Editor’s Note: As a writer who didn’t discover my passion until much later in life, choosing a degree was not an easy thing to do. I chose a degree I liked and thought would be “easy”, but after graduation I just looked for a job that would pay the bills. However, looking back, I wish I would have pursued the right college degree AND followed through with the career based on my passion instead of just looking for a job.  The education is the foundation that needs to be built on, not just something to get through for four years. Choosing a college degree should be a combination of your passion and what is a viable career for your future. Don’t take this choice lightly.

This is a guest post from Lindsay Harper Mac.  Please read more about Lindsey in the bio footer.  

Diploma (Wikipedia)

Many college students today approach education as merely a foundation from which to secure a good job, but educational pursuits have the potential to be even more life enriching when fueled primarily by internal passion.

For example, some students may feel pressured to choose an educational path separate from their passions simply because these desires don’t seem to have a practical place in the professional world.

Although this may seem like a logical approach for someone looking only for security out of life, most students want more from their lives than just a job and money in the bank. With passion at the core of your academic endeavors, success is not only easier to achieve, but more personally fulfilling.

Preparing for a Meaningful Future with a Fitting Career Path

Some students select their majors based on arbitrary factors such as which courses are “easier” and which program in the school is the most developed.

What’s even more surprising is how many students are motivated largely by money as they work to attain a higher degree. It may be a cliché, but money truly can’t buy happiness, and chasing a dream of money alone will only result in a lack of fulfillment in your life. The only effective way to attain true fulfillment and meaning in your life is by following your innermost desires that keep you going each and every day.

Discovering your passion in life is easier said than done. Some people claim to have known what their passion was from an early age, while others need time to experiment before coming to a conclusion.

According to expert life coach Martha Beck, discovering your passion begins by exploring territories that may have seemed previously forbidden. She encourages students to ask themselves what they might do if they didn’t care what anyone thought or if no negative consequences would come from it. The answer to these questions is where your passion lies.

How to Follow Your Passion in Education

Once you discover your passion, you also have to have the courage to build your life around it in a dramatic way.

According to Forbes.com, a lack of passion has an effect on your productivity levels, which means that choosing a career path that doesn’t align with your passions will often result in a lack of success. The irony of this observation is that many people sacrifice their passions to pursue a professional route that they believe will yield greater success.

Since putting your passions aside actually creates a barrier to your success, it’s important to follow your dreams while you still can in college. One effective way you can follow your dreams throughout your education is by experimenting with as many different experiences as possible.

This includes different classes, clubs, sports, and internships—anything that will give you an insider’s look at all of the exciting career paths available. By doing this early, you may uncover a passion you didn’t know you had and even find a talent that was previously unnoticed.

Many students learn too late that a personal passion for what you do is the one thing that doesn’t fade with time and age. Contrary to what you may have been taught or what other students might think, choosing an educational focus that brings personal satisfaction to you now is the best way to solidify a future filled with happiness and security.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Sofia Williams. Please read more about Sofia in the bio footer.

Internet plays an important part in the lives of present generation whether it is for entertainment, education or Jobs. Today’s generation lives in the chat world having text chat, voice chat and video chats. Children also use internet to apply online for the universities, colleges and jobs. And the problem arises when they forget the P’s and Q’s and also to apply basic English grammar correctly for their formal material.

Communication should have some manner, ingenuity and also social acceptability. There are various types of communication that we all are doing in our day to day life. It can be a communication with your client, an interview, a job application or an appointment with your principle, doctor or someone special, you need to have a proper manner and a professional dialog.

Here I am going to share some of the key factors that you need to follow while drafting email:

1) Subject Line – Always write an effective and meaningful subject line. Your motto of mailing should be clear just by reading the subject. The reason is that most of the people don’t read all the emails because of incoming bulk of emails, they just go through the subject line of the emails in order to decide whether the email needs to open or forward to any folder, file or just trash them.

If the subject line is blank, vague or worst then you will miss the chance to open your email and getting it read by the receiver. Before clicking on “send” button, just take some moments to check and write the subject accurately that clearly describe the content of the email.

