My 4 top tips for pacing laptop time

Setting up this website has, unsurprisingly, meant a lot of time on the laptop.

For me this risks aggravating 2 main issues:

1. Fatigue - from both concentration, and from sitting up and aggravating my #POTS symptoms.

2. Joint pain - due to my #Hypermobility, from positions that strain a particular joint, or from repeated movements (like typing, or mouse use)

   
   

To help manage these symptoms, I pace my laptop time using the following strategies:

(Note: these are what work for me, what works for you might be different, I'm just sharing these because they might help someone.)

1. My home desk is set up with a supportive chair, and a reasonable arm position (not perfect, but better than nothing).

2. Have my spare room set up so that I can work from lying down, with my joints supported and in a position that means I don't strain my neck to look at the screen, (a laptray with a theraband holding my laptop in place works a treat)

   

3. Timers. A half hour timer if I'm sitting up, and an hour timer if I'm lying down - then the timer acts as a prompt to move about, stretch, relax my brain, get my blood moving again, snack, rehydrate - or whatever I need to do. Even if it's just a 2 minute break it helps. For me the one thing it is essential that I do during these breaks is change position - whether it's simply stretching out my legs, or full on getting up and doing physio - or something in between. (I have these cube timers - when it's on, to set it you just place it with the right number face up.)

   

4. Unplugging the laptop (and on a good day, leaving the charger in another room). This means that there is a fail-safe stop point when the battery runs out. I have a tendency to get really engrossed in projects and then completely to forget to eat and drink - let alone pace. So having this fail-safe means that although I might overdo it up to a point, it won't be nearly as bad as if my laptop let me continue indefinitely!