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Setting up your office

How you set up your office is not a trivial affair. It will affect your well-being and your productivity.

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Topic links:

basic compuer components

desks &  chairs

position, light & temperature

power & phone lines

more information

 

How you set up your office – the placement of equipment and furniture, the choice of office furnishings, lighting and so on – is not only important for your comfort. It also has a direct bearing on your efficiency, and that means it has an impact on your bottom line.

There are lots of things we take for granted when working in a typical office: a moderate to high level of background noise; fairly even, artificial lighting; and regulated temperatures and power.

Homes and small offices tend to be quieter than large offices; you may have direct sunlight throughout; it’s unlikely you have air conditioning and central heating (at least, if you live in Australia); and you’re likely to be connected to the outside through standard domestic power supplies and phone lines.

Those are all things you’ll need to address when setting up a home office or small office computer. Even before that, though, you should take into account your working environment when you purchase your computer system.

Basic computer components

When you’re buying a computer system, the last place to cut corners is on those items that you use to interact with the computer. Get a high-resolution, large monitor. Buy a good-quality mouse and keyboard, and replace the mouse as soon as it shows signs of becoming unresponsive.

Many people find the curved ‘ergonomic’-style keyboards popularised by Microsoft encourage better hand positions and are thus more comfortable to use, even if they take a little getting used to. Make sure you adjust the keyboard’s legs (flip it over and check up near the back edge) to improve the angle for typing.

If you get a traditional keyboard, consider purchasing a wrist rest to place in front of it. You can also buy mouse pads with built in wrist rests.

geekgirl.tip: The typist's keyboard

If you do a serious amount of typing and are not comfortable with the wavy, ergonomic style keyboards, consider splurging on one of Creative Vision Technologies’ keyboards. All the CVT keyboards are ultra high-quality keyboards with full mechanical keys, a beautiful feel, programmable keyboard (so you can assign shortcut macros or boilerplate text to keys), function keys along the top and sides, and construction fit for a lifetime’s use. I use the Avant Stellar, which costs $US189. Certainly not cheap, but if you spend all day on your keyboard, a worthwhile investment.

Desks and chairs

Beware the overused description ‘ergonomic’ when you’re buying a workstation or desk for your computer. For instance, many so-called ergonomic workstations feature pull-out keyboard drawers. These may be good for saving space, but unless they’re cleverly designed, they place your mouse and keyboard at different levels, which is definitely not the most comfortable solution. They also have a tendency to cut into the knee space in the desk well.

Make sure desks are deep enough to provide adequate distance between the front of the screen and your eyes (around 51 to 66 cms, 20"-26") with ample room for the keyboard and mouse pad.

Get an adjustable chair that provides good lumbar support and arm support. Set it up so that your feet are flat on the floor (get a foot rest if necessary), with thighs horizontal to the floor, forearms parallel to the keyboard, and wrists in a neutral position.

Position, light and temperature

Light: Set up your monitor to minimise glare. If possible, position it so that it is at right angles to windows. If you have no choice but to place the monitor so that a window is either directly behind you or directly behind the screen, put blinds on the window so you can cut the glare.

Every monitor comes with controls for adjusting contrast and brightness. Use these controls, making sure to adjust them so any margin around the screen is a solid black, rather than a lighter gray.

Clean your screen regularly.

Adjust the lighting so that it doesn’t create glare on the computer screen and provides ample light for your entire desk area.

Noise: While the noise of most disk drives and internal computer fans is hardly noticeable in the average office (or computer store), in a quiet home a noisy computer can be a real irritation. If possible, try to listen to your computer before you buy it.

Heating, cooling: Also, make sure you have adequate heating, cooling and ventilation. If you’re uncomfortable, then your computer is probably uncomfortable, too. Computers have recommended operating temperature ranges and if your environment falls outside those ranges, bad things can happen to your computer and its peripherals. Hard disks, in particular, are susceptible to overheating and modems have a tendency to go to sleep when it gets too cold.

Don’t stick heavy items on top of your computer and keep the rear clear to allow for air circulation.

Power and phone lines

In a large office, there’s usually some level of insulation from both the fluctuations of power supplies and the lurking dangers of phone lines. Somewhere in the background there’s usually some form of power conditioning or surge protection and a switchboard.

When you use a computer at home or in a small office, you need to pay close attention to both power and phone. These links with the outside world are susceptible to all sorts of natural and unnatural acts.

While the most obvious protection to take with power supplies is to have surge protection, lightning suppressors or even an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), cost and practicalities often make the latter options less than attractive.

There’s a wide range of power conditioners on the market, ranging from $20 surge protectors to systems costing thousands of dollars. A surge protector may stop you from losing data during a spike or brown out (transient power fluctuations), but it may be no use when more dramatic power fluctuations occur or during storms. Lightning protects may protect your computer from getting zapped, but many of them sacrifice themselves in the process. If you live in an area where summer thunderstorms occur daily for weeks on end, self-sacrificing protectors can eat up your budget.

If it’s vital you keep using your computer even during tempests, then you’ll need to fork out for adequate protection. If you are free to vary your working hours, you can take the other route: unplug everything and do the work (or play) later. And I do mean unplug. Turning your computer off is not enough–you need to disconnect it at the wall outlet as well.

Even then, you’re open to a system barbecue if you have a modem. Even more than power lines, the phone lines are susceptible during storms. If you have a modem or fax card, you can once again use a lightning suppressor–and there are those available which will protect both power supplies and phone lines–or you can unplug from both the power and the phone lines.

It’s worth noting that modem, computer and fax warranties are unlikely to cover you if you get fried in a thunderstorm. Your home contents or small business insurance probably will, but at the cost of your no-claim bonus.

More information

Check out the Office Setup Checklist on this site.

You can get more detailed information on office ergonomics at IBM’s Healthy Computing site. The site also includes information on exercises that can help you work longer in comfort and avoid injuries.

© 2002,  Rose Vines