The kitchen table is a decent desk until roughly the third hour. It is the right height for eating and usually a centimetre or two too high for typing, its chairs were designed for a plate rather than a laptop, and the light you cook under is rarely the light you want to read a screen by. None of that means you need to clear a spare room or spend a weekend building furniture.

The fixes are small, cheap, and mostly already in your kitchen. Work through the five checks below once, properly, and then repeat a shortened version at the end of each working day. It takes about five minutes and it is the difference between a table you can work at for a morning and a table that leaves your shoulders round your ears by four o'clock.

1. Start with the chair, because everything above it depends on it

Sit down as you normally would and notice three things: your feet, your knees and your shoulders. Feet should be flat on the floor. Knees roughly level with your hips, or a touch lower. Shoulders down and relaxed, not creeping up towards your ears.

Dining tables tend to sit slightly higher than a standard desk, so if the table feels too tall, the answer is not to slouch down into it. Raise your seat instead, then deal with whatever that does to your feet.

• Seat too low? A firm cushion or a folded blanket lifts you quickly. Stack them flat rather than letting them squash into a slope you slide off.
• Feet dangling? You need a footrest. A sturdy box, a stack of cookbooks or a ream of paper will do, as long as it stays put and does not slide across the tiles.
• No back support? Roll a bath towel into a cylinder and tuck it into the small of your back. Kitchen chairs with a curved back are rarely shaped for a long afternoon.
• Hard seat, long day? A folded blanket under you does more for comfort than you would expect.

Check the depth, too. You want roughly a couple of fingers' width between the back of your knees and the front edge of the chair. And if you have been using a backless stool, save it for short bursts rather than a full working day.

2. Get the screen up to eye level

A laptop sitting flat on a kitchen table puts the screen well below where your eyes want it, so you drop your chin and bend your neck forward. That is the position your neck likes least, and it is the one most kitchen-table workers hold for hours without noticing.

Raise the laptop. A stand, a stack of cookbooks or a sturdy box all work. Aim for the top of the screen roughly at eye level or just below it, and about an arm's length away.

There is a catch: once the screen is up, the keyboard is up with it. That is why a separate keyboard and mouse matter more than any other purchase. Plug them in, drop your hands back to table height, and you have fixed both ends of the problem at once.

If you only have the laptop, you are choosing between neck strain and wrist strain. Work in shorter blocks, take more breaks, and consider borrowing a keyboard until you can sort one out. Keep the screen directly in front of you rather than off to one side, so you are not twisting to read it.

3. Keyboard and mouse: keep everything close

Elbows at roughly ninety degrees, or a little more open. Forearms level or angled very slightly down. Wrists straight, not bent up towards the ceiling and not pressed against the hard edge of the table.

Bring the keyboard close enough that your upper arms hang by your sides. If you are reaching for it, your shoulders will climb within twenty minutes and stay there. The mouse belongs right next to the keyboard, not out on a far corner of the table where you have to stretch for it.

You will know the table is too high if your wrists bend upwards as you type. Raise the seat with a cushion, use a footrest to close the gap underneath, and let the table come down to you rather than bending your hands all day to meet it.

Clear a patch the size of a sheet of A4 for the mouse, and push plates, post and paperwork out of the way. At the end of the day, pack the whole lot down. The table has to go back to being a table.

4. Lighting: side-on beats facing the window

Two problems to solve: glare on the screen, and shadows across the keyboard. Sitting facing a window is the classic mistake, because the window ends up far brighter than the screen and you squint at both.

Where you can, sit side-on to the window so the light falls across the table rather than into your eyes or onto the screen. Kitchen downlights overhead and slightly behind you can bounce off a glossy display; angle the screen, or shuffle a chair's width along the table, and the reflection often disappears.

For darker mornings and evenings, add a lamp you can aim. A small desk lamp with an adjustable head, positioned to light the keyboard and any paper without shining into your eyes, is worth the space it takes up.

Match your light levels. A bright screen in a dim room is tiring, and so is a dim screen under a bright ceiling light. Switch the kitchen light on if you need it, then adjust the screen brightness to sit comfortably alongside it.

5. Breaks you will not have to remember

The best break is one attached to something you already do. Otherwise it becomes another thing to forget.

• Roughly every half hour, stand up. Walk to the kettle, refill a glass of water, put a cup in the sink. Two minutes of movement is enough to reset your posture.
• Tie it to a task. When you send an email or close a document, stand before you open the next one.
• Rest your eyes. Every twenty minutes, look at something about six metres away for twenty seconds. Looking out of the window counts.
• Move your shoulders and neck. Roll the shoulders back, turn your head slowly from side to side, while the kettle boils or during a call with the camera off.
• Take calls standing. It changes your posture and it counts as a break, even if your feet stay in the kitchen.

If you can manage a longer pause mid-morning and mid-afternoon, take it. A proper break beats four hurried ones.

Your five-minute reset

1. Sit down. Feet flat, cushion under you if the table feels high, footrest if your feet dangle.
2. Roll a towel behind your back and check there is a small gap behind your knees.
3. Raise the laptop on books or a stand until the top of the screen is near eye level.
4. Bring the keyboard and mouse close. Elbows around ninety degrees, wrists straight.
5. Turn the chair side-on to the window if you can, switch on a lamp, clear a patch for the mouse.
6. Decide your break trigger: a timer, a full glass of water, or the end of each task.

Run the same reset at the end of the day as you pack the laptop away, and the table starts tomorrow in the right state rather than covered in yesterday's cables. Small adjustments, done consistently, are what make a kitchen table workable for months rather than a fortnight.

One note for anyone whose aches do not settle: if you are getting numbness, tingling, or pain that lingers after you have stopped working, speak to a GP or a physiotherapist rather than pushing through it. Good set-up helps a great deal, but persistent symptoms deserve a proper look.

Photo: LubosHouska / Pixabay