Look Straight Ahead
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- Position your work and equipment to keep your eyes looking straight ahead.
- Arrange your workspace so common items are centered to your body.
- Position your work below eye level to align your vision with the task.
- Pause & stretch often to give your neck a break. Reduce continuous bending or twisting.
Ideas for a healthy neck and shoulders
- Use these ideas to improve tasks at work and at home.
- Set up your workspace so you can look straight ahead.
- When working on screens, increase the size of characters and graphics, and adjust lighting so you can easily see.
- Reducing reflection and glare on screens lets you see better and helps prevent sore eyes.
- Get corrective lenses matched to your work if your vision is making you lean forward, twist, or bend your neck to see.
- Position computer screens and objects at or below eye level to match your
vision and the task. - Adjust the distance of your work or screen to about an arm’s length from your eyes, then make changes to the distance and height for your vision
and task. - Changing activities and building rest periods into the job allow the body to recover: See poster 6.
Did you know?
- Bending your neck forward or backward on a regular basis and without pauses can overload muscles, leading to fatigue and discomfort.
- Looking to one side and twisting your neck on a regular basis without pauses increases your risk of neck pain compared to looking straight ahead. Move your feet or seated position so your body faces the work area to minimize twisting the neck.
- If you are leaning forward because it's hard to see your screen, this can lead to fatigue and pain in the neck, back, and shoulders.
Improve your workplace
- Keep asking yourself and others, “Why does the job require bending and twisting of the neck?” until you understand the problem.