I recently underwent a minor arm surgery (nothing major, no need for sympathy), which has taken my dominant hand out of commission. For anyone this would be a major inconvenience. If I worked a construction job, or some other job that 100% relied on this hand, I’d have just taken the time off work and waited for it to heal. Instead, I am a project manager, and while I have no illusions that my projects would have likely continued along just fine without me, I chose to continue working after my 2nd day of recovery. Just call me She-Ra!

 

So, these are just a few of the ways I’ve managed to be productive while lacking a wing and half of my fingers.

 

Auto-dictation:

 I activated this functionality on my laptop, read through the tips on how to format, and utilized it to communicate my emails and Skype conversations.  It does take some practice getting the hang of speaking the way you type. Actually I’ve still not got that figured out…

 

Be sure to speak your punctuation, and the term to return is “new paragraph”–– at least on my Mac.

 

Working from home:

Due to the aforementioned tip, I spent the first couple weeks of my recovery working from home. Since I would be speaking out loud so much of my communications I didn’t want to annoy my desk-neighbors in doing so.

 

Be sure to proofread twice before sending anything, and keep an eye out for how the functionality interprets unusual names.

 

Swapping mouse functionality:

I found in my system settings the way to make my mouse work left-handed while still using the same forefinger to click.  Right click became left quick.

 

Bonus: There are lots of articles out there suggesting that mousing with your other hand increases brainpower…and I’ll take all the help I can get!

 

One-handed typing:

We all do this, so this probably seems obvious; scheduling with one hand, taking notes with the other, all while drinking your coffee or eating lunch at the same time.

 

It’s surprising how quick you can get!

 

Picking up the phone:

I have utilized Skype for quick connects and picked up the phone more than ever. It really does help to have an actual conversation, rather than waiting for email responses.

 

If it takes more than a couple of sentences to type out, just dial.

 

All in all, I’ve been way more productive than I expected to be and the other-handed tips and tricks I’ve picked up have allowed me to work my physical therapy while still getting work done. I think I’ll keep mousing with my other hand, just in case it really helps strengthen my brain.