How much time do you spend using your mechanical keyboard and what types of activities do you use it for?

Submitted by JarJarAwakens t3_y86m3e in MechanicalKeyboards

Personally, most of my keyboard time is spent on cheap Logitech style keyboards at the hospital since I'm a resident physician and I don't use my home desktop much for extended typing sessions, mostly just Internet browsing, largely due to lack of time/exhaustion.

I'm curious how other people use their mechanical keyboard.

Do you have hobbies that require a lot of typing like programming or writing?

Are you a student that needs to type a lot?

Do you take your mechanical keyboard to the office?

Do you work from home?

Is the keyboard mainly for aesthetics/comfort and not a major work efficiency tool?

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jc_223 t1_isyg8zd wrote

All day at work in an office setting. I rotate my boards though.

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IWishIHavent t1_isyvx3t wrote

I have (so far) only two:

  • My daily driver is a Keychron K2, which I use to work (from home) and on my personal computer as well
  • I also have a Keychron K3 to lug around for when I need to be in the office or travel. I used to take my K2, but it added weight and bulk to my slim backpack so I purchased the low-profile for that.

So virtually 100% of my computer time is on a mech keeb.

I'm a software developer, so I'm typing a lot most of the time. The high profile K2 (which I use most often, about 95% of the time) helps me keep a better posture and prevents wrist injuries. I had a severe wrist injury a few years ago, when I worked directly on the laptop's keyboard without a mouse, it took me over a month to recover with physical therapy. I'm much more aware of my ergonomic arrangement and posture while working since then. Also in my setup:

  • Sit-stand desk
  • Two 28" monitors on a monitor arm, arranged horizontally, set up so the first third of the monitors from the top is aligned with my eyes
  • Soft wrist rest
  • Keyboard, wrist rest and mouse over a desk mat (currently a little to small, I will need a larger one)

In my pipeline to buy/build:

  • Larger desk mat (accepting suggestions, nothing too flashy but I do like cool designs)
  • Macro pad (looking to build my own but also looking at prebuilt ones)
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Spiritual_Panda_8392 t1_it0pbp6 wrote

Bought mine for work, type 150 emails a day roughly cause I work out of a freight warehouse. Work would only give me e waist. Cheap Logitech or dell keyboards, was terrible.

Brought my new keeb to work everyday. Was so worth it. Odin V1 with aqua king v2

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Many_Afternoon_3885 t1_it0u5c4 wrote

I’m in IT, and use a mechanical keyboard at home and at work. At work, that’s only when I’m working in our DEV environment. In production, I have to use what is provided, which means a cheap Dell keyboard.

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magicmulder t1_isymdhr wrote

Two office days (IT work) per week (keyboard B) plus three home office days (keyboard A), 8 hours each. Plus about 1-2 hours gaming every other day (also A) and a total of 4-6 hours per weekend (A).

I take B to the office and back because it’s light and I don’t want to risk it getting stolen.

A is a heavy TKL (Idobao ID87 Crystal, Durock Shrimps), B a light 96% (Tofu 96, Gateron Yellow).

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Hostile-Potato t1_isyonne wrote

Might sound weird, but after I build my first keyboard, I saw a slight boost in my gaming performance. Might have been a placebo effect, but it was definitely a lot better playing on my custom than on my Ducky. I'm about to start school soon, so I can only imagine that using my custom keyboards is going to be way nicer than on a prebuilt. I wish I could bring my keyboard into work, but they won't let me bring outside keyboards into work :/

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NoOne-NBA- t1_isyvw7y wrote

I use one of mine all day at work, doing graphics.
The others I use probably a couple hours a night, for gaming, browsing, or doing projects.

My work board is custom designed, to fit exactly how I work.
It was designed, from the ground up, as an efficiency tool.
The aesthetics and comfort are both there, but weren't my primary concern.

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Sliced_Orange1 t1_isz5wdj wrote

I work as an IT consultant (read: a lot of typing, data entry, etc.) and I use a modded Keychron Q5. At home I mostly bounce between a Freebird60 and Odin V2. The board I use at home is completely spontaneous and depends solely upon my mood when I sit down at my desk.

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Skittles-McDuck t1_isz6vox wrote

I work from home and use a stock Keychron Q6. I do IT work.

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Secure_Concern7463 t1_isz8yn2 wrote

I am a law student and I work as a paralegal. I do zero gaming on my keyboard, I solely use it to type. I found that I customize because 1-I just enjoy doing fiddly mechanical things that don't require a huge amount of space to devote to a hobby 2- Having an aesthetic keyboard that sounds really nice motivates me to finish my work!

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sledge812 t1_iszc937 wrote

Software developer. I also do technical documentation and support. I actually use a different board depending on the main task of the day. A slightly stiffer Mammoth75 with JWK Koala for development and a tad lighter Q1 with Durock T1 for the days I have to do a lot of support or technical documentation.

When I need to work from the kitchen table because my wife has a meeting in our shared home office I use a Nuphy Air75 with lubed Gateron brown low profile switches.

My wife, also a developer, uses an Ikki68 Aurora with the aforementioned Boba switches (changed from the TKC Dragonfruit she was using before).

I started using mechanical boards to help fix my wrist pain. A lot of money and nearly a dozen boards later I think I have finally found my endgame.

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sunfaller t1_iszy7wn wrote

I'm in IT. I have a mech keyboard at home and work

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Mental_General_5445 t1_iszylup wrote

I'm a software engineer and naturally spend a lot of my time at the computer writing code, plus quite a bit of non-code writing (emails, reviews, ...). Since RSI is something of an occupational hazard, mechanical keyboards are for me mainly about preventative ergonomics and comfort. Though, writing custom code within QMK keymap has interesting productive possibilities... I've been having fun with that.

Day to day, I switch between working on a Dactyl Ergodox and a Moonlander. Both are fantastic. I strongly recommend to consider split, columnar keyboards with QMK firmware—here is a quick tour of features of why I think these keyboards are so great.

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beebo_bebop t1_iszzgd5 wrote

STEM grad student so a lot of writing & data entry & code, prefer to wfh but have to go on campus a lot & am planning a second build so i can leave one at my office

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mountainxclimber94 t1_it0ftob wrote

I have two customs and I use both for gaming mainly. They both have Gateron Silver Pro switches which have a really low actuation point so it works really well with games that require multiple keys to be pressed quickly one after another (Apex). I use both daily and switch to whatever color I’m feeling.

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LlamaDeathPunch t1_it0xlfe wrote

I use my 65% all day every day for work and play.

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MayAsWellStopLurking t1_it1av2b wrote

I work in complementary healthcare and primarily use my keyboard for clinical charting and billing.

Will play the occasional game but haven’t had much time.

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NovaForceElite t1_it5rdyf wrote

8+ hours a day writing code and content, and another 2-4 hours gaming. I use different boards for each though.

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