When I switch to a new setup, I use wrist braces for a while, to feel how I might be unknowingly bending or stretching incorrectly. My first couple weeks with the Keyboardio I thought splitting the keyboard really far apart would be great, but progressively put them closer and closer until it got back to a “normal” split distance.
The key is understanding your wrists. Personally, I need to keep mine in a neutral position, and the worst thing I can do is bend them down, and I need to rest my wrists between typing bursts either with armrests or with the keyboard pushed in from the edge of the table 8-10 inches. (The pic shows the keyboard closer to the edge, but notice the room in front of the keyboard so I can push it in some.
I wrote the below to a coworker starting to experience RSI back in 2009. Now I’m much better and forget that I have a problem for months at a time.
Heavy use of Emacs and control keys that makes me bend fingers into weird positions make it worse. Writing and editing prose is worse than programming as it requires me to do more typing–things got really bad when I was writing my dissertation all day seven days a week. Using the mouse for long periods of time without breaks is bad. I’ve had to give up FPS games on the PC because there are no breaks. Bending my wrists down from neutral for long periods of time is worst.
From 2002 to 2009 I managed my injury with the following.
-
Lots and lots of Advil. Taking it as a preventative before I feel the pain is much better than taking it when I feel the pain as the inflammation is already there and then it takes longer to recover.
-
Learned the Dvorak layout. I’m a true touch-typist now and my fingers don’t work as much.
-
Became ambidextrous with my mouse. I’ve got two mouse-pads and the mouse switches between them throughout the day. I switch it over if my dominant hand starts to ache.
-
Wear the full-size RSI wrist braces at night. I noticed that I often rest my hands on my body in my sleep so the wrists bent downwards and would go numb. Sleep is the best time for healing and I was sabotaging my time to heal, and maybe even making things worse.
-
Always wear braces when typing or mousing. One doc pointed me at WrisTimer https://www.brownmed.com/product/imak-rsi/wristimer/ which work well, look cool, and doesn’t make me look like a cripple in the office like the standard ones do.
-
Use a typing-break timer and do stretches, get water, whatever, when it goes off. Don’t get in the habit of cheating.
-
Get an ergo keyboard.
-
Adjust the keyboard, monitor and desk so my wrist and arms are comfortable. The braces were also useful to let me know when your posture or finger reaches were too extreme. I think my natural habits are better now.
-
Do not use a laptop touchpad, or the laptop keyboard for more than an hour or so at a time. Get an external mouse and an external keyboard for any extended work. If I feel pinching, or itching, or soreness I’m asking for trouble if I push through it.
-
A side effect of changing jobs is that I don’t use Emacs much, and the new IDE (Visual Studio) lets me use the mouse more. I think using fewer hot-key combos helped me. I’ve been kind of afraid of learning too many hot keys as switching between mouse and keyboard seems to strike a good balance.