Keyboard and Mouse Ergonomics: Positioning to Prevent RSI
Key Takeaways
- Your keyboard should sit at elbow height with your wrists straight. Any upward bend at the wrist compresses the carpal tunnel over time.
- Keep the mouse right next to the keyboard, not a foot to the right. Reaching for the mouse all day pulls your shoulder out of alignment.
- Keyboard feet that tilt the back edge up are the opposite of what your wrists need. Either keep them flat or use a negative tilt tray.
RSI (repetitive strain injury) in the hands and wrists usually starts with keyboard and mouse positioning, not with typing speed or hours worked. A keyboard at the wrong height and a mouse too far from your body create the wrist angles and shoulder strain that accumulate into injury over months and years.
I type about 8 hours a day. Design work in Figma, Slack messages, documentation. And I use a mouse constantly for precise cursor work. Three years ago, I started getting tingling in my right ring finger and pinky after long work days. My physiotherapist looked at my desk setup, moved the keyboard and mouse about 4 inches, and the tingling stopped within two weeks. Four inches. That is how little it takes.
Getting the Keyboard Right
The keyboard should sit at a height where your elbows bend at about 90 degrees and your forearms are parallel to the floor. Your wrists should be straight or angled slightly downward. Not bent upward. This is the part almost everyone gets wrong.
Those little feet on the back of most keyboards? They tilt the keyboard up, which forces your wrists into extension (bending upward). That is the exact position that compresses the carpal tunnel. Flip those feet down. If anything, you want a slight negative tilt where the front edge of the keyboard is slightly higher than the back. Negative tilt keyboard trays exist specifically for this. I use one from Humanscale and it made more difference than any other single change in my desk setup.
The other common mistake is placing the keyboard too far forward on the desk. If you have to reach for the keys, your shoulders roll forward and your upper back rounds. The spacebar should be roughly aligned with the front edge of your desk, or even slightly behind it. You want to type with your elbows near your torso, not with your arms extended like you are reaching across a counter. Your overall desk posture affects this too, since chair height and desk height together determine where your elbows land.
Split keyboards are worth mentioning. A split design like the Kinesis Advantage or even the more affordable Logitech Ergo K860 lets each hand sit at a natural angle instead of forcing both wrists inward toward the center of a traditional keyboard. I tried a split keyboard for six months. The learning curve was about two weeks. After that, my wrist position felt noticeably more relaxed. It is not required, but if you already have wrist symptoms, a split keyboard addresses one of the root causes.
Mouse Placement and Shoulder Strain
Your mouse should sit immediately to the right (or left) of the keyboard. Not 10 inches away. Not on a separate surface. Right next to it. Every inch of distance between the keyboard and the mouse means your arm has to reach further, which pulls your shoulder forward and down.
If you use a full-size keyboard with a number pad on the right, the mouse ends up way out to the right side. This is one of the strongest arguments for a tenkeyless keyboard (one without the number pad) if you are a right-handed mouse user. Removing the number pad lets you place the mouse about 4 inches closer to center. That 4 inches reduces how far your shoulder has to abduct to reach the mouse.
Vertical mice (where your hand sits in a handshake position rather than flat) reduce the forearm twist that standard mice require. I use a Logitech MX Vertical for general work and switch to a regular mouse for precision design tasks. The vertical mouse feels odd for about a day. After that, the wrist relief is noticeable. The handshake grip keeps the forearm bones parallel instead of crossed, which is the neutral position for the forearm muscles.
And take breaks. I set a timer for every 45 minutes. Stand up, shake out your hands, do a few quick desk stretches. The reason RSI builds up is repetition without rest. Your tendons do not have great blood supply compared to muscles. They need recovery time during the workday, not just overnight. Even 60 seconds of hand stretches between work blocks can keep the symptoms from accumulating. The same stretching breaks that help your wrists help your overall sitting posture too. Everything at a desk is connected.