1. Give your monitor a second look.
If your screen is planted directly on your desktop, it’s time to
ask management for a raise — for your computer’s display. According to Dr. Jim
Sheedy, director of the Vision Performance Institute at Pacific University, the
top of your the screen should be level with your eyes. The ideas is to get the
eyes looking down about 10 degrees. If it’s any lower or higher, computer users
will adapt to it by moving their head. If your screen is to low, your head
points down, causing neck and back aches. High displays, meanwhile, contribute
to dry eye syndrome.
2. Poor posture? Take it on the chin.
Poor posture is something that every office-based employee should
consider throughout their day. Most people sitting at a computer get drawn into
the screen, which means they crane their necks forward. This imbalance puts
strain on the neck and spine. It’s like holding a bowling ball with one hand,
says Dr. James Bowman, of Portland, Ore.-based Solutions Chiropractic. If your
arm is vertical underneath, it puts less strain on the muscles, but lean that
ball forward and your muscles have to compensate to keep it aloft. Sitting at a
desk, that bowling ball is actually our head, so Bowman recommends chin
retractions, or making a double chin, to keep the neck and spine lined up underneath.
“It’s probably the most effective single exercise you can do for
the upper back and neck,” he says.
3. Stand up for yourself.
The modern workplace was built around the concept of sitting, but
humans’ ability to stand goes back millions of years. Buck the trend of the
office era with a standing desk — or, if that’s too radical, a sit-stand
workstation. According to research out of the University of
Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic, sit-stand workstations helped workers replace 25
percent of their sitting time with standing up, which can increase their sense
of well being and decreased their fatigue and appetite. The Jarvis Desk
can go from 26-inches to 51-inches at the push of a button, lifting up to 350
pounds of whatever’s on your desk—including multiple monitors.
“I definitely feel healthier standing while working as it causes me
to be more focused on my posture and ‘hold’ myself better in terms of my
stomach and shoulders especially,” says Dan McCormack, who uses a Jarvis Desk
at his home office in Austin, Texas.
4. Move it or lose it.
But why stand when you could walk? Many offices around the country
are getting wise to treadmill desks, which can help workers burn 100 calories
more per hour over sitting, according to a study by the National Institutes of
Health.
“The most important thing is to switch it up and work in different
positions throughout the day,” says Emily Couey, Eventbrite’s vice president of
people. The online event ticketing service offers multiple workspace options
including traditional sitting desks, standing desks, and treadmill desks, which
Couey says “people love, because it allows them move while they work —
especially those with fitness trackers counting their daily steps.”
5. Pace yourself.
All work and no play makes Jack a bad employee. Whether it’s on
their phone in the bathroom or on the computer in their cube, everyone takes
sanity breaks to check their Facebook or read some news. The Pomodoro Technique
even encourages this kind of behavior by breaking tasks into “pomodoros,”
intense 25 minute work bursts, followed by five-minute breaks.
Named
because they can be measured using little tomato-shaped kitchen timers
(Pomodoro is Italian for tomato), this method lets people work intensely and
stave off distraction, yet rewards them with time to goof off, as well. If you
don’t have a tomato timer handy, there are a lot of apps online to keep track
of your sessions. But Francesco Cirillo, the technique’s founder, recommends
using the real deal. 
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