Screens and desk

Why the standard desk is wrong for most people

Fixed desks cluster between 72 and 75 centimetres, a height that suits someone around 180 centimetres tall. Anyone shorter is reaching slightly upwards all day, which is why the shoulders and neck complain first even though the wrists are what people worry about.

The fix rarely involves buying anything. Raise the chair until your forearms are level with the desk, then support your feet so your thighs stay level. That reproduces the correct geometry with the furniture you already have, and a footrest can be a box.

• Chair first — everything above it is measured from a seated position that is already right.
• Forearms level with the surface, elbows near a right angle, shoulders down.
• Screen top at or just below seated eye height, about an arm’s length away.
• Feet flat, on the floor or on something solid.

Movement beats measurement

A perfectly measured setup held completely still for eight hours is worse than an imperfect one you keep moving in. Getting up, walking a few steps and looking at something in the distance does more for how you feel by the end of the day than the final centimetre of monitor height.

That also settles the standing desk question. Standing all day is not an upgrade on sitting all day — it just moves the load — and the benefit of an adjustable desk is that it makes changing position easy.

What this section is not

It is not treatment. Pain that persists, numbness, tingling or weakness in a hand or arm, and anything that wakes you at night are not posture puzzles to solve with a tape measure, and they are worth a doctor rather than another chair adjustment.

Everything here is about setting up equipment sensibly, which is safe to do yourself and cheap to get right.

What is the right desk height?

The one that puts your forearms level with the surface when your shoulders are relaxed and your feet are flat. For a seated desk that is roughly 40 per cent of your height, which is about 70 centimetres for someone of 175.

Should the monitor be at eye level?

The top edge at or a few centimetres below eye level, so your gaze drops slightly. Above eye level tips your head back, and that is the position that tires the neck fastest.

Is an expensive ergonomic chair worth it?

Adjustability is worth paying for; brand names beyond that are not. A cheap chair that reaches the right height with your feet flat beats an expensive one that does not.