2) Distinguish Formal or Informal situations – Identify the formal and informal situations. If you are writing an email to your friend or someone close, then using “smiles” , abbreviations like “LOL”, “IIRC” etc, or shortcut words are ok.

But if you are writing for any formal situation where others demand formal approach then don’t use informal words and write accordingly to leave your good impression. Just understand the situation and act accordingly. Use of Mr. and Ms. looks formal.

3) Focus on the message – Keep focus on the matter of the message you want to deliver. Sometimes on long texts just binding introduction, people lose their interest of reading further, so keep it short, precise and focused. Don’t make long stories, just come to point.

4) Avoid Attachments – Try to avoid unnecessary attachments. Instead, you can copy/paste the important matter from the document to the message body of the email.

5) Clearly Identify You – Identify yourself clearly. Include your name, occupation and other necessary identification in the first few lines of the mail. This will quickly remind your recipient about you.

6) Respond Quickly – To appear more professional, respond quickly to every email by making you available to your online correspondents. Even if you are busy and just reply “Sorry, I am very busy right now, I will reply you soon.” This will give your correspondent a message for not waiting for your reply right now.

Related articles

• Email Etiquette – Best Practices for Subject Lines (esquirepreneur.com)
• Please Use Useful and Descriptive Email Subject Lines (kimwoodbridge.com)

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Emma Tomlinson.  Please read more about Emma in the bio footer.

You have probably heard plenty of Internet marketers say that uploading videos is an effective and efficient addition to their marketing campaign.

Now, if you are the type of person who wants to see proof before nodding to particular issues, you will be amazed to know that…

There are over 30 billion video searches beating keyword queries (which have reached more than 15 billion) by around 50%.

YouTube (Image via CrunchBase)

Given this data, you are most likely considering the idea of creating your own clips. But before you do, you should check this out these…

Fascinating YouTube Facts

It has already obtained more than 13 billion visits.

• It is the most reputable video platform, especially for bloggers.
• It amounts to 81.9% of overall videos embedded and shared on blog sites.
• There are around 23,000 videos viewed every second and 2 billion each day.

Do these figures seem promising?

If you do, then you already have an idea where to upload and share your creations.

Now, whether your affinity for making videos is…

• Personal – you want to go viral and become a Web sensation
• Business – you want your promotional campaign to have a global reach
• Purely fun – you find the activity engaging

You need effective ways to make it rank in both video and keyword searches.

With that said, here are…

 Great Strategies to Help You Bring Together YouTube and Search Engine Optimization

1. Come up with a good title

As you are doing this, you have to remember the following aspects:

•  Incorporate keywords
•  Include the word “video” because many people are going to use it
•  Ensure it is catchy and worthy enough of clicks

2. Create a brief description

Through it, search engines and users have a basic idea of what your video is about. Again, you have to take note of essential factors, which consist of the following:

•  Come up with 2 to 3 sentences
•  Place relevant keywords
•  Begin the first sentence with the URL of your social media page, blog, or website

3. Include a transcript

This is a written version of your material. So, if the video is not long, you can transcribe it and add the transcription to the description.

4. Put tags

This strategy is similar to tagging traditional Web content. To help your video get listed under YouTube’s “related video” category and boost the possibility of going viral, you should find out which tags are most popular and effective.

5. Ensure backlinks

One way to link back to your YouTube content is through blogging, wherein you can choose any of the following ideas:

•  Focus on a topic related to the video’s main theme and incorporate the link in the body
•   Place the URL in the author bio

6. Keep track of its performance

You can monitor your video’s ranking by using YouTube Analytics.

There you go. Take note of these techniques for optimization purposes.

Now, before we end this topic, here is an important pointer:

Always encourage interaction from your viewers. You can make this possible when you enable sharing and embedding. You can also ask the users to rate and comment on your videos.

Editor’s Note: This is  guest post by Lindsey Harper Mac.  Please read more about Lindsey in the bio footer.

Writing is often a trial-and-error learning experience that not even the best among us can perfect the first time around. No matter how high you begin on the ladder of intellect and skill, there is always something more you could be doing to improve your writing, which is especially important when learning online.

Proper writing will help you communicate with your professors, and convey what you truly mean during your course-work.

