How to make an office chair more comfortable

Research suggests the average office worker sits for up to 15 hours per day. Not surprisingly, all that sitting is associated with a higher risk of muscle and joint issues (as well as diabetes, heart disease, and depression).

While many of us know sitting all day isn't exactly great for our bodies and minds, few people have the luxury of quitting their jobs and jetting off to the Bahamas to stand on a beach for the rest of their lives. What's a committed office worker to do?

One piece of the puzzle lies in making your desk seating more ergonomic. This has two benefits: Sitting takes less of a toll on your body, and you'll stave off the discomfort that makes it harder to focus at work. No matter whether you sit for 10 hours a day or two, here's how to make an office chair more comfortable.

How to make an office chair more comfortable

Aside from adopting proper posture, here are eight ways to make yourself more comfortable while sitting at a desk.

1. Support your lower back.
2. Consider adding a seat cushion.
3. Make sure your feet don't dangle.
4. Use a wrist rest.
5. Raise your monitor to eye level.
6. Hold reference documents at eye level.
7. Adjust your office lighting.
8. Add some greenery.

Let's take a closer look at each of these tips

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Support your lower back

Many desk workers complain of lower back pain, and the solution might be as close as the nearest lumbar support pillow. Sliding one of these pillows between your chair and lower back offers extra support and can help fend off pain brought on by poor posture. It may feel a little odd at first, but it shouldn't take long to get used to it.

Consider adding a seat cushion

If a lumbar support pillow doesn't cut it or you simply find yourself craving even more support, then it might be time to add a seat cushion to your desk chair setup. Depending on the design, these cushions may help alleviate symptoms of back pain and/or sciatica. They also help promote proper posture by evenly distributing your weight throughout your lower body.

Make sure your feet don't dangle

If you're on the shorter side and your feet don't rest flat on the ground when you sit in your office chair, you may experience strain or discomfort as the day goes on. Luckily, this issue has a quick fix: Simply use an ergonomic footrest. This will support your feet and make it easier to maintain proper posture from your feet to your head.

Use a wrist rest

When you type and use a mouse while sitting at a desk all day long, your wrists can really take a beating. Adding a gel wrist rest to your desk setup can be a great way to reduce strain on your wrists. While you're at it, you might also consider investing in a wireless, ergonomic mouse. This can save your wrists and hands from the stress caused by using a trackpad all day.

Raise your monitor to eye level

Sitting in a desk chair and gazing down at a laptop or desktop computer screen all day is a recipe for neck strain. Go easier on your spine by raising your laptop or monitor to eye level so you only have to gaze straight ahead to look at your screen. A laptop or monitor stand will help you do just that.

Hold reference documents at eye level

This matters for the same reason that raising your computer screen to eye level is important: It reduces neck strain because you don't have to keep glancing down to read from the document. A simple desk director will help you review documents without stressing your neck.

Adjust your office lighting

Glare can cause eye strain and force you to wiggle around in your chair in order to find an angle that lets you clearly view your screen. This can impair your posture and contribute to overall discomfort while working. The good news is that changing up your office lighting can make it more comfortable to look at your screen. Start by investing in a few lamps with multiple lighting settings so you can customize the intensity of the light and where it lands on your computer and desk. If you can't alter office lighting, invest in a screen filter, which can also cut down on glare.

Add some greenery

This might seem like an odd addition: How would putting a plant on your desk make your office chair more comfortable? But research finds live plants can purify office air, reduce stress, and improve mood. And nothing makes an office chair more comfortable than feeling happy while you sit in it!

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Laura Newcomer

Laura Newcomer is a writer, editor, and educator with multiple years of experience working in the environmental and personal wellness space. Formerly Senior Editor at the health site Greatist, Laura now lives and works in Pennsylvania. Her writing has been published on Washington Post, TIME Healthland, Greatist, DailyBurn, Lifehacker, and Business Insider, among others. She has taught environmental education to students of all ages in both Pennsylvania and Maine, and prioritizes living an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. She's a big proponent of creating self-sustaining communities and accessible healthy food systems that care for both people and the earth. An avid outdoorswoman, she can often be found hiking, kayaking, backpacking, and tending to her garden.

I have three office chairs, a situation that comes with the territory when you write about home-office products for a living. Two of them are Wirecutter’s picks for the best office chair—the Steelcase Gesture and the Herman Miller Aeron—and the other is a no-name, $50 chair that’s not much more comfortable than your average dining table chair.

