Fix your home desk in this order

Four hours into a working day at the kitchen table, your neck knows. Home desks usually fail in the same three places, and the order you fix them in matters more than what you buy.

Why the order matters

A better keyboard will not fix a chair that is too low. A monitor stand will not fix a seat that is too high. Work from the floor up: feet, chair, desk, screen, keyboard.

Official workplace safety bodies publish general computer workstation advice: neutral posture, screen position and keeping things within easy reach. It is aimed at employers, but the checks work at home. If your company has a home-office assessment, ask for it.

Step 1: feet and chair

Sit back in the chair with your feet flat on the floor. Your thighs should be roughly level and your knees about as high as your hips. If your feet dangle, use a box or a footrest. If your knees are above your hips, raise the chair.

A kitchen chair is the usual culprit. If you cannot adjust it, a firm cushion or a footrest may be enough for now.

Step 2: desk height

Your elbows should rest near the desk without lifting your shoulders. If the desk is too high and you cannot lower it, raise the chair and use a footrest. If it is too low, small risers under the legs can help, only if they are stable.

Step 3: screen height

The top of the screen should sit at about eye level, with the screen an arm's length away. A laptop on a table puts the screen too low and the neck pays. A stack of books under the laptop is a legitimate fix. A separate keyboard and mouse then become necessary, because the laptop keyboard is now too high.

If you are choosing between fixes, our comparison of a laptop stand and a monitor arm covers the screen step.

Step 4: keyboard and mouse

Elbows bent at about 90 degrees, wrists straight, keyboard close enough that you do not reach. A mouse that sits next to the keyboard, not far across the desk, keeps your shoulder out of it.

What coworkers in remote jobs usually end up with

Across remote jobs, a pattern tends to show. People start with a laptop at the table, then add a separate keyboard and mouse, then a laptop stand or screen at eye level, then a better chair. The chair comes last because it is the most expensive and often the least necessary once the other things are right.

If a chair is the thing that needs replacing, see office chair vs gaming chair.

When gear is worth buying

If your pain is more than tired, such as numbness or pain that wakes you at night, talk to a clinician. A chair will not diagnose that.

Step 5: breaks

No setup survives eight hours of not moving. Stand up when you can. Put a glass of water at the far end of the room. Your body copes better with a decent desk and frequent changes than with a perfect desk and none.

A small plan for the first week

Do not change everything in one go. Spend day one on the chair and feet, day two on the screen height, day three on the keyboard. Write down how your neck and shoulders feel at the end of each day, in one line. By Friday you will know which fix did the most, and that tells you where any money should go.

End of shift

• First to wear out: laptop-stand rubber feet and chair armrests.
• Check on Friday: whether you are still hunching at 3 pm. If so, go back to step 3.
• Not worth it: gear that fixes a problem you do not have yet.