Look away from the computer
Why?
This will help to give your eye muscles a break and increase how much you blink.
What?
The College of Optometrists10 has these top tips to keep your eyes healthy in front of a screen:
- Make sure that if you need spectacles to look at a screen, you wear them
- Blink regularly
- Remember the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds
- One way to achieve this is to look away from the screen when performing littleNudge's reminders
- Tilt the top of the monitor away from you at a 10- to 20-degree angle. This will enable you to create an optimum viewing angle
- Keep your screen free of dust and fingerprints
- Try and position you monitor so that you do not get distracting reflections (e.g. from a window)
- If your work involves prolonged data entry, use document holders to secure any reading or reference material.
- Use a character size that is visible. This is important as it determines the distance at which you prefer to view the monitor
Related videos
LittleNudge’s movement reminders
The three most important things to remember are that movement should be:
- simple
- frequent
- comfortable
- and even better... if its fun!
The length of time you do the exercises for is up to you. As long as it is comfortable during and after the movement; the more movement the better.
If you are new to doing these movements, it is worth starting with a small number of repetitions (eg.5) and slowly increasing over time.
When stretching, hold positions briefly in a comfortable position. You can risk injury if you hold long or painful positions, especially if you are not warmed up.
There are lots of reasons to do these movements. The main purposes are to:
- boost circulation to areas where blood flow becomes more restricted as a result of sitting (eg. the buttock muscles)
- give you a brief break from computer work
- relieve tension and warm up your muscles
- release pressure on those more compressed parts of your body (eg. the discs of the spine)
If you can find ways to make the exercises fun.. even better!
You can adapt and add your own exercises to those provided (ensure they are comfortable..) Please send us any video exercises you like to do in your office and we will post the best ones on our blog.
We would love to hear your ideas so please send us videos of exercises you like to do in your office and we will post the best ones on our blog.