10 Hardware tips for computer power users
Your goals should be to save time, preserve your energy, and preserve your hands to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Open Outlook
- Create a new email
- start "typing" the recipients name
- delay
- Hit enter/tab (their name will be selected)
- hit tab 2 more times to get to the subject
- Paste
- Hit tab again to get into the body of the message
1. Buy a Stream Deck and use it
There is also an app so that you can use it on an iPhone or iPad (maybe android?). The software is excellent, and you can write macro sequences. I have dozens of these set ups and they save me so much time every day. For example, you can take whatever is in the clipboard and write a macro to send an email to a particular person.
Write 10 macros like this, and you wonder how you ever got along without it
2. Use multiple input devices: keyboards
I have a home office with things at different heights. I have two different keyboards plugged in at the same time so that if I'm standing I type on one if I'm sitting at the other. This is the same if you are turning left or right.
3. Use multiple input devices: Mice, TrackPads, etc
This way you can give your hands a rest, and also use the best tool for the job. For example, if you run multiple 4K monitors like I do moving the mouse from one screen to the other can take a while and overtime can be hard on your wrists. Are using more than one device. It gives your hands arrest. You could also use pointing devices in two hands at once.
For motions, like clicking, and dragging, which can really be painful on your hands, you can use two hands, and hold the button with one hand, and swipe with the other hand on a trackpad or trackball or second mouse.
4. Learn to use Trackballs
I resisted trackballs for years. I'm sorry I waited so long. They are great. I keep mine in the center and use "prayer hands." I can roll the ball with either hand and mapped the buttons to both sides. My wrists are in a neutral position.
5. Keep things still
Over the course of the day, you can lose a lot of energy by constantly readjusting your keyboard or laptop. Do something to stabilize them. This is a shameless plug for my product, but it works great for laptops:
https://www.amazon.com/Protect-Your-Laptop-Noscratching-Slipping/dp/B001LT2OAS
6. Buy the largest monitor(s) that you can fit in your space.
My main monitor is a 65 inch OLED mounted to the wall and I have 2 smaller 4k monitors. I keep the larger one at full resolution. 4K is a lot of text.
7. Buy a comfortable chair.
You will spend thousands of hours a year in this chair. Make sure it is comfortable. I bought a used Herman Miller Aeron chair that is currently about 20 years old, and it works perfectly.
8. Be able to stand while you work
This can either be with a standing desk, a desktop standing mount, or simply standing up while you're on a meeting. This will help with your health.
9. Buy a tempered glass chair mat
I bought one from Amazon (like I do with everything else). This is another small thing that adds up over time. The exceptionally hard glass surface makes your chair glide very smoothly. For a few minutes, you won't notice, but over the entire day, it saves a lot of energy.
10. buy a floor mat for standing on your glass mat
I thought it was pretty spendy at first:
https://www.amazon.com/Ergodriven-Not-Flat-Anti-Fatigue-Calculated-Must-Have/dp/B00V3TO9EK
This is excellent. It does everything that it says it will do and it is very comfortable. I am in bare feet most of the time (Florida). This does not seem like a big deal but standing on a glass mat is actually very tiring.
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