Classic Hacks: Make Sure Your Keyboard Is Set Up Ergonomically

Everyone who works in an office is constantly having to think about their posture and workplace — is your chair adjusted properly? Your screen at the right height? Everything you need within reach? As it turns out, even your keyboard could be in the wrong position for ergonomic perfection.

We first posted about this in 2013, but here’s a timely reminder. Look down at your keyboard. Are the feet up? Good. Put them down. Having a flat keyboard is far better for your wrists, even though it may feel a little bit odd to begin with.

The only reason for anyone to flip their keyboards up is if they need to look at the keyboard to type. This is from a blog post from a keyboard maker:

First of all, it is important to distinguish between people who can type ‘blind’ and people who cannot (who use two fingers).
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The advantage of extended Feet for non-‘blind’ typers is that they can see the keys more easily. There are no disadvantages of extended Feet for them.
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But things are different for people who can type blind, as they do not look at the keyboard while typing. The Feet do not therefore need to be extended. In fact, extending the Feet can put one’s wrists at risk if they are angled back too far. For this reason, blind typers can best keep the Feet retracted and use a relatively thin keyboard. Various studies even have demonstrated a beneficial effect when angling the keyboard away from the user (with a negative incline).

Lifehacker’s Classic Hacks is a regular segment where we dig up the most popular, useful and offbeat advice from our archives and update it for your modern lifestyle.


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