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Home office setup checklist

How to set up working from home: screen and chair height, light and sound, cables and storage, boundaries for the working day and rules for the household.

Items inside: 16

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Choose a permanent spot rather than the kitchen table
Even a corner of a room works better than a spot that gets cleared every evening. Your brain needs an address where work begins.

A permanent spot is half of working well at home: no daily rebuild, and it switches you into work mode by itself.
Set the desk and chair height
Forearms parallel to the floor, shoulders relaxed, feet flat. If your feet dangle, you need a footrest, not a habit.
Raise the screen to eye level
The top of the screen roughly at eye level, about an arm's length away. A laptop on a desk is almost always too low.
Add a separate keyboard and mouse to a laptop
Cheaper than a chair and it solves the laptop's core problem: the screen and keyboard cannot both be in the right place.
Set up the light: from the side, no glare
Not behind you and not in your face. Almost anyone working in the evening needs a desk lamp, even with a ceiling light.
Get a headset with a microphone
A laptop's built-in mic picks up the whole room. A headset noticeably improves calls for very little money.
Check how you look on a video call
Camera at eye level, light in front of you, no window behind. Check it once and forget about it for months.
Get the cables out from under your feet
Cable ties, an extension with a switch, a mount under the desk. It is both safety and never untangling anything again.
Organise storage for work things
A drawer or shelf where everything work-related goes at the end of the day. It is also how you physically close the working day.
Agree the rules with the household Children or flatmates at home
The hours when you should not be interrupted and what counts as urgent. With children a visible signal helps: a closed door, headphones.
Create a start to the working day
A walk instead of a commute, coffee at the desk, five minutes to plan. The body understands rituals better than calendars.

A start ritual replaces the commute — and it is the missing commute that makes mornings at home shapeless.
Mark the end of the day with an action
Close the laptop, switch off the monitor, put things away, step outside. Otherwise work spreads into the evening.
Set reminders for breaks
Stand up, stretch, look into the distance, get water. A break is part of the work, not a reward for it.
Check the internet and a backup
Speed where you sit, not next to the router. Set up mobile data as a fallback in advance.
Set up backups for work files
A home laptop breaks just like an office one, but without an IT department. An automatic backup prevents a disaster.
Add something alive and pleasant
A plant, a lamp, a photo, a decent mug. A space you want to be in works better than a perfectly ergonomic one.

Home does not stop you working — the lack of boundaries does

Working from home breaks in two places: your body and your boundaries. The body suffers from a random chair and a screen at the wrong height — it accumulates over weeks and then takes far longer to fix than it took to set up. The boundaries suffer because the working day has no start and no end, and the kitchen table is simultaneously a desk, a dining table and a homework spot.

The good news: both are solved once. A properly set-up space and a clear routine keep working on their own.

What matters more than an expensive chair

Setting	How to know it is right
Desk and chair height	Forearms parallel to the floor, shoulders relaxed
Top of the screen	Roughly at eye level, not below
Distance to the screen	About an arm’s length to its surface
Foot support	Feet flat, not dangling
Lower back	The back is supported rather than holding itself

A laptop on a desk almost always sits too low: a separate keyboard and a stand fix that for less than a new chair.

Light and sound

Light from the side, not from behind you and not in your face: the screen should not catch glare, and you should not sit with a window behind you on a video call. A desk lamp is worth it for almost anyone working in the evening.

Sound: a headset with a microphone beats a laptop’s built-in mic in every condition. If the home is noisy, agree a “door closed means do not come in” rule rather than trying to talk over it.

Routine and boundaries

Mark the start and end of the working day with an action: a walk instead of a commute, the laptop closed, the monitor off. Your body understands rituals far better than it understands a calendar.

Agree with the household which hours you should not be interrupted, and what counts as urgent. And agree with yourself: messages after the end of the day are seen by tomorrow’s you.

About breaks

A break is part of the work, not a reward for it. Stand up, stretch, look out of the window, get water. Without that, your back and eyes catch up with you by Friday. Set a reminder if you forget on your own.

When the setup is done

Screen at eye level, chair and desk adjusted, feet flat, light from the side, a headset with a microphone, cables out of the way, a working day with a start and an end, and clear rules for the household.

Frequently asked questions

How should I position a monitor at home?

Top of the screen roughly at eye level, about an arm's length away, not facing a window and not with one behind you. Put a laptop on a stand and add a separate keyboard: otherwise your neck does the stand's job.

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