If you’re working from home amid the pandemic, you might find that your home office is literally a pain in the neck. Many of us don’t have proper office chairs, and working for extended hours on a laptop and hunched over a desk is not great for the body. So here are some easy hacks to help make WFH as comfortable as possible!
1. Put a pillow on your seat
Placing a thin pillow on your seat can go a long way in making an ordinary chair feel a lot more comfortable. Don't have a thin pillow? You could also fold up a towel for the same effect.
2. Use a towel or yoga mat for back support
If you struggle with lower back pain, lumbar support pillows that rest on the back of your pelvis help to increase comfort when you're seated. You don’t need to splurge on a fancy pillow to accomplish this. Simply roll up a towel or yoga mat and place it between your chair and lower back.
3. Relieve back aches with a tennis ball
Sitting at your desk all day can cause back pains. For a quick massage, place the ball between your chair and the sore area. Try moving around to have the ball ease your knots! Not only can you do this while you work, but you can also use it at the end of the day to relieve upper back tension.
4. Elevate your laptop
The bad news is that laptops are never going to be ergonomic, as the monitor is either going to be too low or the keyboard too high. Ideally, the top of your monitor should be just below eye level, so you don’t have to strain your neck to read. Doing a task that's reading-intensive? Prop your laptop up to eye level on a stack of books or a shoebox. Then, when you need to type, you can lower it to a level that allows your arms to be bent at a 90-degree angle.
5. Try to attain a neutral sitting position
Aka the posture you would naturally adopt as a relaxed seating posture. In other words, you're not hunching forward, your neck is not bent downwards, your arms are not up high or too low and your feet are out in front of you, opening up the back of the knees to promote better blood circulation.
Here's what it should look like:
6. Elevate your legs
Supporting your feet up on an elevated surface, or stretching your legs long help to increase circulation. Ideally, your hips and thighs should form 90-degree angles when you sit in your chair, but you should move your feet back and forth from time to time.
7. Vary your posture
It’s crucial to change your posture throughout the day, ideally every hour, because sitting in the same position all day can lead to back, neck and shoulder pain. For example, you could start your day at the coffee table, then move to a standing position, and then sit on your couch etc
8. Take stretching breaks
Most people take breaks to walk around when they’re in the office, but we tend to move around a lot less when we're working from home. Set an alarm to remind yourself to get up and move about. Make it a point to go to the kitchen every hour to refill your water glass, do some back stretches, and look outside the window for a minute or two.
9. Avoid bad lighting
If possible, position your laptop or computer screen so that it’s perpendicular to a window, instead of directly in front. The contrast between a bright window and your screen can make it difficult for your eyes to focus, and overtime leads to reduced eyesight.
10. Protect your eyes
Laptops, mobile phones and other digital devices emit significant amounts of blue light. High exposure to blue light can damage the light-sensitive cells in your retina and disrupt sleep patterns. Not to mention, blue light can cause eye strain and headaches. To combat this, invest in a pair of PC glasses with blue light reducing lenses, or use an app like f.lux, which reduces blue light exposure by adjusting your display's color temperature according to your location and time of day.