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Healthy monitor work: a document holder makes the difference!

1 December 2022
Gerry Hameetman

People who work a lot with documents behind their monitor will probably recognise it: at the end of a long working day, a sore neck and shoulders, back pain and not forgetting tired, “squinty” eyes. Complaints that can be reduced and possibly prevented quite easily, simply by using a document holder.

Correct posture

Working with a file or paper documents next to your keyboard means straining to turn your neck sideways. If you place them in front of your keyboard, this automatically creates a bent body posture. Whereas in the long run, a hunched back, a bent neck and squeezed shoulders lead to strain and eventually even serious complaints. 

By placing your papers on a document holder, you facilitate and reduce the movement the neck has to make between document and screen. Your body unconsciously adopts a straighter posture. The greater the angle of inclination of the document holder, the more document and screen are aligned, so you sit as straight as possible. And you also develop fewer eye complaints.

Less eye accommodation

What many people don’t realise is that screen work also requires a lot of work on the eye muscles. Focusing (accommodating) on a screen directly in front of you at a distance of 60 cm already requires more effort than simply looking freely into the distance. When your papers are in front of or next to your keyboard at a distance of 40 cm, your eyes also have to readjust every time you glance at them. As you can imagine, after countless times in a working day, you do feel this: you look “squinty”. 

This does not immediately mean that you need (different) glasses. You can often make it much less tiring for your eyes by having them make fewer large movements. This can be done with a document holder on which you place the documents you need to look at and then align them with your screen. Accommodation – which, after all, depends on the distance you are looking at – is then as minimal as possible. Results of this better focus are not only less strained eyes, but also greater concentration and productivity. 

R-Go document holders

The R-Go Flex Read is a document holder that can be adjusted to a total of 6 heights. The open iron frame leaves space for keyboard tidying: ideal within a “clean desk” environment. If notes need to be taken while working, the R-Go Read-2-Write document holder offers a particular solution. This can be adjusted from read to write position in one movement, so that you can bring your documents to you in no time and make a note on them.   

Especially for travelling or those “in-between moments” on the laptop, there is now also the R-Go Riser Document, a compact, collapsible laptop stand with the possibility of placing your document more at screen height.

(It should be clear: a good document holder will achieve more than eating carrots alone).

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