We all spend hours upon hours at our desk every day – even if it is a makeshift desk at home. There can be a lot of distractions nowadays – but you’d be surprised how much the layout and set up of your workspace can also affect your productivity.

You’ve no doubt heard the term “ergonomic” – its about the way you set up your workspace to ensure you are as comfortable as possible. Poorly adjusted chairs and poorly positioned monitors and keyboards can cause physical symptoms such as aching limbs, spine, and back muscles. It’s important that your workspace should allow for great posture, less exertion, fewer movements, and better heights and reaches so that you can improve your productivity, comfortability, and efficiency.

Here’s how you can boost productivity by making some small changes to your workspace set-up and posture.

  • Change the height of your desk and chair – it should allow your elbows to rest by your ribs while sitting, enabling you to type on a keyboard with your arms and hands parallel to the floor – focus on that right-angle magic; Pythagoras wasn’t kidding around.
  • Your legs should fit comfortably underneath the desk – with feet flat on the floor. Adjust your monitor screen – it should be eye level and nearly an arm’s length away when sitting back in your chair so that you can read without having to lean your head forward.
  • Move your keyboard in front of you and your mouse next to it in close reach to avoid stretching and wrist strain.

Considering that you spend a significant portion of your work day at a desk, it’s important to consider the effects that all these features of your workspace can have on your body. The more aware of them you are, the more you can change them to be more suitable and make you more productive.

If the people in your organisation could benefit from an engaging and easy-to-follow microlearning guide to ergonomic working then head over to our course list to find out about our workspace ergonomics course – as well as hundreds of other amazing courses.

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