Guess which one I use most often?

Although high-end chairs are definitely higher quality than your run-of-the-mill model from Staples or Wayfair—built with more premium materials, sturdier frames, and a much wider range of ergonomic adjustments—a cheap chair could still offer the best fit if you make some smart modifications. In most cases, all you need are a couple of inexpensive cushions to create a more supportive and comfortable seating position—and possibly a few tweaks to your keyboard and monitor so that your other gear sits ergonomically in line with your “new” office chair.

Remember, it’s not just about the chair

Getting the right ergonomic fit while sitting at your desk requires balancing a lot of different factors. The height of your chair has to be just right to match the height of your desk and keyboard, and the height of your monitor has to be set so that you’re not craning your neck. If one thing is off, your workstation—and, by extension, your entire body—is out of alignment. Even though it seems like the process should be simple, it’s surprisingly hard to know how to sit in a chair so that it doesn’t break your back after a few hours.

The biggest problem is that most office furniture is advertised as one-size-fits-all, whereas in reality designs are skewed heavily toward people of taller stature. The average 29-inch-high desk, for example, is designed to best fit a 6-foot-tall person. Similarly, many of the office chairs we’ve tested don’t lower enough to let people under 5-foot-6 sit comfortably, with their feet on the floor. After years of testing and interviews with ergonomic experts, we’ve realized that the solution to such problems can be surprisingly straightforward and cost-effective.

Adjust your seating position

To begin, use your chair’s built-in adjustments (if it has any) to lower or raise your seat so that your feet are flat on the floor, your knees are level with your hips or slightly below, and you can sit comfortably against the back of the chair. If you can’t achieve an ideal sitting position, you can try some modifications:

• If your feet are dangling even at the lowest chair height, a footrest will work wonders. Anything will do, including a foam roller or a cardboard box, but it’s worth investing about $30 to $40 in something that’s soft, stable, and designed to encourage your feet to move.
• If you find that your knees are resting higher than your thighs even at the chair’s highest setting, a seat cushion can help by raising your butt an extra inch or two. Some of my long-legged friends stretch their feet out under their desks because many chairs are too short for them, but that isn’t the best position to keep for hours at a time.
• And if you’re not able to sit comfortably against the back of your chair, get a lumbar support pillow. I’m 5-foot-2, and most chairs have seat depths that are too long for me, so I tend to perch at the edge of the seat. A lumbar support pillow gently encourages me to lean back and maintain proper posture at my keyboard.

Besides providing a better fit, cushions can make sitting on a cheap chair more pleasant. A great ergonomic seat cushion, for example, not only lifts you up but can also compensate for a saggy or too-stiff seat.

Pillows can’t make cheap office chairs less squeaky, wobbly, or unattractive—and they can’t help with major flaws such as an inability to recline—but they are an inexpensive option for making even a cheap office chair fit just right. Pillows are your body’s best friend.

Next, look at your keyboard and desk

The best position for your forearms and wrists is parallel to the ground or angled down, as if you were typing with the keyboard on your lap. For many people with fixed-height desks, this isn’t possible when you’re also striving to keep your feet flat on the floor.

• If your keyboard is too high, the solution is once again to raise your chair and get a footrest. An under-desk keyboard tray can also lower the keyboard so that you’re not straining your arms or shoulders.
• I have yet to encounter a desk that’s so low, people have to strain or hunch over when they type. But if you find yourself in this situation, it’s not your chair’s fault. You just need a taller desk.

Finally, check the height of your monitor or laptop screen

Position your monitor such that eye level is about 2 to 3 inches below the top of the monitor, so you’re not craning your neck either up or down.

• If the monitor causes you to bend your head down, which is common if you work on a laptop, you have a few options: Laptop owners can get a laptop stand or a height-adjustable external monitor, while desktop computer owners who find that their external monitor’s adjustment range isn’t flexible enough for comfortable viewing can try a monitor arm.
• If your monitor is so high that you feel like you’re craning your neck to see it clearly, try arranging your application windows so that they’re more centered in your direct sight line. And here’s a bonus productivity tip: Put the distracting windows (such as Slack or Twitter) outside that central zone.

One day, a better-quality office chair may be in your future. But until then, these tips should help you make do with whatever you already have.