Although you can certainly find inspiration by shunning the industrial world and heading over to Walden Pond, embracing technology may actually work in your favor. Apps can often be a writer’s best friend when you get stuck in writer’s block or need a little help in creating a grammatically-friendly piece.

To get the ball rolling on a ten page paper for your college course or for a creative work of your own, check out the following top five must-have writing apps. 

1. Swype

You never know when inspiration might strike, and hauling your laptop around everywhere “just in case” can become bothersome after a while. The Swype app features a user-friendly keyboard that closely resembles a basic laptop keyboard, which makes it a perfect solution for letting all of your inspiration out wherever you might be.

Swype is designed to perfect your spelling errors as well, since all you have to do is slide your fingers across the keyboard and the app will make suggestions about what word you were looking for. After a few weeks of use, Swype will begin to catch onto your writing style and guess the correct word more often.

2. Pages

Pages was the very first iPad app offered at the app store, and has since only gotten better with several updated versions. The app features a wide variety of creative templates for letters, flyers, resumes, invitations, reports, and more, so you can have the perfect framing for whatever document you’re working on.

A Multi-Touch design allows natural writing at top speed, while a Smart Zoom feature automatically zooms in on the portion of the text you’re working on at the moment. This unique and easily navigable app will help you knock out a few paragraphs for your term paper while you’re waiting around in between classes.

3. Vocabology

Nothing enhances your writing quite like a large vocabulary, and the vocabology app helps you establish a strong command of more than just the English language. The app features a word of the day from multiple sources, including Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, Yahoo Education, TheFreeDictionary, Wordsmith.org and even Urban Dictionary, so you can impress professors and show off how well-read you are to all of your classmates.

You can even become better acquainted with foreign languages, since the app also features a word of the day in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese as well.

4. Google Docs

Allowing others to proofread, edit and make comments on your work is a great way to recognize common mistakes and improve your writing for the future. Google Docs makes this possible by offering a user-friendly writing interface that allows you to grant access to other users for editing and note-making purposes.

You can review the edits and notes your friends make in real-time, so you can even proofread a document together and discuss strengths and weaknesses. This app is especially helpful for collaborating on group projects and assignments.

5. Evernote

A good piece of writing is born from a series of carefully written notes and ideas. Evernote provides students with a convenient outlet for jotting down and organizing these ideas as they come to you throughout the day. If you don’t have the time to type out your idea, you can use Evernote to save a picture or voice recording of the idea and add it to the proper area.

Users can tag notes with relevant subjects to find inspiration later with the app’s convenient search function. Evernote is a must-have for students who could use a little more organization and inspiration in their lives.

No matter what your major is, you will be required to contribute a great deal of writing throughout your time at college and most likely in your career as well. With these apps at your fingertips, you can count on getting through the most grueling writing assignments in one piece.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Mariana Ashley. Please read about Mariana in the bio footer.

For fulltime freelance writers, success is tied to marketability. A writer trying to make their name known on the web won’t be successful if they only write in one medium. The best writers on the web understand that you have to tackle all sorts of writing mediums in order to keep your workload steady and your coffers full (or full enough).

Freelancers can’t live on blogging alone—the more work you get, the better for your business. Most writers will take writing work no matter what the medium may be: a job writing tweets for a business’s Twitter account can be just as valuable as a regular guest posting gig on a popular blog.

The problem…

While most writers can handle this versatility in their writing portfolio, sometimes they need to be reminded to switch gears when they’re moving from one project to another. I’ve read too many “professional” articles that read like casual blog posts, unusually detail-oriented tweets, and dense blog posts to let this problem go on unaddressed.

Writers need to realize that certain stylistic guidelines govern each web writing medium, from posts on social media sites to simple blurbs on Tumblr. I want to address how to prevent from letting these styles spill into each other by offering a few helpful tips on the subject.

Identify the proper tone.

Before you lay a single finger on your keyboard, take the time to identify what tone works for your assignment. Your work could be a disaster if you don’t pay attention to the appropriate tone expected from your employer. If you’ve been contracted to do a journalistic piece for a health blog, then you might want to strike a professional, unbiased voice free of editorializing and wisecracks.

