Digital Nomad Pain-Free Working Tips: Setup Reacts Episode

So I think this one’s a little bit more of like a digital nomad setup. I’ve had a quick scan for it before, seems to have some interesting points on like, you know, maintaining proper ergonomics when working from co working spaces or from coffee shops. So yeah, let’s have a watch and see what they see, what their setup’s all about.

I’m traveling right now, which means that I don’t have access to my regular home setup where I have everything set up ergonomically. This is generally a typical work setup that people have on the go. It’s minimal, but it’s not exactly good. You have bad posture, bad positioning, it gets uncomfortable after a while, especially if you’re traveling long term. Elevated shoulders, you have a low laptop, you’re looking downwards like this.

It’s very likely that you start slouching like this and working, your body is going to really start to feel it and you’re going to regret it and it’s going to make work more unpleasant. So I’m going to show you with a couple of tweaks and tricks how you can create an ergonomic setup anywhere on, on the go and even at your local cafe. Here is what you’re going to need. Your laptop. It’s very true.

What she’s mentioning about the raised shoulders, that’s one of the main issues I have working for years from coffee shops is how you know if the tables, the tables are generally quite high compared to where the seats are. And so if you place your laptop on top, you’re raising your shoulders to try and maintain, you know, like a decent typing posture and doing so can really just cause this strain and pain in your shoulders, which I believe can, can, you know, really lead to some serious issues in the long term. So that’s why I think, you know, all of this ergonomic portable setups is so important, you know, just to try and you’re not looking for the perfect setup. You’re not going to get that, to be honest, in a coffee shop, but you’re just looking to find what’s called like the 80, 20. You’re trying to find the, the 20% of things which, wait 20% of things which give you 80% of results.

You’re trying to find a few things which give you the most, the best results and you kind of accept that it’s not going to be perfect. But as long as you can get somewhere between 60 to 80% there, it’s probably better than just working from a coffee shop and destroying your Your back, your shoulders and just causing this pain and just basically getting home and being tired. You know, know that’s, that’s what we’re trying to do here. Here is what you’re going to need. Your laptop.

A roof stand to get your monitor elevated. This is the V3, the latest version. It’s lightweight, it’s slim, it’s small. Magic keyboard. It’s really slim, it’s really small.

Compact. It’s got everything you need. Long battery life and an ergonomic mouse. This is the Logitech lift. It’s great for small, even medium hands.

I’ll link other ones that are good for medium, large hands and other versions that I really like in the description down below. And if you purchase it using my affiliate links, it’ll help support the channel at no extra cost to you and I’ll send you some good karma. Take what makes sense for you for this video and tweak as necessary. You may not be able to get a perfect ergonomic setting, but you’re going to have a way better setup than you started with. Scope of the space and see if there’s any low tables.

Most tables are actually too high to comfortably work on for the average human, especially if you’re on the shorter side. And see if there’s any tables where you could possibly use something as a footrest too. If you have multiple chairs to choose from, see if you prefer chairs with adjustments. See if there are smaller chairs that have less seat depth. Anything that basically will allow you to have your back comfortably sitting on the backrest, feet flat on the ground as much as possible, or have some sort of support.

If the chair seat depth is too big, what you can do is put a pillow, a cushion, your backpack, or even roll up a sweater to fill up that gap in the back. And that way you have nice back support. And if you are lucky enough to have a office chair, wherever you are, you’re likely to have at a minimum, a chair that can go up and down. So now we’re sitting comfortably in the chair with the back. Is it just me who has this problem?

Like she mentioned placing, you know, like a pillow or more likely like a rolled up jumper or something sort of, you know, in the lower part of your back. And just to provide a bit more support, it’s just me, I think I’m just large. Whenever I sit on chairs that have like pillows on the back, they always seem to just like they shorten the amount of space that, you know, my, my thighs can actually sit on so much I feel like I’m just sitting on the edge of the chair. I’m always like, who? Who?

I mean, I live in Asia, so, you know, people are generally smaller. So maybe it is me. But yeah, whenever I do that, it just pushes me too far forward. And if this gets more uncomfortable, if you’re normal, if you’re, you know, regular size, maybe don’t have this issue. It’s just me.

But yeah, I just wanted to see. Am I the weird one here? Let me know. Supported. Now take out your Roostan.

We’re going to elevate the laptop. Generally, you want the top of your screen at eye level. Adjust your posture and be mindful of your posture as much as possible. Try to get that 90 degree elbow bend in your arms with relaxed shoulders and tuck the chair armrest under. Under the table.

You may not be at a perfect. If you can get a 90 degree bend on your elbows in a coffee shop or in a co working space, probably more likely this looks like a co working space. Great. I’ve not, I’ve found in most coffee, in most coffee shops you’re not going to be able to get that. The, the chairs, they’re not made generally like coffee shops.

The tables and the chairs are not actually made for working, they’re made for drinking coffee, eating food. So, you know, generally the table heights would just be too high for that. So you generally not going to get those 90 degree angles. However, her point on raising the laptop screen to eye high I find is just so true. If you can have the top of your laptop screen be just above eye level here, so you’re kind of like looking straight on.

And what it means is when you’re actually looking at the screen, you’re, you’re not, you don’t have to move your head in order to see the lower parts of the screen. You can just move your eyes up and down or left and right. So it keeps a good neck posture, it keeps your shoulders sort of balanced in a relaxed position. So yeah, if you can keep just getting that laptop up, I find it’s so important. It’s basically like the most important thing here.

The product she’s using is the Roost stand. Great product. Or you can, you can look into the neck stand, which is a. I think it’s a knockoff. I’m not sure. I don’t know who came first, the Roost order or the neck stand.

But yeah, look into these stands. They are great. I actually own two of them. My girlfriend uses one and I use one as sort of like a backup When I’m using them, Yeah, I use one as a backup. Essentially.

Great products, they get the laptop up really high, but again, they can take up quite a lot of table space. So just be aware of that 90 degree, but as close as possible is good. And then make all the tweaks necessary to your roof stand, to your chair, to your backrest. And since your laptop is elevated, you’re of course going to need a separate keyboard to now work on and an ergonomic mouse, which will help reduce tension by having your arm in a more neutral, natural, and comfortable position. That’s the end of a workday for me.

I love how easy, compact, and portable this system is that you can apply most, if not all of these tips whenever you’re working on the go. So let me know your comments down below, let me know your setup and I’ll see you in the next video. That’s cool. Video. Yeah, I love the Logitech, the lift mouse.

It’s again, it’s any product or any way you can have your wrists and your arms sort of resting in a handshake position is a good thing in my mind. If you can keep your hands in. In this position, you know, straight ahead of you in a handshake position as much as possible while you’re working, you. You’re not. You’re going to minimize pain.

I think that’s how our hands are kind of like they naturally rest. If you just put your arms by your side, you’ll notice that your hands kind of rest in that sort of like your palm against your thigh sort of position. So it kind of makes sense that, you know, products which replicate that are good for us and very comfortable. So, yeah, that mouse looks interesting. I’ve never used it, but it does look like a good buy.

All right, that was a good setup. Let’s move to the next.