This is re-posted with permission from the Consulting mailing list, posted by Benjamin Maurice of Agaric Design.
First, to everybody out there: once you get RSI, the first thing you learn is the best way to get rid of it is to not get it in the first place . Follow proper typing practices (good posture, hands more or less at a right angle, get an ergonomic keyboard and mouse now). Some people go so far as to say that once you have RSI all you can do is manage it, not cure it, and while I'm not sure of that, preventing it is definitely the best idea.
Now for Mark and others of you who have it: I've used the Dvorak layout for years, and gave myself a repetitive stress injury anyway. Actually, the best way to avoid RSI is to not know how to touch type, so I can blame the Dvorak layout for learning how to touch type. Other than that, your fingers move less so it might help, but faster so it might hurt. I advocate Dvorak but I wouldn'tcall it an RSI cure.
The best affordable ergonomic keyboard I could find quickly was Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic 4000. I hear some people swear by an older MS ergonomic keyboard that isn't made anymore, but is available and very durable.
As for the new one, Microsoft screwed me on the rebate (sent in the UPC and everything and they gave me maybe $5 for a mouse I did not buy instead of $20 for the keyboard), and now it mostly doesn't work. If the weather is at all humid, typing V causes V2 and typing A opens a new browser window. Not a happy customer, just one with yet another reason to hate Microsoft. Love to hear if others know of better keyboards.
My strongest recommendation is buy the 3M Ergonomic Mouse.
My RSI is under control, but mostly I'm back to typing directly on a 12-inch iBook with trackpad, and terrible posture, and can't explain why I'm no longer freaked out about not being able to type anymore, except perhaps that I'm stupid and have a high pain tolerance.
Editor: Benjamin mentions http://fentek-ind.com/ as a good place to look for ergonomic products. There are many other good comments in the Consulting list mail archive on this topic.
Comments
best defense: regular breaks
all the ergonomics in the world won't help you if you sit at your computer and hack away, uninterrupted, for hours on end. as both a musician and computer scientist, i've been putting a lot of strain on my hands and wrists for many years. when i got to a period of fairly scary RSI woes, i researched everything i could on the topic. acupuncture actually help me a lot, and i can recommend it as something to try (not everyone responds to it the same way). i got a great chair, better keyboard, stopped using the shift key, all sorts of stuff.
however, i think the thing that most helped was when i installed xwrits (back when X11 was my UI), a little program that you configured to force yourself to take short breaks from typing every N minutes. just stopping, getting out of your chair, walking around a little bit, whatever, for say, 1 or 2 minutes every 15 minutes of hacking, is the key to keeping your body working for the long haul.
i haven't found a suitable replacement for my mac, but the good habit of regular short breaks was ingrained enough that i'm mostly doing ok without it. however, i'm starting to feel my old habits coming back, and i'm looking into some software for this again.
the other really essential, non-intuitive element to good typing ergonomics is drinking heavily -- water, that is. most computer folks i know spend their whole day drinking caffinee, and then switching to alcohol at some point. if your body isn't well hydrated (no, green tea doesn't count -- i mean water, and lots of it), your joints and tendons don't have the water they need to function properly. it's the water in cartiledge that makes it a lubricant for your bones. plus, your body needs water to repair the every-day, small-scale wear and tear that your joints suffer. if you're like the vast majority of people i know, you're chronically dehydrated -- therefore, your joints aren't naturally lubricated in the first place, and your body can't repair the damage as it's coming.
side benefit of drinking lots of water all day -- it forces you to get up and go to the bathroom more frequently, helping with solution #1 above. ;)
good luck, everyone!
-derek
p.s. boris -- great job posting this on the front page. i hope more people see it and share their ideas and solutions.
also good...
tablets... from wacom or a tablet pc hybrid notebook like my sexy new toshiba tecra m7 duo.....
and...
the frogpad one handed keyboard
makes an excellent combination to change your posture...
Always happy to promote good material
Check the thread on the consulting list for more great stuff. I think there were several Mac programs mentioned.
I really want to get OG2List on here so we can make more of it easily web visible.
TimeOut: OSX break reminders
I've been using TimeOut (http://www.dejal.com/timeout/) on my mac to manage my breaks. Not the flashiest of apps, but it does the job.
Anyone found any good voice recognition software for the mac? I'd like to cut down my keystrokes by dictating less essential stuff (emails, drupal posts, you get the picture).
-M