There are many things we do everyday, not just in our workplaces, but in our homes and in just going about our daily business that could be leading us toward an RSI.

Last week a co-worker of mine was having shoulder pain, and it was troublesome to him. He is a frequent traveler and uses a backpack, and I asked him if he uses one shoulder strap or two. He knew right away where I was headed and was already convinced that his problem was more stress related, but promised to use both straps in the future, even just walking to the car after work.

I had been thinking about this post for a while, when the other day I followed another co-worker out the door and captured the photo above. Do you see the compensating lean? That means muscles are working differently than if he was walking with a balanced load. When you see the kids heading to the bus stop or off to school, look for the lean. It won’t cause problems for all of them, but it will, eventually, for some.

RSI can take a long time to become problematic, but once you realize you have an RSI, it’s not a simple thing to chase away.

Take look at your habits. How do you carry your backpack or briefcase? How over-filled is your handbag? Do you always carry it on the same side?

Think “center the load” and you might never know some of the pain that others eventually feel.

Let’s be careful out there.

Here are the tools I have seen mis-used the most in my life.

1. Screwdrivers – This simple tool is designed to translate force to rotate screws into and out of materials. there are several types, the most common being the phillips head and the slotted or regular. We use them as a pry bar, especially to open paint cans or put a bike tire on its rim. Not a good idea. At times we use them for the right thing, but we hold the object we are working on in a way that when the screwdriver slips, we could get a cut or even a puncture wound. Ouch!
2. Hammers – One person I know calls a hammer a “16 ounce wrench” because he uses a hammer to adjust things – to beat them into submission. Again, we use this tool mostly for what it was designed for, but many people don’t take the time to don even an inexpensive pair of safety glasses to provide protection from flying nails or materials that chip when they are hit.
3. Pliers, Channel-lock pliers, and any adjustable wrench. These tools are great, but their misuse can lead to aggravation. The biggest problem is using these tools for working with nuts and bolts. Anything other than socket wrenches, open-end wrenches or box wrenches used on a bolt head will compromise the geometry, making it harder to ever use the correct tool and creating sharp burrs. They also are prone to slipping, which leads to knuckle injuries.
4. Kitchen knives – When used to open that UPS package or as a pry bar to get those AA batteries loose from the remote, you are damaging the integrity of the blade, and making it less reliable when called upon to do the work you have it for. And that is when the knife slips off the green pepper and into your finger.
5. Scissors – Do you have one of those drawers in your house that is the repository for miscellaneous tools? I’ll bet the scissors in there are the most mis-used tool in the drawer. Mostly because they are used so frequently that they end up becoming the easiest thing to grab. Generally mis-used the same way a knife is. Here, the danger is in how we handle them when we start using them for alternative purposes.

Getting the right tool for the job is critical. Using it correctly is just as important. Do you have an experience where you didn’t think about the misuse of a tool until an accident happened? Let us all know about it, you might save us from injury.

Thanks, and let’s be careful out there.

Anna at abdpbt is responsible for the effort to Fight Listless Mondays. Find other list links on her blog. Her lists and the others linked there always give you something to think about, and may even make you smile!

Last week we had a family wedding – the oldest of our two boys and his best friend, the love of his life. Matt and Kellie had a great time in the weeks, days and hours leading up to the main event, and they had a fabulous honeymoon.

For the rest of us, it has been as hectic as my old theater days. I took time off from work to accommodate the many tasks and airport trips that were involved. We had many family members stay with us off and on and served several group meals. The last guest left Sunday, the young couple’s beagle, who stayed with us while they went to St. Lucia.

As life gets back to some level of normalcy, I was thinking about things that need re-focus, that I need to pay attention to again to be my best.

1. Every trip to the store does not have to be fast. I am no longer in a rush, and taking my time is one of the most important things I can do to assure my safety – and my sanity.
2. I need to re-focus at work. I have earned lots of vacation time, but I rarely take more than a week at a time. This time I was off for nearly two full weeks, so a lot went on while I was gone. I work with a small team, so others carried a lot of work and were more than happy to get me back in the loop. I tried to minimize the stories of the wedding (unless they asked of course).
3. Exercise. I am way off plan for the year, and certainly for the last 4 weeks. Time to refocus and be fully prepared for an injury-free half marathon in October.
4. Food. The last of the leftovers are gone. Baked Ziti. Sausage, peppers and onions. Cakes. Chips. Time to eat smart again. I’m not even stepping on a scale for at least two weeks.
5. Taking care of the mother-of-the-groom. This was our second wedding, our daughter was married 6 years ago. I remember that following all the activity the lull was also sort of sad. What will we do now? Fortunately, I’ve got some ideas in mind.
6. My dog looks lonely. Not sure what to do about that.

Big life events are fun and exciting. But I think I’m looking forward to a period of normalcy.

Let’s be careful out there.

Anna at abdpbt is responsible for the effort to Fight Listless Mondays. Find other list links on her blog. Her lists are more clever. Lots.

This makes sense, especially given the level of automation that exists today. When things are running well, employees are monitoring the process and making sure there are adequate materials coming in and product is taken away. When the process starts to fail in some way, stress goes up, as does the interaction with the process. This presents an opportunity for mistakes or accidents.

I spent a good part of Thursday traveling, and saw a lot of frustrated people and unusual procedures that only added to peoples’ frustrations. The flight was a Delta flight, a Canadair jet that requires planeside check-in of a typical carry on bag. The smaller Canadair jets seat 48 people, and are boarded from the tarmac. You leave your bag on the cart next to the steps, and when you get to the destination you retrieve it the same way. This was a larger jet that used the jetway to board. So here in Atlanta, when you get off, people line the jetway until the bags are brought up to the jetway 2 or 3 at a time.

Atlanta was my destination, but people with connections were not happy. This is when the behavior got bad. A hot jetway full of people (August in Atlanta, remember) and they start crowding the little doorway to look down the stairs and see when their bag is coming up. If your bag did come up, and you weren’t crowding the front, you wouldn’t know. So people were upset with the process, now they are upset with each other.

Then there is the train you take from the terminal to baggage claim and the airport exit. There are three long escalators, and when the train doors open it looks like the post at the Kentucky Derby! Where are these people running to? Seriously, I timed the difference between the guy who sprinted up the escalator and my passive ride, and it was about 30 seconds. What will he do with that time? Can’t save it, time doesn’t work that way.

If he was headed to a family emergency, I hope he got there safely and in time for what he needed to do. But the hurry, the rushing, the dodging around people will, at some point, cost a person more time than they saved. And may cost more than just time.

So, the next time you feel hurried or catch yourself trying to somehow make up for lost time, don’t forget to breathe. Ask yourself if it will really make a difference. Time is a great equalizer, no one gets more minutes in an hour than anyone else, and no one gets less.

Do you rush through things, or work yourself into a rushing pattern when you don’t really need to? It might be a habit worth changing.

Let’s be careful out there.

These kinds of peaks also lead to peak frustration, peak exhaustion, and peak tensions. For many of us, the economy and its effect on our personal situation adds even more weight.

When we get the busiest and when work and family demands increase, we find ourselves working through problems almost continuously. And when our minds are on those problems and those demands, we are most susceptible to putting our task work on automatic. We are most susceptible to forgetting about little things that could be important in preventing big injuries.

Don’t let the peaks of summer turn into new lows. Don’t forget the little things we can do to manage the heat, the stress, and the work. Drink water, use sunscreen, and take a break from whatever you are doing from time to time. Thanks, and let’s be careful out there.