Key Takeaways
- A split keyboard enables reconfiguring your desk, crucial for ergonomic comfort and efficiency.
- Placing the mouse between keyboard halves is more ergonomic, reducing wrist and shoulder pain.
- Reprogramming keys with a powerful software like Dygma enables functionality with one hand.
Is your mouse still off to the side of your keyboard like it’s always been? Well, a few years ago, I changed that and decided to park it between my keyboard halves—it changed everything.
I know that sounds like a sales pitch, but it’s not. Putting my mouse between my keyboard halves really changed everything for me as a work-from-home journalist that would often sit at a computer for 9 or more hours per day. Here’s why you should put your mouse between your keyboard halves too!
A Split Keyboard Makes It Possible To Reconfigure Your Desk
Let’s start at the beginning here. Before you can put your mouse between your keyboard halves, you have to have keyboard halves. I personally use the Dygma Raise, but there are other split keyboards to choose from. This is crucial because, unless you plan to just cut your keyboard in half, placing a mouse on top of your keyboard won’t be very beneficial. So, split your keyboard and learn to live a little.
If we sit at a computer naturally, our hands typically rest in the middle of our bodies. Normally, your hand doesn’t rest all the way to the left or the right of your keyboard. The resting position is in the middle, which is typically the most comfortable place. So, it’s only natural to place the mouse there. Right?
Well, I often see split keyboard setups with the mouse off to the right, because that’s just how we’ve always done it. That’s how I always did it. Until I saw my brother-in-law’s setup.
It was the first time I saw a split keyboard like the Dygma, and it completely threw me for a loop. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, and when I first tried it, it was anything but “comfortable.” However, once I got my own (I got bit by the tech bug), and spent a few days adjusting to the split keyboard lifestyle, I was hooked.
Placing The Mouse In Between The Keyboard Halves Is Much More Ergonomic and Comfortable
After placing my mouse between the halves of my keyboard, I found that a lot of my wrist pain started to go away. It became more natural, and, I honestly just could never see myself going back.
There’s a lot of science behind it, but if you think about how your arm sits, it’s just a much more natural position. Your hand off to the right of the keyboard has to sit at a bit of an angle to make contact with the mouse. You have to hold your arm off to the side, and it just sits, well, awkward. An ergonomic mouse, like vertical mice, can help with this some, and that’s the route that I have been on for quite a while. But, that’s not the best solution overall.
Once I placed the mouse between my keyboard halves, I realized that’s what I had been missing. It feels natural to keep my hand across my body like that, and I don’t have to have a weird angle on my wrist and forearm anymore. It just works. I no longer use a vertical mouse either, as the MX Master 3 is ergonomic enough in this position, which is something I was very happy about. The MX Vertical I had before the MX Master 3 lacked a lot of the functionality of the MX Master line, and I missed it. So, by placing the mouse between my keyboard halves, I was able to gain all that functionality back.
Moving the mouse to the center of my desk helped a lot with the various pains that I had from sitting at a desk for nine or more hours per day. My wrist hurt less, my arm hurt less, and my shoulder hurt less. All from just moving the position of my mouse. So, if your arm, wrist, or shoulder is hurting, try moving your mouse. It might seem odd at first, but, like a split keyboard, it only takes a few days to get used to it.
With The Right Keyboard, You Can Even Keep A Lot Of Functionality While Only Using Half Of It
Reprogramming your keyboard is a must when you do this. Often, I don’t rest both of my hands on my keyboard anymore. My left hand stays on my left half, but my right hand rests on my mouse. This means that I’m missing a lot of the functionality that the right half of my keyboard offers, like backspace, enter, arrow keys, and such. Reprogramming keys can be relatively easy. My Caps Lock key, for instance, has been reprogrammed to Enter. I rarely need to use a Caps Lock, and, if I do, it’s on another layer. So, making that an Enter key is a simple solution.
But, having a keyboard with powerful software, like the Dygma, is really where something like this shines. I’m able to use layer shifting to have other functions, like arrow keys, an extra space bar, and both backspace and delete, all on my left hand. I can essentially navigate my entire computer, including a number pad, with only my left hand.
Being able to use my computer like this means I can rest my right hand on the mouse (which is the most comfortable position for me) and still use the computer normally. When I need to type, I just move my hand back to the right, type, and then back to the mouse it goes.
At the end of the day, I have tried a lot of different desk setups, mice, and keyboards over the years, and I’ve never stuck with one setup as long as I have this. The Dygma Raise keyboard and the MX Master 3 mouse are the perfect pair here, and I highly recommend trying a split keyboard with the mouse in the middle when you redo your desk next.
