How you set up and use your laptop can affect the amount of stress placed on your neck and back. Here are 10 ideas for keeping your spine pain-free while being productive on a laptop.
Practicing good posture and ergonomics while using a laptop can help prevent neck and back pain. Watch Video: 6 Tips to Improve Posture While Sitting
1. Take the laptop off your lap
Infographic:How to Avoid Neck Pain While Working from Home
[larger view]
Even though it’s called a laptop, you may not want to use it on top of your lap.
This position often requires you to slouch down and jut your head forward to see the screen, loading your cervical spine with dozens of extra pounds of pressure.1 If you do need to work without a desk—while on a train, for example—try propping the laptop on your computer bag or briefcase to elevate the screen.
See How Poor Posture Causes Neck Pain
advertisement
The ideal laptop height and angle lets you view the screen easily without bending or rotating your neck. Elevate the laptop a few inches above your desk, placing it on a stable support surface, such as a laptop stand or a stack of thick books. Your eyes should naturally hit the top third of your screen when you look straight ahead.
See Office Chair, Posture, and Driving Ergonomics
3. Use a separate keyboard and mouse or invest in a separate screen/monitor
When you work on a laptop for an extended period of time, it is recommended to do one of two things: 1] Use an external keyboard and mouse and properly position your laptop screen at eye level or 2] Use an external monitor at eye level and position your laptop keyboard at a height that allows your shoulders and arms to relax. Your elbows should be at a 90-degree angle, tucked close to your body, and your wrists should be in a neutral position when typing. This posture helps keep you from rounding your shoulders and pulling your neck muscles.
See Posture to Straighten Your Back
4. Upgrade screen size
While laptops are designed to be portable and easy-to-use, be sure that your laptop’s screen is big enough for your needs. A smaller screen may cause you to strain to see text and objects. If you find yourself hunching forward to read from your screen, you can also increase the font size.
5. Put your feet up
If you have to raise your chair to position your arms and wrists comfortably, check to see how your legs are angled. Your feet should be flat on the floor, and your knees should be at an even height with your hips. If your hips are too high or your feet don’t reach the floor, use a step or block to support the bottom of your feet. This can help you maintain a neutral lumbar spine and reduce strain on your lower back.
Watch Video: 5 Overlooked Tips to Protect Your Lower Back
6. Find an ergonomic chair
The type of chair you sit in while using your laptop is critical. Any office chair that is fully adjustable and has lumbar support may work, but you need to be sure to set it up correctly. If your chair does not have adequate support, you may need a lumbar roll. Remember to sit all the way back in the chair so when you rest against it, the lumbar support is helping to maintain the natural curve in your lower back. As for your neck and head position, your ears should always be above your shoulders, not in front.
See Choosing the Right Ergonomic Office Chair
7. Take breaks
Set a reminder on your phone to take a brief break every half hour or so. Get your eyes off the screen and let them rest on something in the distance. You can do simple stretches at your desk, such as stretching your neck, shoulders, arms, and legs. Every hour, leave your desk to walk around to get your blood flowing and muscles loose. If it is not possible to walk, at least stand, stretch and move. Humans are mobile beings and not meant to sit still all day.
Watch 4 Easy Stretches for Neck and Shoulder Pain Video
8. Stand up
For people who spend long hours working on laptops, try to spend an hour or two each day using your laptop while standing rather than sitting in a chair. You will need a separate keyboard and mouse and a multilevel setup to do this without straining your neck. Standing desks are popular options. Desktop converters enable you to keep your desk and temporarily convert it to a standup desk.
See Workplace Ergonomics and Neck Pain
9. Travel light
If you typically lug your laptop between work and home, purchase a duplicate power cord and other laptop accessories—that way you can leave them in each place instead of carrying the extra load back and forth. You may also want to use a backpack with dual-padded shoulder straps to avoid draping the bag over just one shoulder. If your laptop and accessories feel too heavy, a roll-along carrier may be the best choice.
See Pain-Free Travel Tips
advertisement
Turn technology in your favor by using your laptop to monitor your posture and give you helpful reminders. Many posture apps are available for Mac and PC that can perform various functions, including:
- Use your laptop camera to monitor your posture and alert you when to sit up straighter.
- Remind you when to take breaks.
- Guide you through simple stretches and exercises at your desk.
Wearable devices are also available to measure your spinal posture and send the data to an app on your phone or tablet. While some people may find benefits from posture apps and wearable devices, it is important to note that some people may not and more research is needed to determine their effectiveness.2
Pay attention to how you set up your laptop. Careful consideration goes a long way to easing and preventing back and neck pain.
Learn more:
Ten Tips for Improving Posture and Ergonomics
Ergonomics of the Office and Workplace: An Overview
For most of today’s business functions, a laptop is a suitable workstation that empowers staff to be flexible and mobile. Working on a desktop every day has become the exception instead of the norm. Laptop sales outpaced desktops as far back as 2009 due to the versatility it brings to the modern workforce. Powerful desktop workstations feature predominantly in high-performance workflows like computer-aided design, video editing, and 3D modeling tasks. For almost anything else, a laptop will suffice and increase your mobility.
