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Avoiding Hand Fatigue & Tendonitis Working On Computers
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | September 24, 2008
I take my computer interfaces serious because I’ve gone through periods of losing strength in my hands and fingers from overexertion and overuse. I’ve played piano full-time and used a computer full-time, two activities most likely to cause tendonitis.
A couple tips that I do:
1) I’m left-handed, and there’s a left-handed mouse that helped significantly over a “plain” mouse, worth getting for lefties.
2) Make sure the click functions on your mouse are a light touch… Multiply the effort it takes to click by thousands and it adds up.
3) I installed AutoHotkey (free open-source) and assigned left and right mouse clicks to keys on the keyboard. Sometimes I switch off, using the mouse to move the cursor, but using my other hand to trigger clicks. It helps spread the wear and tear.
There is other keystroke assignment software that’s easier to configure, the “lite” versions of some of the software available on download.com can do the trick as well.
4) Everyone’s different regarding the best keyboard to use… For me it’s the Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 6000, but you can’t go on other’s reviews, you have to try them yourself. It only has 3 stars on Amazon, which just goes to show that different people are looking for different things in a keyboard.
5) There are foot pedals to control mouse clicks. I’ve never used them myself, but for those with a serious problem it may help a lot. Try googling foot pedal mouse keystroke for options.
Trackballs didn’t work well for me, although they work well for others.
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