[HN Gopher] My favourite computer ergonomics hack
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My favourite computer ergonomics hack
Author : vortex_ape
Score : 221 points
Date : 2025-01-01 20:39 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.jacobvosmaer.nl)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.jacobvosmaer.nl)
| plagiarist wrote:
| This is neat. Simple but smart.
|
| I have been thinking of something similar: I'd like a wearable
| that haptic taps me once every 10 or 15 minutes. Then I would
| check with myself if I am doing something that's actually
| interesting to me or just idling away.
|
| I keep considering smart watches but if the goal is to prevent me
| from wasting time those could be counter-productive. Also I am
| sick of having products that require their specific charging
| dock.
| Groxx wrote:
| If you're interested in a fairly simple, fairly programmable,
| and long-lasting option: https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2
| it's the only watch that hasn't been a distraction or (too much
| of an[1]) annoyance for me.
|
| You could probably build your own "start/stop a motion-
| sensitive reminder" app in a couple hours, though fine tuning
| it will likely take some time.
|
| I regularly get a full week of battery out of it, and it uses a
| standard magnetic watch charger. The vibration motor is a bit
| weak though, and personally I rapidly grow to not notice
| frequent haptics so I can't use it for this kind of thing. But
| apparently watch-vibrations work for many.
|
| [1]: it certainly has some annoying quirks and minor frictions,
| but they irk me far less than the quirks/etc in other watches
| I've tried. and I am MORE than willing to put up with it for
| the battery life and daylight-readable screen - I'm downright
| happy with it, and have returned every other watch I've tried
| in the past couple years.
| vinni2 wrote:
| Apple watch already does that.
| mr-waterbottle wrote:
| Neat! I've thought of trying something similar, but fear I might
| just unplug it for those sessions where I feel really locked in
| and don't want to get up.
| lbotos wrote:
| Jacob is the best! So glad to see him on HN <3 My favorite line:
| "[I want to] thank my wife for pointing out to me that I sit
| still too much and for putting up with the horrible screeching
| noises from the Beeper for the past 8 years and counting.
| hndc wrote:
| This is one of the better applications of an Apple Watch, which
| will detect when you haven't stood for a while and pester you to
| do so.
|
| Of course, the watch comes with a giant bundle of other features
| that may or may not be desired. And building it yourself is so
| much cooler.
| cdaringe wrote:
| Which did you build yourself
| Groxx wrote:
| > _... because it is situated away from my desk I must get up to
| silence it._
|
| Yeah, that's probably what I need too. An elegant self-hack.
|
| I think I'll try it with a kitchen timer instead, but I can
| certainly appreciate the ability to fine-tune it for self-
| annoyance only at the correct times.
| anticorporate wrote:
| This sounds like the kind of thing I would put a cheap z-wave
| plug on so I could turn it off remotely with Home Assistant,
| completely defeating its purpose.
| memalign wrote:
| My solution for sitting too long: every time I get up, I drink a
| glass of water. That ensures I have to get up again! It's a self-
| reinforcing loop too.
| dark__paladin wrote:
| Tight fitting pants + a belt is a sure-fire "stand goal" hack
| if you drink a lot of water.
| kylebenzle wrote:
| Can you explain this?
| taneq wrote:
| What goes in must come out. :P If you drink a glass of
| water every time you pee, then you're gonna need to pee
| again relatively soon. The belt just limits how much room
| you have in the tank.
| rickydroll wrote:
| A belt also helps you detect weight change faster than
| any other method. It works so well that I wear sweats.
| regularfry wrote:
| Someone, I forget who (Kent Beck, maybe?) refers to this as the
| peemodoro technique.
| radley wrote:
| I use a custom pomodoro timer. Instead of taking a break every 25
| minutes, I do it hourly. During my break, I take off my glasses,
| walk around, stretch, handle small chores and tasks, etc.
| Temporary_31337 wrote:
| I pretty much got out of programming because sitting for too long
| resulted in me having serious spine problems culminating in
| surgery. Not sitting long enough means I rarely get into the
| ,zone'. I'm glad others have figured it out better
| layer8 wrote:
| Standing desks can solve that problem. Some have built-in
| timers reminding you to switch between sitting and standing.
| After getting used to it, you start reacting automatically and
| it barely breaks your flow anymore.
| npoc wrote:
| After using a standing desk for months, I developed hip pain
| that I haven't recovered from 2 years later. Maybe just a
| coincidence, but I don't think our bodies like standing in
| one place any better than sitting - in fact it could be even
| worse. Motion is lotion.
