For the past several years, I’ve been trying to optimize my workflow to be more “ergonomic.” Whether that’s keyboards, mice, or even monitors.

I spent hours researching different products such as e-ink displays, ergo keyboards, and mice.

While I didn’t end up getting an e-ink display, I did try different monitor setups, going from two 24" displays, to three 24" displays, before settling on a 49" ultra-wide display.

Luckily a mouse was an easier find. I settled on a Logitech MX Master 3. While it’s not the most “ergo” mouse, I do find it works the best for me. It works well for everything I need and is comfortable.

But keyboards is where I’ve struggled. I’ve always just used normal keyboards, either what is provided or on my laptops. But, I started to think that maybe if I had a different, more ergonomic keyboard it would make me a better, quicker writer.

This took me on an an adventure.

First I built a Dactyl Manuform Keyboard.

This was fun as this was my first real 3D printing project. Each of the bases took 24 hours to complete. So when I was working in an office at the time I was excited to come home and see the progress and in the back of my mind hoping it wouldn’t fail while I was away. Similarly when I was sleeping. I couldn’t wait for the morning to see the progress. Luckily, no major issues in the printing except for one side warped slightly.

Then I taught myself how to solder. As I was new and still learning, it ended up taking about six hours to complete each side with all the keys, diodes, and connecting everything to the micro-controller.

But when I finished, it just didn’t work for me. I tried it for a few weeks, but I couldn’t get used to it.

Surely, it just wasn’t the right keyboard for me. If I just found the right one, that would make me better, right?

So I took some time to think about it. I decided that the issue was “it still had too many keys.” So, I decided that a Ferris Sweep would be the ideal keyboard.

While it felt a bit more conformable, having to switch layers, just didn’t provide what I wanted.

So, I switched to something more “conventional,” a Logitech K860.

This ended up being a good mix of providing something more “ergonomic,” but being much more like a traditional keyboard that I’m used to. This ended up being something I liked and used for the next three years.

However, recently I’ve gotten the itch again for a different keyboard. I found a good deal on a used Kinesis Advantage 2 and decided to try it out.

I’ve gotten fairly used to it, to the point where I can comfortably type on it, but still working on recovering my WPM. Normally typing around 70-80 WPM on my Logitech, but being at about 50-60 on the Advantage 2.

In my workflow I do a lot of copy/pasting and taking screenshots of specific things. It’s something I’ve become very used to on the Logitech, but not yet on the Advantage 2. I realize I could play with the macro settings to make something a bit easier or more conformable. Yet, it makes me think that maybe, like golf, it’s not the equipment, but how you use it.

For now, I’ll just stick to my Logitech.