On the other side of things, you don’t want to be writing a dry factsheet for a free spirited humor blog. Once you’ve identified the voice of your assignment, give yourself a moment to work out any awkward wording that may have carried over from previous work. If the piece doesn’t sound quite right once you’ve finished a draft, ask yourself what a reader might expect to hear.

Compare your work to what you’ve written recently.

Freelancing is a strange business in many ways. I might spent a few hours writing bold and concise copy for an insurance website before I plunge into a guest post about seasonal fashion tips. It’s fine writing on a variety of subjects—in fact it does wonders for your versatility as a writer—but you can’t let your work on one job influence your work on the next one.

So when I finish a piece, I immediately go to the one I worked on before it and compare the styles for any similarities. If I notice that an entertainment piece sounds particularly dry, I go back in my recent documents to double check that I didn’t work on anything too boring beforehand. If I find that a previous work did in fact influence my writing, I do my best to locate and fix the problem.

Recognize why the stylistic differences matter.

Like I’ve said, the tone and style of a piece of writing shape the reader’s perception of the information within. People love tweets because they offer pithy info in 140 characters or less; they love blog posts for their breezy style and clever use of embedded video and images.

As a freelance writer, your job is to meet the expectations of your readers by adhering to the unspoken rules attached to each writing medium. Ignoring these rules would just isolate your chances of achieving real success on the web.

How do you keep your writing on track amid so many different writing styles?

Editor’s Note:  This is a guest post by Will Eifert. Please read more about Will in the footer bio.

Writing (Photo credit: jjpacres)

Almost every hopeful writer gets the same advice: “You just have to get your foot in the door.”  I used to wonder what that meant until I did it almost by accident.  I’d like to share it with you, along with some tips to getting your proverbial foot in the door of the writing business.

My first “assignment” wasn’t the result of the sweat of self-marketing brochures or cold calling.  I wanted to fly.  Unfortunately, trying to take flight lessons while earning an EMT salary was laughable.  But I wanted to fly so badly that I conjured up every possible angle on lessening the financial burden.  Then it hit me.  My local airport had no website.

I took a chance, figuring that a small local business would want a website but without spending big money.  The owner of the company was fond of the idea, and I “sold” my writing for the first time—for flight lessons.

As I’ve begun my search for other assignments, a few strategies have stood out:

 ________

 1. Don’t expect a big payout at first.

Face it, if you don’t have a lot of full-time experience in commercial writing, odds are you aren’t necessarily going to get much attention from large corporations right out of the gate.  That shouldn’t be your goal.  You need to generate samples and experience that will get you work from those companies in the future.  Your first few “jobs” may be for little or no monetary compensation, considering the sources that may be most promising.

2. Find small businesses and local organizations.

Starting local is a great route towards getting a few samples in different forms of writing under your belt.  For me, this was a small aircraft sales and maintenance company in small-town Oklahoma.  Seek out local businesses that may be in need of advertising and marketing.  Since more often than not you will be dealing with the business owner, marketing yourself can have a personal nature that will be to your advantage.

3. Blog

Find a topic that you are truly interested in and create a personal yet professional blog about it.  Make the effort to post a couple of paragraphs once or twice a week. A blog gets your voice out there so that people can get to know you and, more importantly, your style of writing.  Don’t underestimate the impact. I have been given staff position interviews simply because the employer was intrigued by my blog.

4. Under-promise and Over-Deliver

This piece of advice is fairly common in the writing world, but I have found that it applies even more important in the early stages.  You may set out writing web copy for a small business only to discover that the business is in need of some direct-mail advertising or ad brochures.  This is your chance to broaden your skills and have samples for potential jobs later on.

 ________

 Don’t get me wrong—your writing is valuable, and you shouldn’t make it a career habit to settle for chicken feed.  Commercial writing can earn you a tidy sum.  You may even make a living on it someday.  However, you have to start somewhere in order to make a name for yourself and have a strong portfolio to present to the clients that will shell out thousands of dollars for your work.

Lastly, don’t cave in to fear when this seems like a daunting task.  Your writing career can’t be built in a day.  Keep your nose to the grindstone and you will see results.

