How To Master Your Office Chair

Today, office chairs are complex pieces of machinery designed to help keep us comfortable and focused in the workplace. However, using an office chair properly requires a know-how all it's own. Many people often end up reporting faulty products where there are none when they can't figure it out. If you can't seem to get full benefits out of your office chair, check out these tricks to mastering your chair!

Do Your Own Assembly

Rather than relying on a construction-saavy friend or a handyman to assemble your chair for you, try to see if you can do it yourself. Have your buddy look over the instructions to correct you if you make mistakes, but taking 30 minutes to assemble those new task chairs with ergonomic features yourself has many benefits. Knowing your chair often requires knowing it's inner workings, and if you've put the pieces together yourself, it's more likely you'll know what the chair is meant to do and how it's supposed to do it. This will help develop a familiarity with your chair you may need to make repairs in the future.

Read The Instructions

As simple as it sounds, reading the instructions and double-checking as you put the chair together can save lots of headache in the future. Faulty assembly jobs are often the main culprit of why consumers report bad products, when really the product would work fine if the assembler hadn't tossed the instructions in the recycle bin. Putting together high tech adjustable desk chairs requires as much focus as the office itself. Do yourself a favor by reading the instructions and storing them in a safe place. (You never know when your chair will need repairs.)

Learn Your Adjustments

Now that you've got your office seating put together, it's time to test it out! The great thing about popular ergonomic chairs with versatile applications and features is that they are super adjustable. Users can mold their chair to fit them personally, adjusting tilt, back angle, height, arms, and other key components. Learn your chair's features by checking the adjustments on a regular basis, even after you've had the chair for a while. If you've got a really fancy chair, it's probably designed to heal. As the body changes, more adjustments will need to be made for maximum comfort.

Practice Basic Maintenance

Once per quarter, users should perform a periodic maintenance check on their office chair. This is when that old instruction manual will come in handy again. Take a few minutes to look things over, check adjustments, tighten screws, and oil the pneumatic cylinder that adjust the chair's height. You can also check the chair's casters (wheels) for fodder and debris it may have picked up rolling around the last few months. Finish up by cleaning the fabric, leather, or mesh with a wet wipe or leather conditioner. While you've got the tool box out, go ahead and do a routine check on your desk and helpful must have office accessories to ensure they last!

Consult With Your Physician

Heading to your doc for a checkup can help you identify potential problem areas with your health. It may sound surprising, but certain high end ergonomic chairs such as the cool Chakra Chair by Eurotech are designed to do more than relax. Many chairs are equipped with features designed to heal specific ailments. For example, articulating backs and chairs with a "shoulders-back" shape relieve back pain by improving posture, and waterfall seats help improve blood circulation through the legs. Go ahead and tell doc about your new chair and it's ergonomic benefits to hear how certain features can benefit you. You'd be surprised how many physicians are big believers in ergonomic design!

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5 Tips for Creating the Ideal Home Office

Whether you're working for a business, through the internet, or just for yourself, there's one thing that all home offices have - distractions. Kids, pets, messes, and squeaky office chairs can be detrimental to a person that works at home, in an environment that's meant to be comfortable and familiar. When an place isn't the best it can be, neither is the person that lives in it. What we spend time around influences who we are. For those that spend eight hours a day in a home office they aren't satisfied with, negative influences can lead to an unhappy outlook and an unhappy home. But never fear! Here are some great interior design tips to help create the perfect home office that's right for you.

A Splash of Paint

Believe it or not, colors have deep psychological effects on our brains. For those sensitive to their surroundings, they can influence mood and outlook over long periods of time. If you're stuck in a boring home office with whitewashed walls and no windows and notice you're not quite as happy as you could be, perhaps it's time for a change. A few splashes of color on those walls may make all the difference! Interior and graphic designers are all educated on the ways colors can effect mood. Typically, yellow is a no-no for walls because it can make people anxious, blue calms and relaxes, lavender soothes, and green and orange energize. Different hues can have different effects too, for example, while bright yellow can cause a feeling of uneasiness, a soft cream creates a cheerful feel, so it is a common color for baby's rooms.  Knowing how different colors effect you individually can have a great impact on your attitude, work ethic, and overall feeling throughout the day, if you surround yourself with the right colors. You may even decide to paint patterns! After all, it's your home. Why not make it yours? Taking a weekend to paint your office with a friend may be just the perk you need!

