Evaluating Your Work

• How much time is spent on the computer each day?
• What are your non-computer-related job tasks? Can these be scheduled throughout the day?
• Is your computer work mouse-intensive, keyboard-intensive or a combination?
• Does your work require you to work on the computer and the telephone at the same time?

Other Considerations

• Do you wear corrective lenses? Should you consider lenses specifically for computer use?
• Do you have poor posture habits, such as crossing legs, leaning to one side or the other, slouching, etc.?
• Do you participate in home activities which might use similar motions or muscle groups as computer work (i.e., gardening, playing an instrument, home computer use, etc.)?

General Tips and Work Practices

Even the perfect posture is not perfect for 8 hours per day. Computers users should devote at least five minutes of every hour of computer use to a non-computer-related task.

• Stand up while on the phone to force a break from computer work and focus on a distant object
• Print to a remote printer to force yourself to stand up and move around
• Schedule non-computer-related tasks throughout the day
• Blink your eyes multiple times during computer breaks to avoid eyestrain.
• Each time you sit, take the opportunity to “reset” your posture. Sit back in the chair, relax your neck and shoulders, move the chair in, etc.