Reasons You Should Put the Mouse on the Left If You’re Right-Handed

A lot of these don't make a lot of sense to me. How is freeing up my right hand to use the keyboard a reason to use my left hand? If I use my right hand then it frees up my left hand to use the keyboard instead.

I am a left handed person and use a left handed mouse at work (OSX) and a right handed mouse at home (Windows). It helps with dissociating the macros for each system and gives me a subtile work vs play mindset. I would recommend giving it a shot for a day or two if you have the desk space

I move my mouse to either side so I don’t have issues with the general concept but this is nonsense and is just to pad the number to an even 10.

“It makes you a more interesting person”

Random story time: I have vivid memories of my (left-handed) dad insisting on having the mouse on the left of the keyboard. I remember it being annoying to move it back to the right side after he had used the computer. But when asked today, my dad – with apparent full sincerity – says it's preposterous and he has no memory of that. Given that he's worked with computers pretty much since I was born, he must remember if that was the case, right?

I guess it may have to remain a mystery.

I sometimes feel like half of what my dad did when I was very young must have been planting these weird memories as an experiment in order to see how I react to it when I get older. (I also remember him deliberately picking out the bottommost package of diapers in the pile at the dollar store, causing the entire pile to fall and cascade over the floor. Cannot get him to admit it to this day. I did very recently manage to drag out of him an admission of the sleight of hand where he ceased his heartbeat in the wrist, something else he's denied for a long time.)

we all know what the true reason is for putting the mouse on the left if you're right handed

I tend to keep a trackpad or mouse on both sides, so that no matter what position I happen to be sitting in, it's always easy to reach it.

I'm left handed and always naturally used the mouse on the right-hand side. The handy side-effect of this is when I developed RSI in my right wrist, using a touchpad on the left was really easy...

For what it's worth, I'd strongly recommend everyone try using a trackpad instead of a mouse with its advantage being less space it requires for operation. When using a mouse you constantly have to slide your arm around within an imaginary square on the desk surface and regularly lift the mouse to relocate your arm from the edge of the square back to its center. While with a trackpad you arm just rests and a single finger is all you need to do all the work. It's at least more quiet and you don't have to move you arm too far away from the keyboard when you need to use it.

I'm a leftie and keep my mouse (or, if I've got any influence over the choice of pointing device, a trackball) on the right.

The biggie is that it frees up my dominant hand for writing - additionally, I've noted that my fine-motorical skills using my right hand has improved drastically over the years, to the extent that I am now almost ambidextrous.

(My handwriting is definitely readable when written with my right hand, but I find it more of a mental effort for less gain than simply just writing with my left hand...)

Think of moving the mouse over to the 'wrong' side as an exercise in building redundancy. :)

I have always used my mouse on the left side of the keyboard despite being right handed. I think it comes down to being a child learning to play PC games and not really having the dexterity in my left hand to control WASD and the various keybinds properly with my left hand. So I adjusted to mouse on the left and right hand on the keyboard.

It does make it annoying to type and play games at the same time though since I usually have to move the keyboard pretty far off center to get comfortable and if I want to type I have to move it back to center first.

This is very cool and I am going to try this!

There are also studies that show there are benefits to your brain when you learn new neuro-muscular skills, like brushing with your left hand.

I did this when I was using Photoshop in college and started destroying my right shoulder. Now I have a wireless mouse I switch from hand-to-hand every so often to ensure I'm ruining both of my shoulders instead.

Using a mouse on the left side as a right handed person is amazingly fast to pick up. It's also really useful when showing people how to do things on a computer as you train yourself on the mouse, rather than just the muscle memory.

I learned to use my thumb on the trackpad when I am using my laptop. I feel so much more productive, my fingers can stay very close to their home position while my thumb handles minor mouse tasks. I do switch to using my finger for when I need more fine grained pointer control.

I switched to mousing left-handed about ten years ago, and actually use the mouse more, not less, because it's now so close. I still use the keyboard for invoking commands, but use the mouse a lot more now for moving the cursor, even for quite short distances.

For RSI purposes, both sides suck horribly but it helps to alternate. The idea of having a mouse or trackball off center is often a huge reason for the RSI in the first place. And if one is concerned with RSI, simply using a mouse, even one of the more ergonomic ones is a bad idea due to the large amount of movement. Trackballs, trackpads, and other devices, especially if they can stay centered, IMO, are preferable. I really like the rollermouse, which despite its name, is not a mouse at all. If anything, switching hands constantly is the ideal and this allows that. The magic trackpad 2 from apple is not bad either, but takes a lot more work from the arms and fingers.

Well, when we got mice, they felt kinda optional. So organically we used the left hand for them.

I keep it like that now. There are way more buttons on the keyboard - more work for the right hand.

Default WASD gaming is also more solid: place the thumb of your right hand on the left Ctrl - you can do a healthy rotation around this point while all other fingers are always above some relevant keys.

Mouse on the left is useful if someone is sitting alongside you (on your left) and wants to point something on the screen with your mouse.

I did this because I was experiencing intense pain in my right shoulder. Ten years on, the pain hasn't returned and the mouse stays on the left.

Intriguing, but not likely to make me want to change. Everything about my current setup is designed around having the mouse on the right side. Also typing on the keyboard doesn't use the amount of fine movement that my mouse does. It's easy to hit a key with my left hand. Moving a mouse over a 4px border is a lot more difficult.

Wow, I did this for all of the listed reasons here. I work with the left hand, game with the right.

Right hand use of the mouse for work never hurt my wrist. Minecraft and WoW did though. I kept the device on the right side but switched to a trackball and rebound any mouse button actions to the keyboard instead. Solved all my RSI issues.

I like to use a keyboard with no number pad, as long as the work doesn't require one. This shortens the reach for the mouse appreciably.

Left hander who used to mouse with right, but now uses left due to RSI. The hardest thing for me is realizing how often I used the ESC key (which my left hand used to rest on).

I'm left handed and use mouse on the right side. Thanks for putting a positive spin on this. RSI in particular.

Unfortunately I miss out on the being an interesting person part!

The author isn't taking this article seriously, and I think it's pretty mundane in terms of it's humor.

What is it that people see in this?

I have a trackpad for gestures on my left and a mouse for point and click on my right. I am certifiably weird.

Mouse on the right, Surface Dial on the left

Sounds like it would increase the risk of RSI instead of decreasing it

Why is this in my rss feed.

What's the difference between a start-up and a corporation? In a corporation the mouse is symmetric. (so you can move it on the left)

"People who notice that I’m right-handed but keep my mouse on the left often ask me why. It never fails to arouse the curiosity of people who have never seen it before, and it has led to interesting conversations with individuals that I wouldn’t have spoken much with otherwise."

This kind of ruins the article. It's up there on cringe with "I keep a pack of gum on my desk and people know me as the 'gum guy'!"

Anyway, do you just use a standard mouse or re-map the buttons?