Everything You Need to Set Up an Ergonomic Workspace at Home

Working from home has caught the world by storm in recent years. Working from home allows maximum savings, health, and comfort. However, the last two things, health, and convenience can also go massively wrong if you do not have an ergonomic workspace at home.

Creating an ergonomic workspace at home is as important as setting the seat before driving a car. Without proper adjustments and ergonomics, things can go really wrong, really fast. Ergonomics is essential to make sure that your body can sustain long hours of sitting in front of the computer and forgetting about your body and surroundings.

Setting up an ergonomic home workspace or ergonomic standing workstation is not as difficult as it might seem in the beginning. Once you get the hang of what should be where and how far away or close a tool should be, creating your own ergonomic workspace at home is breezy. Let us look at how you can do exactly that while you're working from home.

How to Make an Ergonomic Workstation at Home

Without an ergonomic workstation at home, you can invite early body aches such as headaches, eye strains, backaches, and neck issues. To avoid that, it is essential to make sure that every limb and muscle in your body is relaxed and comfortable while working. That's just how ergonomics work. Let us look into how you can do so.

What You’ll Need

Your office equipment requires at least a computer and a notepad. However, while creating an ergonomic workspace at home, you will have to get a few critical pieces of equipment.

• A smart desk, preferably an ergonomic standing desk.
• An ergonomic chair
• A monitor arm or a laptop base

Key Areas to Focus On

The basic benefit of ergonomics is to make sure that the areas that tend to get sore and problematic quickly are at complete rest while you’re working. Below are the key areas you should focus on.  

Head and Neck

Your head and neck should be completely straight and in perfect alignment with your spine. If not, it may cause neck pain and also cause nearsightedness. If your neck and head are vertical and at a 90% angle, you will face a minor strain between your eyes and over your shoulders.

If you're working on a laptop, it is inevitable for you to have your head tilted downwards because the screen is always extremely low. Therefore, it is always advisable to mount the screen and invest in an external ergonomic keyboard and mouse. This way, your screen will be at eye-level, and your hands will not be tilting uncomfortably either.

Hands and Wrist

Similar to your head, your hands and wrists should also be in a neutral position. They should lay flat on the table and make sure you do not have to hinge your wrists to make a comfortable angle.

You might want to adjust the height of your ergonomic office chair or adjust the distance between your body and the keyboard and mouse. It is also vital for your arms and elbows to be at a 90o angle so that they are not slacking off your body’s midline.

Back Support

Most people say that your body should be at a 90o angle while sitting. However, in reality, you should be able to get completely back and lumbar support while sitting as your eyes are at the perfect level to the screen. Again, you should be sitting similarly to how you sit in a car seat. You’re comfortable, you can do what you’re doing perfectly, but you’re also leaning on the seat.

You don’t necessarily require a chair that has comfortable cushions and padding. All you need is an office chair with back support. If the chair can provide you neck support, there would be nothing better than that.

Knees

We often neglect how important knees are to regulate blood flow in your body. Your feet should touch the ground so that your knees are not hanging. Moreover, the back of the knees should not be in touch with the seat since that can significantly reduce blood flow.

Do not sit crossed-knee because that will put an unnecessary extra burden on the knee on the below side of the situation. Your ankles and feet should be very comfortable. Therefore, if you feel your legs or feet are getting numb, make sure you take regular walks to keep your body in motion.

How Standing Desks Can Help You

Standing desks are the new ergonomic office trend. Global offices such as Google use standing desks to make office work simple and effective. Standing desks are popular for a reason, and we will explain why.

• Sitting for too long is bad: Studies suggest that sitting for too long is worse for your health than smoking and it causes many health risks. Therefore, standing desks eliminate that problem.
• Keep your body ready: One of the best things about standing desks is that your body is always in an alert position. Therefore, they are great for improving workplace productivity.
• Timed activity: With a standing desk, you have an option to both sit and stand. Therefore, it is best to schedule sit-stand sessions within which you can see how long you can sit and stand while working. Getting your body the right amount of motion and rest is the key to an ergonomic workspace at home.

Summing Up

Creating an ergonomic workspace at home is not a difficult thing to do. All you need is the right information and access to the right resources at the right time. Taking care of your body by allowing it to be in the right position for working is extremely important. Without an ergonomic home workspace, you risk yourself to a lot of premature health issues.

Choose the right office chair, desk, and ergonomic workstation setup to make sure that you work while staying kind to your body.