| nemomarx wrote:
| you definitely don't want to stand the whole time at least
| - teachers and cashier's who go a whole shift standing have
| issues with joint pain and I think it's bad on the ankles?
| vunderba wrote:
| sorry to hear that. I think the consensus is that neither
| standing / sitting for long amounts of time is preferable -
| avoid static positions.
|
| For me a standing desk decreases "friction" to move around.
| I find myself bouncing from foot to foot, pacing back and
| forth, etc.
|
| A chair OTOH makes it too easy to be motionless for longer
| period of time.
|
| That being said, an electric standing desk makes it easy to
| swap between sitting / standing.
| snk wrote:
| Sitting on a Swiss ball hurts me less than a chair. For the
| first few days it even enforced perfect posture, but that
| effect went away pretty quickly.
| d0mine wrote:
| The best pose is the next pose.
| Wistar wrote:
| Recent research from a West Virginia University
| epidemiologist is headlined as "New Research Reveals That
| Standing Desks Could Actually Be Harming Your Health."
|
| https://scitechdaily.com/new-research-reveals-that-
| standing-...
| esperent wrote:
| You can find a bullshit study "proving" pretty much
| anything. Makes great headlines but not so great science.
|
| All this study proved is that you need to actually move,
| switching between standing and sitting is useful because it
| breaks the habit about staying in one static position for a
| long time. The bit about standing being harmful is
| especially contrived and basically says if you entirely
| switch from sitting to standing, but don't move from the
| standing position for many hours, and repeat this every
| day, that's harmful. Well no shit. You gotta alternate your
| position, and you have to balance sitting and standing with
| actual exercise too.
| Wistar wrote:
| Which is why I wrote, "... is headlined as..." although I
| thought it still worth posting.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Did you try getting a good (=expensive) mesh chair? (Not an
| "ergonomic" chair; those suck.)
|
| I have a HM Mira and it makes such a huge difference I'm
| actually a bit sceptical of the "sitting for too long is bad"
| thing - sitting in a average chair maybe.
| Suppafly wrote:
| I don't particularly like the Mirra (the plastic backs always
| seem to eventually start cracking), but it does make it
| possible to sit for a long time.
| IshKebab wrote:
| They do it with a mesh back too. Slightly more expensive
| but significantly better.
| grahamj wrote:
| Brilliant! Now you just need to hook up a Switchbot or something
| to it so you can deactivate it remotely. Say, from your desktop.
| BlueTemplar wrote:
| Nice, I was already considering to get a pull-up bar, now I will
| think about adding a smart beeper to it... (with a camera
| detecting a face in the up position ??)
| msp26 wrote:
| Definitely buy a pull up bar, it's one of the best purchases
| I've made. Pull ups and chin ups are fun exercises and they
| make your back feel REALLY good.
| __mharrison__ wrote:
| My solution is a bottle with something pleasing to drink.
|
| Modern vacuum containers make cold and hot beverages almost
| constantly available which makes me get up quite frequently.
| theendisney wrote:
| Long ago i wrote a thing that gives you a textbox to explain what
| you were doing and a countdown enforcing a break.
|
| It is funny to read later what you did.(as oppose to what you
| wanted to get done and what you should have)
| jrmg wrote:
| I love this idea. I used break enforcing software for a long
| time, but got into a routine of just pressing the 'snooze'
| button in order to avoid the break if I was into something. I
| feel the text box idea might've helped avoid that.
| petesergeant wrote:
| The only thing that was effective for my RSI -- and was really
| effective -- is an app that forces me to stop typing for 15
| seconds every 4 minutes. Super irritating but it works. AntiRSI
| on a Mac, Workrave on Windows and Linux, are examples of ones
| I've used. Been doing this for 20-odd years at this point.
| JSR_FDED wrote:
| Switching to Vim cured my RSI completely. I was thinking that
| coding might no longer be my occupation, but thanks to Vim I'm
| still working 10+ years later!
| petesergeant wrote:
| interestingly I was all-in on Vim when it was at its worst!
| REDS1736 wrote:
| Maybe your keyboard was a contributing factor? I had wrist
| pain typing in vim on a "regular" (Keychron C1) Keyboard.
| The wrist pain is gone since i use a split keyboard
| (Ergodox EZ) which allows me to rotate both halves of the
| keyboard in order to match the "incoming angle" of my
| forearm which removes the need to constantly bend my wrists
| outwards.
| Lio wrote:
| I switched to Colemak keyboard layout for RSI reasons.
|
| I don't think I got any faster at typing but my wrist pain went
| away and hasn't really come back in the 16 years since.
