Welcome back to the thrilling conclusion of my journey to prepare my back with tech upgrades . Yes , I ’m still using theposture - trailing app , and themonitor arm upgradeis still a delicacy . But I want to go one stair further .
For comfort reasons , I require to drop my keyboard and mouse down a few more inches , and after raise the monitors up so I could drop the desk down , there was only one veridical root : I had to apply a keyboard tray .
It felt like a betrayal of mygorgeous standing deskto habituate some piece of simulated - carbon fiber charge plate clamp onto the butcher block , but you know what ? It definitely helps . Bonus points ? I have alotmore desk surface infinite now .
Chasing the perfect posture
As a relatively sedentary home office worker with hobbies that almost exclusively revolve around staring at a sieve , or down at a board or book , I ’ve had to take a keen interest in my strength over the eld . I ’m in a long warfare with back pain and , lately , I ’ve been losing . So . I ’ve been making some changes to my working setup , include lift up my monitor with a third - party arm , and it ’s great .
But honestly , balancing all these components to find the proper height for everything is a chore . While stand centered with the monitoring gadget , I ’m supposed to keep my eyeline a third of the agency down my main varan — but I ca n’t standtoostill , which is why I use a rock ‘n’ roll musician . But due to desk height , that means airlift my arm slightly to be at “ rest period ” for typecast and gambling .
I ’m miss in the skunk on this , and if I still have n’t managed to create a well-fixed and future - proof position in which to use my calculator regularly after everything I ’ve done so far . I ’m in trouble . So it ’s on to the next affair : A keyboard tray .
The right height for me
I ’m not sure if I ’m overly susceptible to back pain , am just short enough to come outside the norm for using a stand desk comfortably , or maybe this is a job everyone who sits and brook at desk struggles with . I know a smattering of fellow technical school writers who have that lightning pain in their articulatio humeri , or whose principal are for good jutted forward because we ’re all just list over our laptop computer too much .
Whatever the reason , the keyboard tray has put my keyboard and my shiner at a much more well-heeled height for me . Now , I stand on my rocker , with my monitors at eye grade , and my keyboard and computer mouse in a well-to-do , easy to reach position . My forearms are about parallel with the desk , just a few inches under it .
I do n’t find cool using it , though . It has some serious incarnate vibes that make me feel like I should have asked my manager if we have the budget for it . But sacrificing my condition as anultra cool tech journalistis worth it to guard off back pain . Even for a little while .
Look at all this space
While I might not be sure what to do with all the added space , it is nice to have . I have other hobbies I can enjoy on the same desk now without cause to move my keyboard and mouse out of the way every meter , which is nice . If I have a project I ’m working on where I want to take some handwritten tone , I now have the quad for that while still being within compass of my keyboard .
It ’s no major upgrade , but when I do n’t just clutter it up , all this negative space does feel slightly calming , too .
It goes well with wireless
If you ’re thinking about a keyboard tray for your desk , it ’s a immediate and well-fixed way to hide out your peripherals ’ wires . or else of them having to be route across the desk , you’re able to just run them under the Earth’s surface instead .
I did n’t get to enjoy that welfare because I interchange to a full wireless set up last year , with a Logitech G Pro Wireless black eye and G915 TKL keyboard . But that made the process of switching to using a keyboard tray exceedingly easy , and more various .
When in reality making the switch , I did n’t have to route any wires — make unnecessary for the one for the Powerplay mat — so it was as simple as pick up the keyboard and mouse from the desk , and putting them on the tray . It help with the changeover , too . In the first few day of using the tray , when it did n’t feel quite decent , I could just put the keyboard and/or mouse back on the desk and use them there for a while instead .
A fitting conclusion … I hope
With a unconstipated physical therapist , a new exercise regime , and a declaration to never return to the slouching days that stimulate so much back - touch discord for me , I ’m hoping that all my technical effort to improve my posture and ease will have a good long - term effect on my quality of life , whether I ’m function or play . While this is n’t some super - exciting conclusion , it feels apt to terminate this journey on rather a dull promissory note — I certainly would n’t need it to end with any kind of clap . My back could n’t take it .
But I do like my keyboard tray . I do n’t have sex whether it ’ll ever finger cool enough for me , but it ’ll have to do .
see after your backs masses . Or you might end up drop a line multipart articles about it . And I ’ve done enough of that for everyone .
