A new chair has a lot of adjustments, and it's easy to feel like you need to get all of them perfect on day one. You don't. If you only have five minutes and want the biggest possible improvement right away, these three matter more than the rest combined.
1. Seat Height First ; Everything Else Depends On It
This is the foundation every other adjustment is built on, which is exactly why it comes first. Sit down, feet flat on the floor, and check that your knees sit at roughly a 90-degree angle with your thighs parallel to the ground.
If your seat height is wrong, no other adjustment can fully compensate. Lumbar support won't sit at the right point on your back if your hips are tilted from feet that don't reach the floor. Armrests won't line up with relaxed shoulders if your torso is sitting too high or too low relative to your desk. Get this one right first, and every adjustment after it becomes easier to dial in correctly.
2. Lumbar Support Position ; The Difference You'll Feel Fastest
Out of every adjustment on the chair, this is the one most people notice within the first hour, good or bad. Your lower back has a natural inward curve, and the lumbar support needs to sit right at that curve
Slide the lumbar support up or down while seated normally until you feel it fill that curve without needing to consciously arch your back to meet it. If you're leaning back and still feel a gap behind your lower spine, move it down. If it feels like it's pushing you forward around your shoulder blades, move it up.
This single adjustment is often the difference between "this chair is comfortable" and "this chair still hurts," even when every other setting is correct.
3. Armrest Height ; The One Everyone Forgets
Most people set up their seat and back support, then completely skip the armrests ; or leave them at whatever height they arrived in the box. That's a mistake, because armrests set wrong quietly cause shoulder and neck tension that builds slowly enough to not get blamed on the chair.
Relax your shoulders, let your arms hang naturally, then bend your elbows to about 90 degrees. That's where the armrest pad should meet your forearm. Too low, and your shoulders shrug up to compensate for hours without you noticing. Too high, and the same shrug happens in the opposite direction.
Everything Else Can Wait
Seat depth, recline tension, headrest position ; all genuinely useful, all worth dialing in eventually. But if you're new to your chair and want the fastest, most noticeable improvement in how you feel by the end of your first week, start with these three. They take under five minutes combined, and they're doing most of the work.