Writer's Block

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Lindsey Harper Mac.  Please read more about Lindsey in the author’s footer.

Writer’s block. The words are enough to make any writer cringe. When you have writer’s block, you don’t know what to write next. Your mind may be blank, or you can’t think of anything new to say. The pressure is even more intense when you have a looming deadline, such as a paper for a class, an article for a client or a news story that needs to break. These suggestions can help you re-focus your efforts and get over writer’s block faster.

1. Get your mind flowing. Hanging on the wall in front of you, you might have a poster with some sort of vague question that can act as your prompt. Or, you might do better by leaving the room and going to a special place. A forest is nice if you are near one, but city-dwellers like me may need to depend on urban scenery. My special spot is on my front steps. It’s not glamorous, but it serves the purpose of making me feel calm while I clear my head.

2. Write something. Anything. Take a few notes on paper or on the computer to get started, and then flesh out your ideas to create a cohesive piece. Or, start writing in the middle or end. Thinking and writing about the topic will help you organize your thoughts. Write anything that you can think of without worrying about the initial quality; revising your work later will be much easier than starting with a blank page.

3. Don’t miss opportunities. Writer’s block is frustrating any time, but it is downright infuriating when you have it because you can’t remember an idea that you had before. You can prevent this from happening by making sure that you are always ready to capture your thoughts. An old-fashioned paper notebook is a tried and true method for taking notes anywhere at any time.

4. Set up your writing space. You are the best judge of your own preferences. Are you at your best when you are sitting up straight in a traditional office chair at a neat desk, or are you in top writing form when you are sitting on a beanbag chair with a laptop computer? Do you concentrate best in silence or when you have music playing in the background? Some people work best at a small table in a coffee shop with the constant buzz of the crowd. Stick to whatever set-up works best for you, and mentally shut yourself into the world of writing for a certain amount of time or until you finish a certain amount of writing.

5. Do more research. If you are writing a research paper for your higher education class, an essay, historical non-fiction or any other piece that requires extensive and specialized knowledge, writer’s block can occur if you don’t know enough about the topic. Extra research can give you more confidence and direction for your writing. Even if you already know plenty about the topic, further delving into the topic can give you more ideas on how to proceed.

Writer’s block is nearly inevitable, but you can make it much less severe. Sometimes you need to focus a little harder, while other times, taking a break is a better solution. Make sure that you always have a good workspace available; figure out when to be disciplined with yourself and when to distract yourself.

Related articles

• Writer’s Block Doomage (writersblockofdoom.wordpress.com)
• One More Method to Breaking Writer’s Block (problogservice.com)
• Working Around Writers’ Block (jeansica-lieber.com)
• Writer’s Block (schoolhouseshock.wordpress.com)

Editor’s Note:  This is a guest post by John Lewis. Please read more about John in the author’s bio.

With dozens of popular social media websites and many unique log-ins to keep track of, managing your social media accounts can get a bit overwhelming. To solve this problem, many services and products are now available, especially for businesses.

Businesses tend to create multiple accounts on every website to promote new ventures, events and more. Here are some of the best ways to manage your accounts without a lot of confusion.

Hiring a Social Media Manager

This is one choice that’s popular with business owners who are tired of trying to handle dozens of accounts. A manager can take control of every single account and continue to post updates and respond to followers. This makes it easy to stay connected with customers and keep your business relevant without devoting much time to your social media accounts.

For a business with the budget for a social media manager, this is definitely the best choice of all because you get access to someone who will constantly keep all of your accounts up to date while talking with followers and customers about news, updates and more.

TweetDeck by Twitter

This is a free service you can download from Twitter that works on your computer, Android phone or iPhone.

TweetDeck helps you manage a number of Twitter and Facebook accounts that are arranged in the order you choose.

Everything is clearly displayed on one screen and you’ll have the ability to use filters for easy reading or schedule your Tweets, a helpful feature for companies with customers around the country or worldwide.

MarketMeSuite

The MarketMeSuite is a social media management tool that is designed to help you market your business using popular social networking websites. It’s designed for small businesses and includes great features like cloud technology and targeted locations. You can use it on the computer, Android phones, iPhones and Blackberries.