The resilience that a mobile workforce adds to an organization’s operations is no longer up for debate. What was a growing trend became an existential necessity in the recent past. By 2018, a Fuze survey showed that 54% of employees were willing to change jobs if it offered them greater flexibility, while 83% said they didn’t need to be in the office to be productive. Embracing employee mobility has become the new norm, but is it healthy for staff to work on just a laptop? Here are some considerations surrounding employee health and wellness while using laptops and modern tablets that enable today’s remote workforces.
A Healthy Approach to Employee Mobility
Laptops allow employees to be productive from anywhere, but when staff starts working remotely for extended periods, organizations should address the long term health implications it could create. If your company expects employees to use a laptop while working from home or any non-traditional location frequently, you must mitigate the negative effects on an employees’ health and wellbeing.
With a suboptimal set up using just a laptop, employees may experience:
- Fatigue and discomfort from a bad posture [even when sitting at a desk].
- Repetitive strain on the shoulders, upper back, and neck after extended use.
- Reduced productivity and task accuracy due to ergonomic limitations.
The longer period of exposure, the worse the effects. Bad posture due to poor screen alignment can lead to permanent illness, or what some researchers started calling Hunched Over Laptop Syndrome [HOLS].
Additional long-term implications may include:
- Wrist strain from repetitive use of the trackpad.
- Toasted leg syndrome from extended heat exposure when using the device on your lap.
- Sore muscles which could lead to debilitating pains and long-term physical problems.
- Eyestrains due to the closer proximity to the screen which could lead to nearsightedness.
Key Recommendations from Health Professionals for Long-Term Laptop Use
Experts believe that the only thing you can do to make a difference and prevent these negative effects is to improve posture. You should also separate the screen from the input devices to create a comfortable set up, no matter where you’re working from. This remains one of the major concerns when staff work from just a laptop, as some standards specifically recommend not having the screen connected to the keyboard.
By adding the necessary peripherals and accessories to your employees’ home office and remote work setups or toolkits, you can mitigate these concerns and provide for a healthier work from anywhere environment.
Accessories that Promote Healthy Posture While Working on a Laptop
One of the biggest concerns with laptop ergonomics dates back further than you may think. In the early days of computers, it was common to integrate the keyboard and screen into a single unit. This design led to complaints about musculoskeletal discomfort. New guidelines written in the 1970s called for separating the keyboard from the screen, giving users greater flexibility to align the screen and adjust the keyboard [and mouse] separately to reduce repetitive strain injuries.
Laptops, by definition, do not comply with these requirements, making them a risk to an employee’s health and wellness. To overcome these challenges, you can accentuate a remote or home office set up using ergonomically designed peripherals and accessories. Below are some recommendations to help improve your posture and remain productive while working on a laptop.
Adjust Your Posture Using an Ergonomic Laptop Stand or Riser
The height of the desk and chair you are using will influence the alignment between your eye level and the laptop screen. A laptop stand or riser enables you to adjust the angle of your device to suit any environment and desk situation. The SmartFit® Easy Riser™ Go can raise a laptop display by as much as 180mm [or 7.1in]. It comes with a space-saving foldable kickstand and a padded insert for superior stability.
Using a riser as part of your laptop and home office setup enables you to work from different locations in your house and still find an optimal sitting position. Risers also improve air circulation below the laptop, dissipating heat that would put additional strain on the device’s hardware.
Ergonomic Keyboards to Help Reduce Repetitive Strain Injuries
Due to the persistent positioning of your wrists when using a laptop’s keyboard, an ergonomically designed platform that provides support and flexibility is essential. The wireless Pro Fit Ergo® range of keyboards from Kensington is an efficient way to separate your primary input device from your laptop screen.
You can choose from designs with wrist support, slim types, handheld, and solutions that connect with other mobile computing devices like tablets and iPads. The tools you need to remain productive while working from anywhere continue to evolve. Still, you’ll always need to consider your posture and how you can enhance your ability to adjust your workstation to suit your immediate environment.
Invest in a Comfortable Mouse or Trackball
Having an ergonomic pointing device can also reduce repetitive strains and improve productivity. If you perform precision tasks that rely on a pointing device every day, a wireless and ambidextrous mouse or trackball liberates you from your trackpad. You can choose from any number of solutions that provide improved comfort, including vertical mice, trackballs, and ergo wireless solutions that support tablet or iPad connections.
Additional Accessories to Improve Your Laptop Set Up
Depending on the environments you’ll be operating from, you’ll want to use solutions that improve your flexibility and mobility without compromising long-term health. Kensington has a range of solutions specifically aimed at supporting employees who need to remain mobile, effective, and healthy. If you use a laptop every day, you’ll want to ensure you use accessories like wrist supports and ergonomic mouse pads.
Setting Up the Optimal Work from Anywhere Environment with Kensington
Another tool that can help you improve your productivity while working from anywhere is KensingtonWorks™. You can customize your input devices and assign shortcuts to your mouse or trackball keys to speed up your work processes.
Laptops enable a mobile workforce, but could also pose a risk to information security. To secure your endpoint devices, you should also check out Kensington’s physical data protection solutions.