Hello,
I am a producer in the electronic / "techno" / hardcore circuit of sounds.
I'm a bit notorious for producing *a lot* of stuff. I created something like 3.000+ tracks in 15 years.
Which might seem much, but, if you think of it, it's just ~3 tracks every week. I guess paid journalists need to turn in more pieces of text! (Maybe one can't really compare these two... but you guess what I mean).
I also need to work on doing videos, running a label... ah well, this is not supposed to become a kind of ego-boost text.
I just mention this to explain that I'm behind the screen and working on the computer for long, long times, daily, at night, on weekends... like a lot of other people do, too, of course.
And I ran into health problems because of this. I used to sit on my bed, laptop on my... lap, hunched, looking downwards, having the posture of a question mark... or sitting on a wooden chair, crunched together like a fried shrimp, in front of my desktop PC...
I got back problems, gained weight, and other issues.
I searched through all the internet for a better posture and a more comfortable way to work on projects. And it turned out there was no real solution - according to experts.
There were definite "no-nos". Like not using a laptop on your bed, or putting it on your... lap. Not using a smartphone when lying on your bed. And so on.
But there was no posture, no way to work on a computer that was 100% healthy. Each has its hazards and downsides. The consensus was the only solution would be to take breaks, even breaks where you do short physical workouts, and change posture now and then. And to frequently *change* posture.
One user summed it this way: [when working with computers] "the best posture is always the next posture".
I.e. to not use the pc / sit in one way for too long, but to frequently change it.
Yet, in my opinion, there are only limited ways, or "postures", you can turn to when sitting in front of a desktop pc (or laptop).
This ain't "Computer Kamasutra", after all!
I eventually came up with the following fix. I'm sure I'm not the only, or first one, who did it, but I never heard of it before.
And, more importantly, I never thought it would work, and was really surprised that it does work, and even enhanced everything around me!
I now use 3 devices for almost every project I work on.
No matter if it's music, texts, videos, label-stuff, everything.
I work on each project on all 3 devices at the same time - most of the time. Only sometimes I use only 2 devices for a project, and very rarely, only 1 device.
These devices are:
A kind of "Three Dimensional standing desk" (don't ask, too hard to explain. Let's just say it's less horizontal than usual) with my laptop on top of it. Here I can work on texts, label-stuff, "communication / transfer" type stuff like uploading tracks for a demo, or writing a promo text. I also have some music apps installed. This is the best allrounder, I can use it for almost everything (if it's not too heavy, like long rendering of videos). I can also carry the laptop around, and can use it in other rooms.
My desktop PC. Here are most of my music apps, video production stuff, the whole she-bang so to say. Here I can do the most and in-depth music work, and video editing. The PC is not on a standing desk, so I need to sit down to use it.
My smartphone. Here I can write texts, do a bit of cheap'n'easy vid-editing/uploads for social media (which I try to avoid), send e-mails...
Now you might say: "This is nice, but not fairly unusual? I'm sure many producers or journalists etc have dedicated devices for their type of work".
Well, what was the problem again? Health & posture & fatigue.
And... if I sit down in front of my desktop for hours to work on a track. And then use my laptop for writing a text the next day.
Then nothing is solved at all! It would still strain my mind, health, and creativity.
So the fix I came up with: I work on each project on all devices at once. (I already said that above, by the way).
In the most simple way this could mean: writing an essay on my desktop, and after 30 minutes I get out of my chair, and keep writing on it at my standing desk. And after 30 minutes I go to the living room, pick up my phone, and continue writing. And I circle all the time, do the spell checking, and all the other tasks, until it is finished. While "walking" around the home and "racing" from device to device, so to say.
Writing a text is straight-forward. A more complex task, for example, would be the creation of a video.
Then I use my laptop to write a quick draft and schedule of my project. Pick up my phone and search free clip sites for good footage (yes, these are quality enough for some minor projects). Do editing on my desktop. Select one of my tracks for the background music on my laptop again. Walk to the living room and write an info text on my phone. Upload the finished video via my desktop to the video site. Walk to my laptop and add the description to the video, on the video site, that I originally had written on my phone.
There are often even more complicated projects that I need to work on.
But regardless of what it is, all the time I need to walk around, get out of my chair / couch (or sit down again)...
And most importantly, I am constantly changing posture! Just like the user advised.
This not only worked out quite well, but I noted a significant health improvement, too.
I lost weight again, my skin is not as pale, my eyes look less like zombie now...
And most nicely, 90% of my work-related back pain / problems are gone now.
No longer fried shrimp mode!
On top of this, it seems to have been a big boost to my creativity too, and I find it much easier to work on new projects now. (I don't know why - maybe all the physical health improvement had its mental boons, too)
To summarize it again: the task is to find a way to spread the work of a single project onto 3 different devices, and then to use all 3 devices "at the same time" to work on it.
(Yes, this often involves the use of clouds or portable memory sticks).
So, I can only advise everyone to give this a try, especially if you are having problems with posture, back pain, or creativity blocks, too.
Get out of your chair, get up, and keep circling!
Note: No AI has been used in writing this text.
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