The Love/Hate Relationships with Laptops

Picture yourself in a quaint little coffee shop working on the most interesting aspect of your job using your laptop. You probably found yourself smiling with a nice cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) with a straight back, relaxed shoulders, typing lightly and taking breaks to soak in the atmosphere.

Now, try picturing yourself at the same coffee shop with a deadline approaching. This scene probably unraveled a little bit deferentially in your head. You might have imagined yourself using the hot beverage as a life line, forcefully typing, zoned in with your body gravitating towards the screen.

Ok, maybe we embellished the scenes a tad. But with that being said, which one would you say most represents of your reality?

From what we have observed, the second scene shares the most characteristics with real life.

Horrendous isn’t it? Why do we expose ourselves to such BAD POSTURE (aka: High Ergonomics Risks)? Could it be that our decision making process focuses on short term rewards instead of the long term risks? Regardless of our thought process, people are constantly putting themselves under unnecessary risks to work and this needs to change!

In this blog we are going to expose why ErgoMania LOVES and HATES laptops and give you short and precise tips to transform our negatives into positives.

Let’s jump into it!

We Love

• The freedom that laptops give to people! You can work anywhere that has good Wi-Fi… this includes the BEACH!
• That it is easy to carry for the general population.
• That the set-up is quick and efficient!
• The FAST reward!

We Hate

• The bad postures it puts us in.
• The prolonged sitting or standing we tend to do when working on them.
• The Caffeine addiction
• The ability to always be working.

To put the point form into a sentence, we see the immense opportunity for productivity that laptops bring to the table but we also see the horrible outcomes that go with it. That is why, WE WANT TO HELP YOU LIMIT THE ERGOMONOMIC RISKS THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH LAPTOP USE!

Here are some fantastic tips that you can start implementing when you are working on your laptop at work, a coffee shop, home, the neighbor’s house, the co-working building, the ski hill, or the hockey rink.  

Ergo Tips

Tip 1: Limit the amount of time spent in one position.

Tip 2: Set appointments throughout the day, not in a row.

Tip 3: Bring the top screen height slightly lower than your eye level.

Tip 4: Use your coffee sips to take a good inhale and exhale!

Tip 5: Relax your shoulders! Try rolling them back and forth to ease the tension. 

Tip 6: Type and click less forcefully

Tip 7: Write on a post-it POSTURE or MOVE

Tip 8: Utilize laptop accessories!

Tips 1 to 7 are pretty easy to grasp! But what about tip 8? If you wonder how laptop accessories can help keep reading :) 

Laptop accessories are great tools to improve your posture. Take the magic trio (laptop riser, external keyboard and mouse) for example. The laptop riser will enable you to fix the screen height to right below eye level. Say goodbye to the flexed neck or in other words the double chin position! While the external keyboard and mouse are going to allow you to type with an elbow angle of more than 90 degrees instead of having to type at the less than optimal angle the laptop riser will bring the internal keyboard/mouse to. 

BONUS TIP: Book and pay for an exercise class or activity during the day to break up the sedentary behaviour. If you pay for it you won’t want to miss it!

Now get out there or stay where you are and start practicing lower risk laptop use!

If you have any questions feel free to call, text or email us.

ErgoMania Team