread using. Feel free to play
around using these as basics and add on to them if you like.
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