Let There Be Light

Ever wonder why skyscrapers have glass walls? Well, like color, light has a tremendous effect on human psychology. Scientific studies have proven that people work better in environments where there is plenty of natural sunlight to brighten their day. So if your home office doesn't have windows, and you know you like to look at the great outdoors, take a tip from the architects and choose a room with a view! Letting in some natural sunlight is sometimes the best decision an employer can make. It improves work ethic, mood, and energy levels among other things. Working at home allows you the freedom to take control of your surroundings. If your home office doesn't have windows, and artificial lighting for office use is insufficient, move your office to another part of your place that does, and turn the other room into something else fun. Vampires were last year's thing. Let's make 2014 a year of light!

Minimize Distractions

Now we get to the hard part - the dreaded distractions. As much as it's romanticized, working at home creates a breeding ground for distractions. Kids that want to play, pets that want to play, grown ups that want to play, it never seems to end! That's why letting people know when work time is work time is so important for those that work at home. Keeping dry-erase calendars and presentations boards for office are great tools. Use them to let your spouse, roommates, and friends know when your work hours are. That way, they know they're not to bother you during those times. To keep yourself on task, silence your cell phone, TV, and radio. Block social media sites during the day. Have a friend set the passwords on all of it without telling you if you must! Do whatever it takes. If you live with other people and sound is a problem, put some foam padding or fabric squares around your doors and walls to soundproof your space.
Unfortunately, kids and pets aren't accustomed to silence and the needs of others, but you may be able to work this to your advantage. Setting aside some break time during the day to go for a short, fifteen minute walk can break the tedium and improve mood in you, your kid, and your pet. Going to your local park is a welcome break from the workday, and the best part is, kids, pets, and bag lunches are almost always welcome!

The Right Furniture

Now that we've taken care of the walls and the beasts beyond them, it's time to fix the furniture! In the commercial business world, the rickety office desks of old just don't cut it in the modern era. Recent years have seen a huge rise in in the sales of office desks, modular workstations, and high tech cubicles. If you want your business to keep up, it's probably not a bad idea to refurbish your home office space. Of course, choosing the right furniture depends on the size of your room. Take the time to accurately measure the perimeters of your space and the furniture pieces you're thinking to buy. Consider the sort of furniture you'll need. For example, if you read a lot for work, bookcases are probably worth consideration. If you use technology, high tech office desks for computer use may have applications for tablets and other devices as well. You may even choose to go with furniture sets instead of individual desks. Furniture sets like the E55 Office Desk Typical by Mayline, and it's counterparts from the e5 collection make great additions to any home office. This collection offers furniture that's compact, include lots of storage space, is easy to power, and even comes in tons of colors to better match your new painted walls!

Comfortable Chair

Last but not least, we will address one of the most important decisions you can make for your home office. Comfortable office chairs are extremely important in all work environments. If the chairs are not optimal, improper seating positions over time can result in serious health problems, such as back pain, sciatica, joint problems, and poor circulation. That's part of the reason why so many corporate businesses have made the switch to comfortable desk chairs with ergonomic features to minimize health risks. Ergonomics is the study of comfort in the workplace, and no office furniture products show the advancements of this field better than office chairs. Even today's most affordable ergonomic chairs are equipped with the latest tilt tension features and lumbar supporting designs. Chairs with mesh backs, like the WAU-HIGH-BK-CHR Wau High Back Office Chair by Eurotech allow for breathability (and are usually highly affordable). Massaging chairs often offer heating features to soothe muscles, and ergonomic leather office chairs provide luxury executive style. One of the greatest things about working at home, is that you have control over your environment, all it takes is initiative!

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