Next, the desk. Since you are a neck huncher, you should consider a system that lets you place the screen bottom lower than your waist. This will allow you to sit back and use your eyes to look down more often, as about half the screen is below your waist and half above (this will also help a little with the eyestrain as it makes you move your eyes about, changing the position of the very small muscles around the eyes.
You can also put a duplicate system using the same server–or a laptop, on a standing desk made to your measure (take a podium and some blocks and 2×4′s and start building to elbow height) as this will literally take the weight off…
Once you find the right positions for your desk and chair, you need to incorporate some movement into your desk time– change the tilts on the back and seat couple of times an hour.

Hope these help- email or IM if you like, as I tend to remember more things during conversation, and it certainly sounds like you need to make some changes before really hurt yourself.

That’s changed with LCD screens. I thinks you can sometimes do more designing away from the computer which is why I recently have started going back to basics with a pen and a piece of paper.

Getting out is also very important.

Great site by the way.

Good luck with the launch of your freelance practice!

I started biking or walking everywhere. Literally everywhere, the only recent exceptions being traveling out of town and picking up a new mattress. I also picked up guitar as a creative way to de-stress/non-visual passtime and I’m seriously thinking of picking up Tai Chi again, which helps posture and keeps things from atrophying.

Exersise REALLY helped me. Actually, I don’t think it was the exersise as such, but the stretching that comes with it. I’ve never been a gym fan either but I started doing Les Mills classes (BodyAttack) and also Bikram Yoga and since then I’ve hardly had any pain. Good luck with finding something that works for you!