A large percentage of us spend most of our working hours sitting at a desk. When you add in time spent commuting, sitting down to eat and any time watching television we spend most of our waking hours sitting.
While the best solution would be to get up and be more active, that is unrealistic for many for a large portion of their day. Therefore it is imperative that we make sure that we are sitting as efficiently as possible to minimize the stress on our bodies. The diagram below demonstrates the key aspects of proper sitting posture.
Standing workstations do offer some advantages but you should still use the same tips on monitor position,
shoulder and arm position. If your workplace offers ergonomic evaluations of your workstation you should definitely take advantage of that to be sure things are set up best for your individual height and the tasks required of you.
Introducing some movement throughout the days is also beneficial. You could have timers set to remind you to to get up and take a walk or do some stretches. Or sent print jobs to a printer down the hall rather than the one on your desk. The few minutes lost to getting up and moving around will be more than made up for by improved focus and concentration due to these “mini breaks”.
