Work Work Work
Incredibly busy with work these days - with several clients and ongoing projects demanding a lot of time and work. Work work work. As a freelancer you have to take it when it comes. Personally I don’t really mind - I’m happy to have as much work as I can handle.
But can my hands handle it? We all know what it’s like working unusually intensely; and the strain it can put on our hands - no matter how many key commands we know, or how many Mackie Control Expanders we have. My hands are feeling it - they’re being taxed to the max.
This weeks tip is on how to minimize the physical strain. First, I have learned to use my left hand for mousing. This has helped enormously. When one hand starts feeling strained, I can switch to the other. The problem is that with this much work crammed together so intensely - there’s not enough recovery time; and now both hands feel taxed.
I also began wearing a wrist splint - like in the photo above. This helps keep the physical fatigue in check somewhat. It slows down the onset of the physical problems. But it just slows down the onset, it doesn’t solve the problem. It will allow me to work longer - but ultimately still come up against the physical limitations.
Additionally I do have a Mackie Control. In the heat of a busy session it’s still so much easier and quicker to reach for the mouse as opposed to scrolling through MCU menus and pages to execute simple tasks. Still, I try and force myself to integrate it into my workflow. Fortunately my clients understand and don’t mind the few seconds lost on certain tasks.
Key commands also do help a lot; but there are still many things in Logic that are best accomplished with a mouse.
I have three back to back days with ten hours sessions booked this week. I hope I get through them okay. Fortunately they will not involve consistent intense editing. They are mostly tracking sessions. The intense editing will happen next week!!
Monday, July 9, 2007
