Working From Home - The Healthy Workspace Guide

With those who can work from home continuing, I suggest looking at our new work environments for you all. All too often, you may fire up the laptop whilst reclining on the sofa to answer a few emails, and then 5 hours later, you're still there hammering away at the keyboard in a less-than-ideal posture. As such, we must treat our work from home like in the office and ensure a 'healthy' home office space. Making these changes can boost productivity and limit unnecessary aches, pains and strains from plotting up wherever seems (initially) most comfy. The four cornerstones of the healthy home setup are;

Workspace Continuity

Having a space solely for work within your home pays dividends as the work and home life lines can quickly become blurred if you work wherever you can. Find a place you can call your own between office hours and ask other household members to respect your workspace and working hours; this will help immensely! There are few things quite as distracting as working at the dining table, having people milling in and out making breakfasts and lunches around you, and jumping into a conversation with you while trying to concentrate on work. Ensure everyone knows you are working, giving you the required breathing space. Your deadlines will thank you!

Work The Angles

Setting up your space using specific guidelines will ensure you aren't doing yourself any unnecessary damage while working. Following a few simple steps can provide the correct body alignment; this may differ significantly from what you initially thought. However, please read my thoughts on the ergonomic assessment guidelines and if they work after ten years of treating patients deemed to have the correct 'ergonomic setup' until they enter the clinic with desk posture issues!

Your eyes should be level with the top 1/3 of your screen (please read below for my non-gold star study into this setup advice). Your screen should be at least 50cm in front of your eyes and not much more than that if you can- Elbows should be by your side and above the table while keeping your forearms and wrists parallel. It would be best if you didn't have to lean forward or sideways to use your keyboard or mouse. Adjust chair height to ensure your hips and knees are at a 90° alignment with your feet on the floor or a footrest if you prefer. Your chair should have a back recline between 10° and 20°- Leave a little gap between the base of the chair and your knees.

Office Mindset

Try to stick as close to your workday routine as you can. Get up, get ready and get 'breakfasted' within the expected timeframe, and to make up for the lost exercise that would typically get you to work, why not go for a short walk or run before sitting down to work? Not only will this help reduce the risk of adding on the pounds, but it will wake you up and get you ready for a full day of productivity. Even if it's just a stroll to the shop on the corner to get the paper, it helps! Also, this is a practical tip: dress as you would when you are going to work. If you sit down in your dressing gown and slippers, I can guarantee you won't have as productive a day as if you'd got your work clothes on. 

Stay Mobile. 

Remember to get up and walk around occasionally. Get the blood flowing, and do some stretches or some light exercise every so often. I like to set an interval alarm of an hour. When the alarm goes off, I set about stretching or exercising for 2-5 minutes and then returning to work. It helps with my concentration levels and enhances my productivity. 

As some of my patients know, another Oxford osteopath and I devised our study off the back of desk-bound patients still regularly presenting to the clinic even though their desk setup had been 'ergonomically assessed' and their arrangement was deemed suitable and appropriate. We took it on to look into the guidelines and to try an experiment to see if we could make some changes to the outcomes of those working at a desk all day. 

The most noticeable anomaly was the outdated regulations, written and published in 1970. Since 1970, there have been massive changes to how we work; some people use up to three screens at a time and also work from handheld devices! The main issue with the setup was the screen height; it just wasn't high enough, so we made changes there. With advice stating that your eye level should be at the top 1/3 of the screen, we moved that to the bottom 1/3; we found that this eliminated people's neck pain from 93% of our patients who previously had their screens lower and presented with neck pain. Why is this? Because of your centre of gravity. I always offer people the option of forwarding their desk set up to me, so what are you waiting for? Send over your desk set, and let's see how we can improve this for you :-) 

I hope to open again at the end of June; please watch your emails for your appointment change.

Stay safe and well until next time!

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