How do I set up a comfortable home workspace?

Screen height, chair setup, lighting and the separation that makes working at home sustainable rather than uncomfortable.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 1 hr 30 min
Read: 3 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Get the screen top at roughly eye level and the keyboard at elbow height — a laptop can't do both at once, so you need either a stand plus separate keyboard, or an external monitor. Then sort the chair, get light from the side rather than behind or in front, and take regular breaks.

A laptop is ergonomically impossible on its own: the screen and keyboard are fixed together, so whichever one you position correctly puts the other in the wrong place. Separating them is the single change that most affects comfort, and it costs very little.

Safety

Persistent pain, numbness or tingling in the hands, arms, neck or back is not something to work through — see a doctor or physiotherapist. Ergonomic setup reduces risk but doesn't treat an existing injury. If you're employed and working from home, your employer may have obligations regarding your workstation.

What you'll need

Laptop stand or monitor
External keyboard and mouse
Adjustable chair, or cushions and a footrest
Desk lamp (optional)

Step by step

Raise the screen so the top of it is at roughly eye level.A stand, a monitor arm, or a stack of books. Looking down at a laptop screen all day is the main cause of neck pain.
Use a separate keyboard and mouse once the screen is raised.This is the essential pairing. Raising the screen without separating the keyboard just moves the problem to your shoulders.
Set the keyboard so your elbows are at roughly 90 degrees and your forearms are level.Adjust the chair height for this, then deal with your feet separately.
Get your feet flat on the floor or on a footrest.If raising the chair for the keyboard lifts your feet off the floor, you need a footrest — a stack of books works.
Support your lower back.A cushion or rolled towel behind the lumbar curve makes a substantial difference in a chair without adjustment.
Position the screen so light comes from the side.A window behind the screen causes glare and squinting; a window behind you causes reflections. Side-on avoids both.
Add a task light rather than relying on one ceiling light.Poor lighting causes eye strain and leaning forward, which then causes neck and back problems.
Take a short break at least every hour and change position.The best posture is the next one. No setup compensates for sitting still for four hours.
Separate the workspace from the rest of the room if you possibly can.Even a corner that's only used for work helps considerably with stopping at the end of the day.

Tips

A laptop stand and a basic external keyboard and mouse cost very little and are the highest-value ergonomic purchase most people can make.
If you can't have a dedicated room, packing the work things away at the end of the day is a reasonable substitute for a physical boundary.
The 20-20-20 guidance for eye strain — every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds — is easy to remember and costs nothing.
Standing desks help mainly by encouraging position changes. Standing still all day has its own problems; alternating is the benefit.

Common mistakes

Working on a laptop on a table without a stand — The screen and keyboard can't both be right. It's the root cause of most home-working discomfort.
Raising the screen without a separate keyboard — You then reach up to type, which moves the strain to your shoulders and arms.
Sitting with a window directly behind the screen — You squint against the glare all day, which causes eye strain and forward leaning.
Sitting still for hours — No posture is good enough to hold indefinitely. Regular movement matters more than perfect setup.

Questions people ask

What's the most important thing to get right?

Screen height combined with a separate keyboard. A laptop alone forces you to choose between neck strain and shoulder strain, and separating them removes that trade-off entirely.

Do I need an expensive chair?

Not necessarily. Adjustability matters more than price, and a cheap chair plus a lumbar cushion and a footrest can be set up well. What matters is that your elbows and feet end up in the right places.