As a freelancer, you have no one to answer except yourself when it comes to a
safe office environment. The best safety rule is prevention.
Ask yourself how you feel when you get up from the desk. If you sustain a
repetitive strain injury in an away-from-home workplace, there are regulations
to protect you. But working at home, with yourself as boss, you need to look
after your own safety to ensure that you will continue working free from injury.
Ergonomic office equipment is expensive but well worth it in the long run.
You will spend a lot of time at your computer, so you need to ensure that that
won't result in your having to spend a lot of time recovering. Try out office
chairs and desks before you buy them. Some designs may simply not be suitable
for you so you need to find the one that fits.
If you have to make do with ordinary furniture, try to correct problems by
examining where the discomfort affects you. For example, you may need to raise
your feet to overcome tingling-in-the-legs syndrome caused by an uncomfortable
chair. If that happens, try putting a footrest under the desk. If your back
hurts, experiment with pads and cushions for better support. But, the best
solution is to put a correctly designed chair and a desk of the right height on
your home business wish list.
Mice Can Be a Health Hazard
Having a desk of the right height can help you avoid repetitive strain injury
and back pain, but you also need to look at the equipment on the desk.
Using a mouse and a keyboard can lead to long-term injuries caused by strain,
so investigate ways to reduce that strain. Try changing hands with your mouse
occasionally and arranging the mouse pad so that your wrist does not rest on the
edge of the desk. Any numbness or tingling that results from holding the mouse
too long is a warning. Stop, flex your fingers, take a break.
I use a "mouse pillow," which has proved very effective. It's simply a small
beanbag, which stands in front of the mouse pad. My wrist rests on it whenever I
use the mouse. It cushions my wrist against strain and allows it to relax while
I use the mouse. I bought mine in a store, but they would be easy to make.
A well designed keyboard can also reduce strain and injury. And my personal
tip is never use touch typing. Carpal tunnel syndrome seems to afflict
touch-typing journalists I've worked with much more frequently than us hunt and
peck writers, probably because we keep stopping to locate the keys.