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This weekend I'm relocating my office, and decided to try something different. The monitor is now to my right, six inches above the actual deck surface. My desk now only has a calendar, keyboard, mouse, partially eaten pizza. It's going to be hard to get over that pizza to stick my face in the screen again. It's also taking a little adjustment, sometimes I like to watch what I type since I'm not a great typist.
My question to you all is.. how is your desk configured? Have you changed anything to help break bad habits, and has it worked? (Three questions, I know. Don't stress it.)
Mine is probably the worst. :-( I exist in the Third World Country of computer ergonomics.
In a space less than 7 feet wide we have five monitors, four of those are dualies for two stations with the secondary monitor to the right. The one on my station is actually mounted to the wall on my right to conserve space. Below that is a 2' X 2' shelf below elbow level, it has folding brackets so it can be folded down to allow access to the printer stock and other goodies under the desk. This shelf sometimes serves as desk space but more often than not serves as a virtual pounding table - call it a "frustration drum" - that diverts violent outbursts from the more expensive monitors. Interestingly enough, the tremors from these episodes often serve to clear off a little more desk space as things fall off and get kicked under the desk.
The fifth monitor is a Mac G3 to the left of station #2. My cheapo particle board desk has an under-the-desk tray, the other desk is a V-shaped corner unit with a keyboard tray. Zero desk space across the board, and what space there is is covered with camera, scanner, router, Wacom tablet, disks, manuals, reference material, notes, scratch pads, volumes of CD stacks, and other indispensible flotsam and jetsam. The networked printer is on a shelf directly over my monitor.
The only semblance of order is actually out of sight behind the two computers wired into this mess - three surge protectors are neatly strapped to the wall and plugged into a UPS. The cabling is all neatly zip tied into place, and if anything ever breaks down I think it's going to be easier to just sell the house than extricate the offending hardware.
We have one saving grace, two very comfortable rolling chairs we picked up at staples which provide agressive lower back support. OK one saving grace each.
But in all this - we still manage to position with eyes level to the main monitor, back as straight as possible. :-D
All order rises from chaos, does it not? Eight months more and the last little birdie flies from the nest, WOO HOO we can fumigate her room, expel all the new species of rodentia and insects that have been spawning there for 18 years, and expand our work areas. :-)
