5 Actionable Tips for Maintaining a Good Posture While Working Remotely
Extended periods of working from home means more opportunities for bad posture. Here are a few tips to improve your posture while you are working out of the office.
Due to the pandemic, poor posture has become a common problem for today’s remote workers. While there are many benefits to the remote working lifestyle, posture is not one of them. But don’t worry - it doesn’t have to stay this way! Here are five actionable tips for maintaining good posture while working remotely.
Make Sure You Are Sitting Comfortably
When you work in an office, your desk setup is taken care of for you and you’re more aware of your posture since you’re in a visible workspace. When most people start working remotely, they begin slouching the way they would at home in front of the television. At some point, “getting comfortable” actually becomes a very uncomfortable situation.
For the best ergonomics, you want to be sitting with your feet flat on the floor in front of you with your computer screen at eye level. This will naturally encourage you to sit up straight. Generally, when we think of sitting comfortably, we imagine lounge chairs. However, this pulls on the body. When we really sit in a way that feels relaxed, we’re in an ergonomic position that works with our body’s natural alignment.
Get Appropriate Furniture
To sit up straight and keep a great posture, you’re going to need appropriate furniture. However, that doesn’t have to mean expensive furniture. A simple wooden chair can be an ergonomic solution. That’s not always the best thing, though. Most of us would like a comfortable seat beneath us, especially if we’re working for many hours a day.
If your seat isn’t the most comfortable, that doesn’t mean you should turn to the sofa. Instead, look into options like cushions listed by MEC experts to better support your spine.
Using a laptop is great so you can work at cafes, coworking spaces, or simply in other parts of your home. However, keeping your laptop in your actual lap is terrible for your posture. Even at the table level, you will be looking down a lot. Instead, you have two options. Use a laptop stand to move your screen up to eye level. Or, find a couple books to place the laptop on, and then plug in a standard keyboard to put on the table surface.
Take Breaks
The Pomodoro Technique was originally designed for productivity. The basic structure of the Pomodoro Technique is 25 minutes of focus, with a 5 minute break, repeated 4 times. This gives the mind an opportunity to relax for five minutes and then dive back into a focused state.
Today, maybe people use the Pomodoro technique but on their own timed schedule. Some people find that they are best able to focus for 20 minutes or only 15. If you’re having a difficult time focusing for 25 minutes, don’t be afraid to start with a smaller time frame and build toward 25 minutes of focused work. You can practice this technique by setting a timer on your phone or computer yourself, or by downloading one of the many Pomodoro apps.
So what does this have to do with your posture? Everything! By taking regular brief breaks, you have an opportunity to do productive things for your health, like drink some water and reposition your body. If you’re in the habit of slouching, you’ll do it while you’re focused working without thinking. Every time your alarm goes off for your break, it’s an opportunity to readjust yourself and get to that correct posture. The more you do this, the more natural it will become until it is your regular habit.
Tuck Your Chin
Tucking your chin doesn’t mean bending forward and touching your chin to your chest. Instead, tucking your chin is an opportunity to stretch and strengthen the neck by moving your chin straight back. Sit with your feet flat on the floor, relax your shoulders, and then glide your chin backward while staring straight ahead. Hold this position for five seconds, release, and then repeat five times.
Normally, we tell people to pull their shoulders back. This is a simple cue dancers and military professionals use all the time for standing up straight. However, the chin tuck has been shown to be more effective for those working remotely. When you’re on your computer all day, you’re likely prone to hunching forward. This leads to what is sometimes known as nerd neck, or text neck, where the shoulders are rounded and the neck is usually bent.
By tucking the chin backward, you’re stretching the neck where this bend has become a habit. It cues your neck to stretch and strengthen, helping both the cervical spine and scalene muscles along the front sides of your neck.
Lie on Your Back and Breathe With Your Stomach
When we are standing up, or even sitting up, we are naturally balancing our body’s weight on our frames. That’s what our posture is all about. Instead of tipping from side to side, our balance naturally holds us steady. However, if you attempt to sit up perfectly straight and aren’t used to doing so, after ten seconds or so, you’ll start to wobble on your feet. Learning to hold good posture takes practice and strong core muscles.
You can work on this by using techniques like the Feldenkrais Method. There are many different approaches to this movement method, but the basic idea is to lie flat on your back, relax your muscles, and take deep breaths into your stomach. When you aren’t working so hard on holding your body’s frame up your muscles have the chance to learn what a straight, relaxed, and comfortable posture is for you.
People also work on yoga for improving their posture. Positions like downward dog, while basic, are great ways to stretch out the spine and build your core muscles.
Be patient and continue to implement these tips daily. While it won’t happen overnight, you’ll be surprised how soon you’ll notice your posture improves.
Artem Klimkin is a digital nomad that has lived in Spain, Russia, Indonesia, Germany, and Ireland. He is the guy behind Linkshero, a digital agency that helps grow traffic organically, and has recently been using his remote team’s power to build up an e-commerce store.