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.

[ ] 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.
[ ] 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
    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.
[ ] 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.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/home-office-setup