| worik wrote:
| Back in the day, when smokers were not hiding their habit, and I
| worked in an office, I would adopt a smoker
|
| Every time they went to have a cigarette I would go out with them
|
| I do not think that would work these days, in my culture.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| This is an inspiring article for the DIY enthusiast in me.
|
| I've found a simplified approach that works for me. For anything
| that I do, I use a timer (on the Watch, Kitchen Timer, etc.), as
| I don't want to use my brain to track time.
|
| While I'm at my desk, I have a physical hourglass, and I like it.
| The hourglass helps me with a Pomodoro-ish technique without that
| hard and loud stop alarms. It reminds me of the passage of the
| sands of time but gives me the freedom to break or push a tad
| more to finish the task at hand. I love having a few types of
| mechanical Kitchen Timers lying around.
|
| https://brajeshwar.com/2023/timer/
| psanchez wrote:
| I bought a treadmill + standup desk 2.5 years ago, and to this
| day, it remains the best investment I've made to avoid sitting
| for most of the day.
|
| Before I started using the treadmill desk, I averaged around
| 2.5-3k steps per day. On days when I exercised, it could go up to
| 8-10k steps, although I wasn't exercising regularly at that time.
| Now, 2.5 years later, I consistently reach 10k-12k steps on a bad
| day (about 2 hours of walking) and can go up to 18-24k steps on a
| good day (3-4 hours). Occasionally, I hit 30k steps, but that's
| quite rare, to be honest.
|
| I was hesitant about the idea, but a friend who got one himself
| and shared his experience encouraged me to give it a try.
|
| Pros:
|
| - Feels more natural than just standing on the desk (after 20 min
| I get tired of standing still, whereas I can walk 2h without even
| realizing)
|
| - I can work comfortably with the computer when typing, using the
| mouse (programming, writing... and even playing games), at speeds
| up to ~4.5km/h (~2.8 miles per hour). Beyond that the thoughts
| don't flow in the same way. Below this threshold I don't notice
| much difference in my work. I initially found 3 km/h (~1.8 mph)
| fast enough, but over time, 4 km/h (~2.5 mph) has become my sweet
| spot.
|
| - You can enter a flow state just as easily as when seated (or at
| least that's my feeling)
|
| Cons:
|
| - Space: The treadmill takes up room, so I keep it next to my
| desk when not in use for convenience. Setting up the treadmill
| desk takes around 1 minute.
|
| - Meetings: It felt awkward at first. Initially, I avoided
| attending meetings while walking, but I gradually started
| participating in 1:1s and eventually team meetings. Nowadays, I'm
| comfortable walking during most meetings, although I avoid it
| during large group or company-wide calls. My webcam is positioned
| to show only my shoulders and face, minimizing visible movement
| and reducing distractions for others during calls (probably the
| others won't care anyway).
|
| - Limited Upper Body Movement: The upper body remains relatively
| still since my hands are usually on the keyboard or mouse. This
| limits overall activity compared to walking outside. However,
| when reading, my arms and hands move off the desk, mimicking the
| motion of walking, so it really depends.
|
| - Noise: I live in a flat, and while the treadmill isn't very
| noisy, it could be bothersome if people are sleeping (whether in
| the next room or in the floor below). I avoid using it early in
| the morning or late in the evening.
|
| My treadmill automatically beeps after 2 hours and shuts off for
| 30 minutes. It does force me to take a break (or even take a
| shower depending on the speed I was walking). After the break, I
| switch to a seated position. I typically have one walking session
| in the morning, and on some days, another in the afternoon. When
| it beeps and I'm in the zone I just move it aside and continue
| seated (sometimes I just continue standing still for some
| minutes), so it does not get in the way if you are focused.
|
| Overall I think it is an improvement over staying still for most
| of the day (seated or standing), and also an improvement over
| forcing regular/spaced interruptions (I honestly tried several
| times, but it breaks my concentration and prevents me from going
| into the zone). Standing desk + treadmill: Totally worth the
| investment.
| fdb wrote:
| Which treadmill do you have?
| psanchez wrote:
| WalkingPad R1 Pro. I thought the ability to run would be a
| plus, but honestly, I've only used it for running twice (I'd
| rather run outdoors than stare at a wall, tv or computer).
|
| KingSmith walking pads can be folded and take less space. R1
| can also be stored vertically, but I always keep it
| horizontally for convenience.
|
| If I had to buy one treadmill again, I would chose either a
| regular model or a cheaper foldable model. I would probably
| lean towards a smaller and cheaper regular model since I
| believe 40cm x 80cm (16in x 32in) is enough to walk and is
| not that big.
