Married to Your Desk? 5 Tips for a Better Relationship
Here's a sobering statistic: With a 40- to 45-hour work week, many Americans spend about 25% of the year on the job. For those of us who stare at computer screens all day, that amounts to more than 2,000 hours with our keisters glued to chairs. In less technical terms, we're practically married to our desks.
Thu, February 02, 2012
Computerworld — Here's a sobering statistic: With a 40- to 45-hour work week, many Americans spend about 25% of the year on the job. For those of us who stare at computer screens all day, that amounts to more than 2,000 hours with our keisters glued to chairs. In less technical terms, we're practically married to our desks.
Slideshow: How to Organize Your Office and Boost Your Productivity
Slideshow: Cubicles Gone Wild: 13 Wacky Workspaces
For as many hours as we whittle away at our workstations, though, most of us put surprisingly little thought into optimizing our offices. Quick: When's the last time you actually stopped to think about how efficient your physical workspace is? If you're anything like me, the answer is probably "never."
Workstation optimization can make a significant difference in your ability to get things done. Believe me: I've slowly but surely been making changes to my own humble office, and with each adjustment, I've noticed more productivity and less time wasted (unintentionally, at least -- my midday YouTube-browsing habit shows no signs of subsiding).
The best part: It doesn't take much to do a workstation tune-up. Here are five simple tips to get you started.
1. Take a comfortable seat -- then get out of it.
The hot trend du jour is ditching your chair and turning your workstation into a standing-room-only experience. But while standing all day might burn more calories, it's not going to help you get more done, according to Dr. Alan Hedge, director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University.
Sitting is more conducive to productivity, Hedge says -- it uses 20% less energy and allows you to type and mouse more effectively -- but that doesn't mean you should park your busy buns all day. Just ask the folks from NASA.
"We haven't evolved to sit or stand all day," says Dr. Joan Vernikos, a former director of NASA's Life Sciences Division who researched the effects of gravity on the body while working at the space agency. In her book Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, Vernikos argues that regular movement is the real solution.
"What's important is the change in position," she says. "We need to routinely be moving, and we need to be moving every little part of us."
Vernikos and Hedge both recommend finding a comfortable chair and desk setup (make sure the chair is adjustable and offers good lower-back support), and then standing and moving regularly throughout your day. Hedge suggests a quick two- to three-minute stretching break every 20 minutes, and then a longer break once an hour, in which you actually walk around and do something different.
