Creating an Ergonomic Home Office Environment

You're sitting for eight or nine hours. The chair matters, but so does how you fit yourself into it and how you arrange everything around it. Get those wrong and even an expensive chair won't stop your neck from aching by Thursday.

Here's how to fit yourself into the chair and set up the rest of the desk:

• Adjust the seat height: Your feet should be flat on the ground, knees bent at ninety degrees. Most chairs adjust between seventeen and twenty-one inches. If yours goes lower and your feet still dangle, you need a footrest.
• Adjust the lumbar support: The backrest should press into the curve of your lower back, not the middle of your spine. If your chair has adjustable lumbar support, move it until it sits in that curve. If it doesn't adjust, a rolled towel works.
• Adjust the armrests: Your shoulders should be relaxed, arms parallel to the ground when your hands are on the keyboard. Armrests that push your shoulders up will tire you out. If they adjust, set them just below elbow height when you're sitting upright.
• Proper lighting: Eye strain comes from glare and from contrast between the screen and the room. Put the desk near a window if you can, but not facing it directly. A desk lamp pointed at the wall behind the monitor reduces the contrast without putting light in your eyes.
• Monitor placement: The top of the screen should sit at or just below eye level, about an arm's length away. Too high and your neck tilts back. Too low and you're looking down all day, which you'll feel in your shoulders.
• Keyboard and mouse position: Keep them close enough that you're not reaching. Your wrists should be straight, not bent up over the edge of the desk. A wrist rest helps, but standing up every hour helps more.

None of this replaces getting up and moving. The best ergonomic setup in the world still leaves you sitting, and sitting for nine hours is the problem no amount of lumbar support actually solves.