Your Glasses And Crucial Laptop Positioning Info
Hey there!
I’ve been going to physical therapy for about a month to take care of a nagging neck and shoulder issue.
You’re not going to believe the reason they think I got this way – and I don’t want to waste my pain without you checking your own situation.
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Hope this helps!
David
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hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and I just got back from a physical
therapy session I’ve been going to
physical therapy for about a month or so
and it occurred to me that when we
figured out the reason for the pain that
I’ve had in my neck and my shoulder and
my back and down my arm I would share it
with you just in case so these are new
glasses and they’re new glasses and
they’re actually aiding in the problems
with my neck and my back and my my
shoulder here’s what was going on so
this is these are my old glasses these
have these were what are called office
trifocals and so what office trifocals
are is taking the lens and dividing it
into three sections the top section for
me is looking off in the distance the
middle section for me on those glasses
was what’s called computer distance and
then the lower one was even closer for
reading so here’s a situation most
people have their laptop down on the
desk I have mine raised so that the
camera is at eye level that’s
appropriate for shooting videos right so
when your laptop is down at on desk
level rather than up at eye level when
you look at your your laptop you’re and
you look through the the middle part of
your glasses your head is normal it’s
it’s sort of sitting there and you’re
reading your thing and then if you need
to read something close you look even
further down through the bottom third of
the glasses right and then you use the
top third for off in the distance so I
didn’t understand I didn’t get why this
was happening until it was pointed out
to me but once I raised my computer up
so that the camera was at eye level
all of a sudden looking at the screen
with those glasses I was doing this all
the time because I was looking through
the second third the middle third of the
glasses and then if I wanted to read
something I could you know put it
wherever I wanted but I was constantly
my head was rocking back by about 20
degrees and
was constantly balancing it like this
even to do that now hurts but now that
I’ve got these new glasses where I can
look straight at the camera and I had
them adjusted I told them how high my
eight my laptop was off the desk they
adjusted the divisions and now it’s
awesome right so if you decide at some
point to do what I did because you are
doing a lot of on-camera video either
Skype sessions or zoom sessions or
you’re making videos like this
or you’re even doing self taped
auditions or you’re teaching with the
camera on or whatever and you wear
glasses or if you know somebody who
wears glasses then by all means make
sure that they adjust their prescription
to the height of the if you’re gonna
leave your laptop on the desk well
that’s great you can just do that and if
you already have a desktop computer
where the monitor is really big and the
cameras in the top of the bezel that
same thing could be happening to you
because computer trifocals assume that
your laptop is down on the desk so
nothing earth-shattering in terms of
productivity today or best practices but
I would love for you not to have to go
to physical therapy and hopefully this
will get corrected pretty soon what have
you done to adjust to your health
concerns or your health limitations or
your your health you know situation let
me know in the comments below wherever
you’re watching this video if you’d like
to join my youtube channel subscribe to
it go ahead and click on my head there
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and if you want to see the latest video
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frame right there and everything will be
great and this is me looking at you I
appreciate your watching these videos
I’m David H Lawrence 217 thanks so much
for watching and I’ll talk to you
tomorrow.
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For overall well being it’s important to simply move about. Seriously. Sitting for long periods is thought to be today’s smoking for health risks. It’s easy to lose track how long you’ve been in a chair while doing long recording sessions.
The older you are, the more important it is to keep moving. I’ve made it a habit to walk on errands rather than getting in the car. A brisk walk for about 20-30 minutes a couple times a week is really all you need to help your cardio-vascular system.
Even just getting up and walking around the house/apartment regularly goes a long way to keep blood from pooling.
Yes, this makes so much sense. Granted, I switched to dedicated “computer distance” glasses a few years ago (also “piano distance” for me, since I spend time at the piano), which keeps me from doing the bi-focal/tri-focal head tilt. However, I did notice my laptop is at a strange height on my desk, so I’ll be adjusting that today along with the swing arm that I got awhile ago (because the little mic stand doesn’t give me good height adjustment with my current work table).
Thank for the great reminder to check heights and comfort levels.
Vicki
YES YES AND YES! As a medical massage therapist I found the majority of my client’s pain came from their daily posture. Sometimes that posture was head tilt, head forward or just plain slumping. So glad you found the root cause of your neck pain. Your mother was right. Sit up straight This really IS a best practices video because your body is your tool in this work.