| voidUpdate wrote:
| I've been considering getting something like that at home,
| because I've found I can walk at a steady pace outside for
| ages, and it would probably help me get a little bit of
| exercise as well, but I also don't have a standing desk and I
| feel bad about making noise when it's late since my flat has
| very thin walls :/
| psanchez wrote:
| If you choose a manual or motorized standing desk with
| adjustable height (like the one I use), you can easily move
| the treadmill to the side when you're not walking and switch
| to working while seated.
|
| I mean, you need to have the space to put the treadmill on
| the side, but other than that you'll have the flexibility to
| choose between walking and sitting as needed.
| voidUpdate wrote:
| That might be an option tbh, I have been needing another
| desk for non-computer work, so I could just swap them over.
| Do you have any recommendations for a desk? Is this HN
| Comment sponsored by flexispot? :P
| psanchez wrote:
| Just sharing my own experience :D
|
| I have an "old" ikea model that is not sold anymore, but
| the equivalent would be something like this one:
| https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rodulf-desk-sit-stand-gray-
| whit...
|
| You can also buy the legs and use your own table
| (slightly cheaper) https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rodulf-
| underframe-sit-stand-f-t...
|
| Again, the advantage is the ability to adjust the height,
| so you can work either seated, standing or walking if you
| also have a treadmill.
| voidUpdate wrote:
| Thanks, I'll probably look into getting that, since most
| of the rest of my flat is ikea
| psanchez wrote:
| One more thing I forgot to mention on the "Con" side is the
| noise.
|
| Treadmills aren't completely silent; there's always some level
| of sound from the engine. Over time, you tend to get used to
| it. Personally, I wear regular headphones to listen to music,
| which helps mask the noise.
| abound wrote:
| Seconding the treadmill desk (if one's situation allows). My
| previous job had one for communal use, and once I started
| working remotely, I picked up the same model (LifeSpan
| TR1200-DT5) on Craigslist.
|
| I get in between 2 and 10 miles depending on the day, and have
| a little drafting chair that's intentionally pretty mediocre to
| encourage walking instead.
|
| I find the idea of intentionally interrupting myself every 20
| minutes kinda insane, seems like it would preclude getting
| "deep" work done.
| astrodude wrote:
| with a Mac and iPhone, you can probably achieve the same thing
| without any additional hardware
| missing-acumen wrote:
| Stretching when I wake up, doing yoga and/or swimming and/or
| lifting has done a lot for me.
|
| Time spent on it varies between 2h (very lazy week) and 10h (very
| active week).
|
| I feel like this helped me prevent a lot of the symptoms
| described both in the writeup and comments.
| nxobject wrote:
| Another random hack-habit with a very minor effect: standing up
| without using your arms, and your core instead. It's not a
| substitute for exercise, but it does loosen my core afterwards.
| cdaringe wrote:
| Will attempt. Thanks for the suggestion
| zvr wrote:
| Am I the only one who does not understand how the script on the
| Mac side works? I don't use a Mac and I don't know how "macOS
| LaunchAgent" operates, so I may be missing some details. But the
| code presented in the post seems to only check about the state at
| the 20-minute mark after execution. If the script is fired at
| 00:00, I take a break at 00:15, return at 00:19, it will still
| buzz at 00:20.
|
| I assume LaunchAgent restarts the script after it exits, so it is
| essentially a check that a person has locked the laptop at 20,
| 40, 60, 80, ... minutes after the initial start of the script,
| regardless of what other breaks take place.
| whalesalad wrote:
| > When I get focused on my work then I sit still for too long and
| my body starts hurting.
|
| I wish I had this problem. Lately it is the opposite. I break
| focus every 20-30 minutes to go get a beverage, take a pee, tend
| to the dog, etc.
| tmcdos wrote:
| I decided to buy a HARA-chair instead. It's certainly more
| expensive than the glasses with water but I believe this chair is
| also better for my butt than just the water and still sitting in
| a regular chair between the get-ups.
| buildsjets wrote:
| My company has forced RSIGuard software on us, with unchangeable
| break timing and annoying pop-ups that you cannot disable for
| presentations, etc.
|
| It's detestable and only done so The Company has a plausible
| defense against lawsuits while continuing to only supply only the
| crappiest Fischer-Price grade Dell peripherals that get thrown in
| the box for free.
|
| https://www.cority.com/home-ergo/
| amelius wrote:
| Sounds a bit like that alarm clock on wheels.
|
| https://clocky.com/
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(page generated 2025-01-02 23:02 UTC)