How to be More Productive at Work

AJ: I’m just on my way to Herman Miller. We’re going to hook up with David Coates. He’s an ergonomics specialist. He’s going to give us the load on what to look for to be more comfortable and ultimately more productive while you work. Thanks for joining us today David. So, we’re going to take a look at a couple of things. David: Yeah, I thought we’d look at a couple of chairs. This is your classic Herman Miller chair. AJ: It’s a Classic Herman and very recognizable. David: Yeah, it’s been in a lot of movies and stuff. So yeah, what you want to look for in a chair— AJ: Can I sit on it? David: Go ahead. AJ: Alright. David: You just want to be comfortable. First of all you want to— AJ: That’s a nice chair. David: It should feel good. AJ: It does. David: You want to get the height proper. You don’t want to be sitting lower than your knee height, okay. AJ: Okay. David: You don’t want the seat pan to encroach upon the back of your legs. AJ: Yeah David: So, you want that to be important. Some chairs actually have an adjustable seat panel where it does— AJ: Oh, where it slides back and forth, I got you. Okay. I’ve never seen that. David: Yeah, you don’t want to be in contact stress on the front edge of the chair so having a waterfall or a nice padded edge is important there. AJ: Okay. David: And so once you’re feeling comfortable on the bottom then as far as the back rest goes, posture is always important so I like back rests that will make contact with your shoulder blades which will kind of queue you to sit up, okay. You also want good lumbar support. You want some type of mechanism that’s somewhat adjustable. AJ: And I can feel that back now. David: Exactly, but you do have to sit back in the chair properly. And arm rest, I like adjustability with arm rest, the in and out is important because we’re all different widths and up and down is pretty standard. AJ: A little wider for some people. David: Exactly. And often the mouse will be away from you so if you have the arm rest allow you to have support, if you have to reach way from your mouse, that’s important. AJ: I got you. David: But what’s really important is to remember, we’re not really built for sitting for long periods of time. The most natural movement for the human body is getting up and walking, so making sure that you squirm around a lot during the day, even a stretch break in your chair. One of my favorites is basically turning your palms up, leaning back and doing the “why me” stretch. AJ: Why me. David: Nice. That’s a good one. AJ: That was good. That feels good. David: And then just reaching down with your palms open and trying to get the back of your head up to the ceiling. And this is the opposite of the colon slouch that we get into too much. AJ: Oh okay. David: And also getting the— AJ: This is bad. David: That’s bad. AJ: This is bad. David: Exactly. Alright, but we have to look at some other things with the desk. Here, we’ve got an adjustable desk which is— AJ: Wow, that’s cool. I’ve never seen that before. David: Yeah, there’s a couple of adjustable things we’ve got. One, we’ve got the desk that’s adjustable. AJ: Yeah. David: So, this is the more inexpensive style of adjustability. There’s electric but the crank ones will usually do the trick and— AJ: So, what’s the idea there? How high do you want out of this thing? David: Well, if you’re the type of person that’s not on the keyboard constantly and you want to have your keyboard on the desk, you want to have the desk about an inch and a half above your seated elbow height. AJ: Oh I see. David: So, if you measure from the bottom to the ground, an inch and a half higher than that, that’s where you should have your desk if you want to work on the desk. If you’re a really intense computer user, a tray is usually a good idea because— AJ: I’ve never seen this before. Usually, those trays are attached to the desk. David: Exactly. This is a dual product that I haven’t seen one of these either. I like it and they’re portable. They are adjustable. You can—a little button there, you can make it go wherever you want. And you can move it and have some flexibility. And this allows your—what trays can do is allow your elbows to come close to your body, allowing you to get nice and close to your work and keep a nice, flat top of your wrist which is important. You don’t want an extension on the wrist. You don’t want to get this kind of thing happening because that can cause a lot of problems. And it allows a nice approach to the mouse, nothing under your wrist. I don’t always use big gel pads under the wrist. AJ: You’re not being on those? David: No, you should really only have pressure on the base of your palm. So, if you have a pad there, that’s fine. But nothing should be in contact in that area. AJ: So, that position you’re in right now, you’re tucked in there pretty tight. David: Tucked in nice. AJ: And that’s for someone who’s going to be sitting in the computer all day type of the way. David: Yeah, good posture, upright, just like so. And also when you use the mouse, make sure you don’t keep this finger hovering habit too. That will cause you problems on top of your forearm. But yeah, this is a basic setup, nice and comfortable, relaxed. And make sure your arm rests don’t bump into your station so that it keeps you away. That’s another thing. AJ: Right, you want to sit back. David: Make sure the chair matches your workstation. AJ: How do you feel about coming to my office and looking at where I work? David: Sure, let’s have a look. AJ: Take a look and see how bad my seat position is. Female: Stay tuned and sit up straight because we have an ergonomics specialist coming to check AJ out.