I know more about this subject than I ever wanted to…
First, congratulations on identifying the problem, AND getting physical therapy AND your glasses adjusted. These little things combine for huge benefits!
So…this is one of the reasons I like to record standing up. My screen is just above the mic and I get to log some time with my chin tilted a bit up to offset the many hours I spend at my desk fighting “tech neck” I stand and I’m mindful of my posture so I don’t hunch over the mic. Yes, that tilt you’re talking about is so common it has a name: “tech neck”.
In my production space, I have a Herman Miller Embody chair. It’s extremely expensive, but it was worth it for me because sometimes my last job would have me sitting in it for 16 hours on end, which is terrible, terrible, never want to do that again.
With your laptop being on your desk, are the keyboard and mouse in a comfortable position? If not, consider adding a keyboard tray underneath so you can lower the position your hands are in when you type & point & click! This one lets me freely move it just about anywhere, tilted or flat, and then easily lock it in place. https://amzn.to/2F6fxZS
I also use an external monitor sometimes, because I can raise it higher than the laptop screen (and it’s a 21:9 monitor so editing is easier).
I hope you feel even better soon! Really glad you posted this video for people to learn such an important lesson.
So happy to hear that you have a diagnosis and a treatment plan. We’d like to keep you around and healthy for a long time.
Now that you bring it up, I have been concerned for a while about those of us who have gone through the ACX Master Class. You teach not only a particularly effective method for recording long manuscripts but also how to place and address the microphone to enable an intimate and relaxed narration for audiobooks.
What I have noticed is that many narrators who have adopted the method, along with the desk stand for positioning the mic, have a tendency to place the stand and laptop too low. As you note in this video, you have raised your laptop from the desk.
What I see is, instead of raising the laptop and mic (or lowering their chair) many folks are leaning forward and hunching slightly to get into position to address the mic. This is the worst position to maintain for long periods and has the added drawback of unconsciously causing the narrator to ease back away from the mic to get comfortable.
As you explain here, even small changes in position can have extreme effects on the human body.
Hi David,
I have been thinking about your glasses the past week or so, every time I watch your videos, that they looked new, and that I really like them! They suit you. As for the trifocal issue, bleah! Yuck! I tried them when I had to go that way a couple years ago. My solution was to have two pairs of bifocals instead, one has distance/mid-range and the other has the mid-range (or computer)/reading. Plus the computer/reading pair has the non-glare coating which really helps when on the computer for a long time. That constant having to move the head up and down to look through the various sections gave me a neckache, so that was my solution and it works very well for me. Thanks for sharing your tips!
I have a special set of glasses for when I’m in the booth recording . The full lense is the same strength allowing me to see the screen at whatever angle I need
I gave up on the trifocal/bifocal thing and got separate glasses for different applications. My prescriptions of nearsightedness and astigmatism are so high it makes it really tough to get that type of glasses that work. So instead I have one pair of glasses for driving/distance. I have a seconds pair of glasses for the computer. I don’t actually read a lot anymore unless it’s on the computer so I just put my glasses on my head for that one.
I put my monitor on a riser so I can record standing up.
I’m at “that age” where my vanity is still a strong enough motivator that I WILL NOT get bifocals! My glasses are smaller on my face so that I can still read or do close work (sewing? etc.) by looking BENEATH the frames. In fact, I had bought a pair of transitions (light to dark and back) that I HATED for 2 reasons: 1, the frames rested on my cheeks, so I couldn’t see UNDER them, and 2, they took too long to transition back to light from dark, so I’d walk into a less-bright space and be essentially blind. My computer monitor is, in fact, a 40-something-inch television that we’d upgraded from, and it’s 4-ish-feet away from me, so if I “embiggen” the website screen, I can ALMOST do without my glasses. Leaving most screens at 100%, my glasses seem to be doing an appropriate job. I’m probably killing my vision. Who knows? I haven’t had vision insurance for some time, so I’ve no idea what’s going on there.
Lately, I’ve been recording whilst standing rather than seated, which is a nice way to use my body (just a little bit), but I’ve noticed during the new Accents Class that adopting my OLD “good” posture is going to change my mic placement, so it’s back to the “how to address and balance the mic” videos AGAIN (which is, in fact, what I was searching for when I found THIS video! Yay! So much good stuff on this site! Thank you!