Digsby

The Digsby is a desktop application that helps you to manage email, instant messaging and social media websites in one easy-to-use program. Although this isn’t the best option for a business, it does make it easy to manage multiple accounts without a lot of confusion.

CoTweet Enterprise

This social media account manager is designed for medium or large businesses. It’s an easy-to-use app that helps you manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts, putting all posts and tweets in one place.

One of the best features is the ability to add an unlimited amount of users. That means everyone at your business can view posts by others in the company about the brand or products to stay on top of everything and avoid information gaps. It also incorporates a good search feature and the ability to save conversation histories.

ObjectiveMarketer

This option is for any business that wants marketing solutions for their business. ObjectiveMarketer helps you manage all of your social media accounts in one place to make your marketing strategy more effective. It provides a good deal of distribution tools to help you get information out with video, slideshows, contests, text messages and more.

ObjectiveMarketer works with YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, making it the most effective and easy to use option for a business that is planning a great deal of social marketing online.

These are just a few of the most popular management tools for social media accounts. Some are best for small businesses, while others target the marketing strategy you’re interested in.

For a business that can afford it, a part-time social media manager is perhaps the best way to stay on top of every account and keep everything current. The applications here let you handle everything on your own. Either way, any one of these options will help you get control of your social media accounts to stay on top of information and get the best possible interaction with followers.

Related articles

• Social Media Dashboard MarketMeSuite Helps Turn Followers Into Customers (mashable.com)
• Looking for CoTweet Alternatives? Our Comparison of Social Media Management Options (perkettprsuasion.com)
• Social Media Interaction Organizers – MarketMeSuite Helps Brands Engage & Manage Online Customers (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
• Be social: Social media for small businesses (marketing.yell.com)

Editor’s Note:  This is a gust post from Lindsey Harper Mac.  Please read more about Lindsey Harper in the bio footer.

Linked In, a hybrid social networking and business connections website, is one of the fastest growing arenas for networking online. According to the LinkedIn company website, it is the world’s largest Internet-based professional network. The website touts its membership at more than 135 million people in more than 200 different countries.

With this kind of professional reach from the comfort of your home or office, it’s no wonder that Linked In is one of the most powerful tools for creating and enhancing your career. Despite the potential effectiveness of Linked In, surprisingly few people truly utilize it for its intended purposes.

Linking Your Resume with Linked In

Whether you’re in the midst of a career or haven’t yet embarked on one, your resume is the dynamic representation of who you are and what you’ve accomplished. If you’re considering some form of online learning, having a resume that is connected with your LinkedIn profile puts you far ahead of the competition and right where educators and potential employers can see you.

Rather than using Linked In as a substitute for your CV or resume, think of it as an enhancement. The information you put on your resume or CV can’t be expected to cover everything you’ve accomplished or will accomplish. Instead, you can direct potential employers to your LinkedIn profile so that they can garner more information that supplements what you’ve provided briefly on your resume.

Higher Education and Linked In

Whether you’re pursuing a degree online or simply taking a college course, people, particularly potential employers, should know.One of the most proactive things you can do for your future is to further your education.

Perhaps you don’t have the time to attend on-campus traditional classes, or you’re too far from campus for regular commuting. E-learning is a viable alternative to the traditional classroom environment. Although some individuals may perceive online coursework as inferior to or simply different from traditional classroom learning, the demands of modern life have made online learning a more flexible choice.

Including this coursework on you resume and LinkedIn profile can provide potential employers with supplemental and important information about your willingness to continue to pursue knowledge that is relevant to your chosen field.

Cultivating a Network by Using Your Resume and Linked In Profile

No one likes to land on a website only to see it hasn’t been updated in a year or more. The same can be said about your resume and LinkedIn profile. Both should be current, making regular changes as your experiences and career progress.

You don’t need to update every minor change. Instead, make an effort to do a review of your life every few months and update both your resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect the events that would be pertinent to potential employers.

Harness the power of Linked In. It’s a no-cost way to network that allows you to expand on the information contained within your resume, at absolutely no cost.

