Typing Caused My RSI. Here's What I Do Now.

Two years ago my right hand started going numb after about ninety minutes of typing. I ignored it for longer than I should have. By the time I saw a doctor, I had a repetitive strain injury in my wrist and forearm that took four months of reduced computer use to calm down.

I'm a writer. Reduced computer use is not a minor inconvenience. It was a professional crisis.

What came out the other side was a work setup that actually fits how humans are built, instead of what the standard desk-and-keyboard arrangement silently demands.

What RSI Actually Is

Repetitive strain injury is an umbrella term for damage caused by repeating the same motion too many times without adequate rest. Typing is the classic case. You're making small, fast, forceful movements with your fingers and wrists for hours at a stretch, often in a fixed position, often without noticing the tension building in your forearms and shoulders.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most well-known form, involving compression of the median nerve. But there are others: tendinitis, cubital tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome. They're all variations on the same theme: the body wasn't designed for what we're asking it to do, at the pace and duration we're asking it.

The Recovery Phase

My physio gave me a hard limit of thirty minutes of typing per hour, with mandatory breaks. That sounds manageable until you're on a deadline. I had to find ways to produce words without producing all of them with my hands.

Voice dictation was the first tool I tried seriously. I had dismissed it before my injury as something for people who couldn't type. That was a mistake. Dictation isn't a consolation prize. It's a genuinely different and often better way to produce prose.

I started using VoiceInk because it worked locally, which mattered to me. My work involves sensitive drafts that I didn't want passing through third-party servers. I press a key, speak, and the text appears in whatever app I'm using. My hands stay still.

What I Changed Beyond Dictation

Dictation handles the word generation. But there's still editing, navigating, and everything else that involves the keyboard. I reduced that load in a few ways.

A vertical mouse took immediate pressure off my wrist. It keeps the forearm in a more neutral position instead of the slightly rotated posture a standard mouse requires. The difference showed up within a week.

I also switched to a split keyboard for the typing I do still do. The learning curve was about two weeks of slower typing, followed by noticeably less forearm tension. Combined with dictation, my daily keyboard usage dropped by roughly sixty percent.

Breaks are now non-negotiable. I use a simple timer that prompts me every forty minutes. I stand up, shake out my hands, look at something far away for thirty seconds. It interrupts flow occasionally and has prevented a relapse.

What My Day Looks Like Now

First drafts of anything, articles, essays, story sections, are almost entirely dictated. I speak the rough version and edit with the keyboard. That edit pass involves far less typing than generating from scratch would.

Emails are mostly dictated. Code, when I write it, is still typed, but I've cut the sessions shorter and annotate with voice instead of typing comments.

I write more than I did before the injury. Not despite the constraints, but because removing the keyboard as my only tool forced me to find approaches that were actually more efficient.

If You Have Early Symptoms

Tingling, numbness, aching in your hands or forearms after long sessions: don't wait. See a physio or a doctor. Do it before the limitation becomes severe.

And start experimenting with dictation now, not as a last resort. Learning it before you need it means you'll use it better if the day comes when you need it badly.

Your hands are doing work they weren't built for. There are other ways to get the words out.