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My opinion, anyway.
This is a post about RSI (Repetetive Stress Injury) - if you've heard of carpal tunnel syndrome, that's one type of RSI. Everyone who uses a computer (and as you're reading this, I feel safe assuming you do!) should be aware of this topic. If you're sick of it, or bored, you know where the scrollbar is and how to get out of here, but the reality is that as little as a few hours a day of computer use can cause this - or less; there are other activities besides computer use that can cause or aggravate it.
Frankly, considering it now vastly lowers your chance of encountering it later. About now, I hear some of you pointing out that you can work at a computer for years and not get it. Yep! Some of that is luck (I have seen people with awful habits escape unscathed) and some of it is not (there are lots of things you can do besides not using a computer to lower your risk of injury). There's really nothing at all you can do about your luck, but you can change your habits. Why depend on luck when you can add to your chances with things you can do?
Some of them are postural, and some are in the ergonomics of your desk area. However, if you just started sitting up straight, with the intent to do so for the next hour and a half straight, and rested your wrists on your gel wrist pad as you started to reply - then you have the wrong idea.
The biggest recommendation I can offer is: learn about this, and learn about the good habits that avoid it, from a better source than my LiveJournal. I'd like to recommend a book that was recently recommended to me (and some others - some of you will recognize this title), and which I'm now reading: Repetetive Strain Injury: A Computer User's Guide (Emil Pascarelli, MD; Deborah Quilter).
There are also some web sites on the matter. I take those with a hefty grain of salt in general, since there's less control on what goes out there, but I've found a couple I like that seem to match with what I've read elsewhere, so for those who can't or don't want to get the book, you might want to check this out:
http://www.engr.unl.edu/ee/eeshop/rsi.html
(Unfortunately, I've lost my link to the other I was going to recommend.)
I still recommend the book. There's a lot there.
If I stress only one thing that will help you, it's this: if your hands or arms, shoulders, neck, or back, hurt or feel funny while doing something:
(1) You probably need to find a new way to do it.
(2) You need to stop doing it, right now.
The exception to that is in some types of recovery, but if you're going through that, you're talking to your doctor and know what to expect, right?
I know people who put off moving away from the keyboard until they can sign out gracefully, or finish just one more task, or the like. When you're thinking of doing that while your hands hurt, the first thing you need to ask yourself is whether it's worth the loss of functionality in your hands. Push this stuff too far for too long, and that's exactly what you'll face. It can be permanent, and when it's not, the recovery is slow, painful, and unpleasant.
If you absolutely must finish it before you sign out, then consider alternate ways of doing it. DON'T strain your body unnaturally, but, for example, you might want to move from touch typing to hunting and pecking with the less-painful (or wholly uninjured hand). I say hunt-and-peck deliberately; the slower pace and use of only the pointer or pointer and secondary fingers keeps you from straining your hands in as many unnatural positions, though it's not the ideal answer.
Other things to consider: do you use a mouse, trackball, touchpad (glidepoint), or graphics tablet? For people who can hold pens, the graphics tablet is often a better choice, as can be the glidepoint. If you are using a traditional mouse or trackball, don't squeeze or push too hard. It's not a forcefulness contest (or if it is, get the thing cleaned/repaired).
Do you take regular breaks, both for the sake of your eyes and your hands, moving away from (or at least turning away from) the keyboard? Do you stretch?
Have you considered voice-recognition software? (It works very well for some people, and not at all for others. I'll probably put up a post on the pros and cons sometime in the near future, as well. I'd like to try to make it more coherent than my usual mention of the subject; I really adore my program, but it's not perfect for everyone, so I have to balance it with the things you might not like.)
Remember: It's not supposed to hurt. If it does, that's your first warning; take it, before it hurts constantly, and you find you can't do everyday things like pick up your laundry, or open a door.
This is a post about RSI (Repetetive Stress Injury) - if you've heard of carpal tunnel syndrome, that's one type of RSI. Everyone who uses a computer (and as you're reading this, I feel safe assuming you do!) should be aware of this topic. If you're sick of it, or bored, you know where the scrollbar is and how to get out of here, but the reality is that as little as a few hours a day of computer use can cause this - or less; there are other activities besides computer use that can cause or aggravate it.
Frankly, considering it now vastly lowers your chance of encountering it later. About now, I hear some of you pointing out that you can work at a computer for years and not get it. Yep! Some of that is luck (I have seen people with awful habits escape unscathed) and some of it is not (there are lots of things you can do besides not using a computer to lower your risk of injury). There's really nothing at all you can do about your luck, but you can change your habits. Why depend on luck when you can add to your chances with things you can do?
Some of them are postural, and some are in the ergonomics of your desk area. However, if you just started sitting up straight, with the intent to do so for the next hour and a half straight, and rested your wrists on your gel wrist pad as you started to reply - then you have the wrong idea.
The biggest recommendation I can offer is: learn about this, and learn about the good habits that avoid it, from a better source than my LiveJournal. I'd like to recommend a book that was recently recommended to me (and some others - some of you will recognize this title), and which I'm now reading: Repetetive Strain Injury: A Computer User's Guide (Emil Pascarelli, MD; Deborah Quilter).
There are also some web sites on the matter. I take those with a hefty grain of salt in general, since there's less control on what goes out there, but I've found a couple I like that seem to match with what I've read elsewhere, so for those who can't or don't want to get the book, you might want to check this out:
http://www.engr.unl.edu/ee/eeshop/rsi.html
(Unfortunately, I've lost my link to the other I was going to recommend.)
I still recommend the book. There's a lot there.
If I stress only one thing that will help you, it's this: if your hands or arms, shoulders, neck, or back, hurt or feel funny while doing something:
(1) You probably need to find a new way to do it.
(2) You need to stop doing it, right now.
The exception to that is in some types of recovery, but if you're going through that, you're talking to your doctor and know what to expect, right?
I know people who put off moving away from the keyboard until they can sign out gracefully, or finish just one more task, or the like. When you're thinking of doing that while your hands hurt, the first thing you need to ask yourself is whether it's worth the loss of functionality in your hands. Push this stuff too far for too long, and that's exactly what you'll face. It can be permanent, and when it's not, the recovery is slow, painful, and unpleasant.
If you absolutely must finish it before you sign out, then consider alternate ways of doing it. DON'T strain your body unnaturally, but, for example, you might want to move from touch typing to hunting and pecking with the less-painful (or wholly uninjured hand). I say hunt-and-peck deliberately; the slower pace and use of only the pointer or pointer and secondary fingers keeps you from straining your hands in as many unnatural positions, though it's not the ideal answer.
Other things to consider: do you use a mouse, trackball, touchpad (glidepoint), or graphics tablet? For people who can hold pens, the graphics tablet is often a better choice, as can be the glidepoint. If you are using a traditional mouse or trackball, don't squeeze or push too hard. It's not a forcefulness contest (or if it is, get the thing cleaned/repaired).
Do you take regular breaks, both for the sake of your eyes and your hands, moving away from (or at least turning away from) the keyboard? Do you stretch?
Have you considered voice-recognition software? (It works very well for some people, and not at all for others. I'll probably put up a post on the pros and cons sometime in the near future, as well. I'd like to try to make it more coherent than my usual mention of the subject; I really adore my program, but it's not perfect for everyone, so I have to balance it with the things you might not like.)
Remember: It's not supposed to hurt. If it does, that's your first warning; take it, before it hurts constantly, and you find you can't do everyday things like pick up your laundry, or open a door.