Related articles

• How to Find New Clients via LinkedIn (xemion.com)
• 7 Effective Tips to Turn Your LinkedIn Profile into a Social Media Battle Winner (socialmaximizer.com)
• Looking for a New Job? Update your LinkedIn Profile Secretly (labnol.org)

Editor’s Note:  This is a guest post from Melissa Cameron.  As someone who works from home, I know how important it is to have a comfortable work station. Melissa is currently writing a series of articles on back pain and the importance of developing an ergonomic work space with the help of a Chiropractor in Sacramento, CA. Please read more about Melissa in the bio footer.

Working at a desk for hours upon hours per day can cause a lot of unnecessary stress in several parts of your body. Bad posture, lack of the “right” equipment, and other incorrect ergonomic information can all contribute to this. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the things to keep in mind to ensure that you are not hurting your body while at your work station.

Existing Ergonomic Information

As a general rule of thumb, try to avoid following any existing ergonomic guidelines found on the Internet unless they are backed by scientific evidence or stated by a professional. Proper ergonomics should be based on research, experimentation, and fact- not guesses. There is tons of unreliable information on the Internet today so make sure that you aren’t following any plain old, random advice.

Remember that ergonomics should be personal to you- and they are a great alternative if you don’t want to go to a back pain specialist. For example, a technique that works well for you may not work so well for someone else (and vice versa). Take what works and use it and throw away what doesn’t work.

Setting Up Your Work Station

Try not to settle for a desk that doesn’t offer some kind of keyboard tray. At the very least, make sure that there is something keeping the height and angle of your keyboard positioned correctly. If your employer complains about how much this may cost, ask them to compare it to the cost of Worker Comp. That generally changes their point of view on the matter. Here are some other things to consider while you are sitting at your work station:

• Don’t place the keyboard on top of your desk
• Don’t position your monitor so that it sits above your head
• Don’t sit in an upright or rigid position
• Don’t lean forward to get things done, sit naturally.

Move around whenever possible. Sitting down for extended periods of time without moving can lead to serious spinal problems. Frequent breaks are encouraged. Not only does it help you physically, but breaks can help you stay awake and be more productive.

Four Areas to Regulate

When it comes to ergonomic guidelines, there are four areas of your workstation which need to be adjusted: the chair, keyboard, monitor, and lighting/environment. Setting up these elements while staying within the guidelines of proper ergonomics, as well as keeping proper posture, will prevent injuries due to physical stress and help you work much more efficiently.

1. The Monitor

First and foremost, position your monitor in an area which minimizes the amount of glare from lighting and windows. Keeps it as far away as you possibly can while still being able to read the words on your screen without forcing it. At the very minimum, keep the distance to at least over 20 inches. Position your screen so that it is at a 15 degree angle down from your eyes. You neck should only be slightly bent when you are trying to view the screen. Finally, align your keyboard and mouse with your monitor.

2. Lighting

The lighting around your work station should be relatively bright. Find a happy medium. Make it as bright as possible but not so much that you need sun glasses to function. When you are doing computer work, don’t use task lighting. If you want to reduce flicker, try mixing fluorescent lights with incandescent ones.

3. The Keyboard

Position your keyboard a little lower than your elbow and at an angle which allows your wrists to remain straight while you are typing (and sitting in a reclined posture). Never use a wrist rest while you are working. This can do more damage than good. Free your hands from any supports while you are typing.

Next, never tilt your keyboard tray so that the back end of the keyboard is higher up than the front of it. There is a common misconception that positioning your keyboard this way is the proper route to take. The truth is that the opposite set-up is encouraged to keep your wrists from becoming injured later on down the road.

4. The Chair

If possible, use arm rests. Place some kind of lumbar support system which is a little lower than your waist line. Make sure that your feet are completely on the floor by adjusting the height of your chair. Allow about 4 inches of space between the back of your knees and the edge of your seat. Finally, use high back chair supports for your shoulder blades.

Related articles

• Note 248 – How writers can end up with posture problems (mywritingnotebook.com)
• Tips for an ergonomic workstation [Richard Coombs] (ecademy.com)