Using an ergonomic keyboard (I use a split keyboard, which also helps with back pain)
Avoiding typing while feeling cold (this means sometimes wearing a coat at my desk)
Wearing a wrist brace at night
Adjusting the height of my desk, and using a desk with sufficient depth so I can rest my forearms on it while typing
Using my phone with the other hand that isn’t affected
Generally trying to avoid straining movements with the affected hand (during cooking, etc.)
Things I’ve considered:
Learning touchtyping with the Dvorak layout (or some other alternative layout) – takes ~20h to learn, benefits seem disputed (academic research and lifehackers claim mixed results). Might look into if things don’t get better.
Using a foot pedal for clicking and modifier keys. Takes some time to learn and set up, though some seemed to like it a lot.
These mostly seem like good things to try. It might be worth experimenting with a number of different ergonomic devices to see which work best for you (which work best seems to be very individual, anecdotally).
Regarding wrist braces: it’s been a while since I looked into this, so I don’t have a reference to hand and you may be more up to date than I am, but my recollection is that these were recommended for carpal tunnel syndrome, but not for RSI. Fwiw, I would guess that only wearing it at night probably avoids the theorised harms of wearing one (forcing your wrist into unnatural positions and/or leading to weakening of the area) and may still have some benefits, but you’d probably want to look into it yourself (as you may already have done).
Using your other hand for your phone where necessary also seems like a good idea, but I’d be careful about relying on this too much, in case you just injure that hand more too. I think I also used the mistake of trying to use my phone rather than my computer for things too much, despite using my phone being pretty bad for my hands too. It might be worth seeing whether you find a different (e.g. smaller) phone more ergonomic too, since I find that stretching across a large phone can be a strain.
One thing that helped a lot for me was using a keyboard with thumb keys (especially replacing keys where I typically used my pinkies like backspace, enter, cmd/ctrl, and shift). Faster to learn than dvorak and imo a more effective intervention.
Some things I’ve tried and found mildly helpful:
Using an ergonomic keyboard (I use a split keyboard, which also helps with back pain)
Avoiding typing while feeling cold (this means sometimes wearing a coat at my desk)
Wearing a wrist brace at night
Adjusting the height of my desk, and using a desk with sufficient depth so I can rest my forearms on it while typing
Using my phone with the other hand that isn’t affected
Generally trying to avoid straining movements with the affected hand (during cooking, etc.)
Things I’ve considered:
Learning touchtyping with the Dvorak layout (or some other alternative layout) – takes ~20h to learn, benefits seem disputed (academic research and lifehackers claim mixed results). Might look into if things don’t get better.
Using a foot pedal for clicking and modifier keys. Takes some time to learn and set up, though some seemed to like it a lot.
These mostly seem like good things to try. It might be worth experimenting with a number of different ergonomic devices to see which work best for you (which work best seems to be very individual, anecdotally).
Regarding wrist braces: it’s been a while since I looked into this, so I don’t have a reference to hand and you may be more up to date than I am, but my recollection is that these were recommended for carpal tunnel syndrome, but not for RSI. Fwiw, I would guess that only wearing it at night probably avoids the theorised harms of wearing one (forcing your wrist into unnatural positions and/or leading to weakening of the area) and may still have some benefits, but you’d probably want to look into it yourself (as you may already have done).
Using your other hand for your phone where necessary also seems like a good idea, but I’d be careful about relying on this too much, in case you just injure that hand more too. I think I also used the mistake of trying to use my phone rather than my computer for things too much, despite using my phone being pretty bad for my hands too. It might be worth seeing whether you find a different (e.g. smaller) phone more ergonomic too, since I find that stretching across a large phone can be a strain.
Thank you! :)
One thing that helped a lot for me was using a keyboard with thumb keys (especially replacing keys where I typically used my pinkies like backspace, enter, cmd/ctrl, and shift). Faster to learn than dvorak and imo a more effective intervention.
I used an Ergodox EZ, there’s also Keyboardio, Kinesis, and others.
This feels like an area where our society is insane: our strongest, most dextrous fingers share A SINGLE KEY on the keyboard.