Two monitors = 44 percent increase in productivity

[Jillian Slack]

Two monitors = 44 percent increase in productivity : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Two monitors = 44 percent increase in productivity

Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:07PM EST

Nothing in cube-farm corporate America seems quite so decadent as having two monitors on your desk. Who is this important person who needs to work on two screens at the same time? Must be some kind of bigshot, eh?

Not so, posits the New York Times, which cites research that -- on certain text-editing tasks -- users were 44 percent faster using two 20-inch monitors instead of a single 18-inch screen. While there are no hard data points in the piece regarding other applications, it's not tough to see how users in all manner of industries and all types of tasks could benefit from having the extra LCD real estate. Anyone who has to flip back and forth between multiple windows in order to access information rather than keeping it all on the screen simultaneously should be able to get a productivity boost from having an extra display.

The Times' Farhad Manjoo put multi-monitor work to the test in his own workspace and notes that -- no matter what configuration he put them in, and even if he just went to one large monitor instead of two smaller ones -- he found his productivity improved significantly. The big benefit? Always being able to have your primary task visible and not covered up by off-topic windows like web pages and IM sessions. Says Fanjoo, "A huge desktop didn’t remove all distractions, but it blunted their force. Now I could keep my e-mail and the Web open on one screen while my Microsoft Word document ran on another. This kept me on task. Even if I did go off to the Web, my document was always visible, beckoning me to come back to work."

I've experienced similar results myself, though usually I use two or three separate computers side by side instead of just a bunch of monitors. Maybe I should rethink that strategy. Hmmm.

For a total maximum investment of about $500, Manjoo says he's convinced that the multi-monitor setup is more than worth the investment. Now let's see what your boss thinks about the idea...

[ryanman]

I tried it once but don't know why two monitors give me a headace.

[ltdraper]

I fully believe that. Currently I have 2 monitors in front of me with sessions on 4 machines, plus a third monitor/keyboard with an A/B on two other machines.

The only downside is my tweetdeck runs on the second monitor and I often get interupted to tweet something.

[getsmartt]

Currently have 4 monitors, 2 on each computer, controlled by 1 keyboard and mouse. It can certainly be more productive, but can also waste a lot of time, i.e. Warrior forum on one monitor, email on another, twitter on a third, and trying to get something done on the fourth...not happening

[Wakunahum]

If it works for you, it's surely worth the money even if it's just a few % more productive.

Shop around and you could find something nice for below $500 easy.

Edit: I just added another monitor to see if I can get anything out of this concept.

[Wah Bhatti]

i have 2 pcs moniters also one is on all my socail media and one for work
ps i have one pc not on my desk for graficks and stuff also all have the same screen size and res becuse when they diunt my eyes had to adjust

[Affiliate Inventor]

At one of my old jobs, I worked with two monitors and it was really great. I think it really helps when you have to compare things side by side, or when you have multiple applications running.

[Neil Morgan]

We've discussed this several times on her recently. I've got two 22" widescreen monitors and it really does help with your productivity because there is so much less opening, closing, maximizing and minimizing etc.

It is like having two computers but with the additional benefits that:

1. You can drag stuff from one to the other.

2. The same software is on both of them! (if you see what I mean)

Cheers,

Neil

[digitalproductreporter]

I've got 2 19 inch monitors = 44% REDUCTION in productivity

I keep hulu.com or youtube.com rolling on screen two many times, doh

but when i buckle down and only work, i couldn't live without 2

[Tim Dixon]

I actually use a laptop which of course has a built in screen and an external video port built in.

I find that using it in dual screen mode is just brilliant. Especially as you can put some of those big old spreadsheets up on the bigger screen to get the whole thing on without having to scroll across.

Trouble is I then find it really difficult to work when I'm mobile (i.e sitting in the living room wathcing TV!) as you just get so used to having that extra screen real estate.

Tim

[coco28]

At my work we all have 2 20inch monitors. Not sure about the productivity benefit though, I use one monitor for work stuff, and the other one for reading the sports pages on the internet...

[archer29]

I thought my husband, Mr. IT, was just being a computer geek when he went to 2 monitors. I'm a little slow on the uptake and picked up my 2nd monitor last week for just 25 bucks at a state auction. This is an awesome setup and I'm thinkin' about adding a third! I use one for regular stuff like checking email, reading this forum and the other one for research. I like having 3 tabs open on one screen (instead of 6) for keyword tools, google searches, etc. I think it's helpful to have the screens close in size and the same height. Mine is hooked up to my laptop and they're both 15".

[Writing Pete]

I want to try this - too bad I have no room for it! Oh, well...

[tomfra]

Having 2+ monitors is definitely a big plus if you know how to use them. I have 2 LCDs, one 20" 1600x1200 and another 17" running at 1280x1024 so they both have the standard 4:3 or actually the 5:4 format. The 20" is the main one that's on all the time (and by that I mean like 12+ hours a day) and is perfect for any office type of work and the colors are very good too (S-IPS technology).

I use the smaller "auxiliary" one when coding in PHP, for example. I write the code on the bigger one and have a web browser open on the smaller one where I refresh the page using a hotkey. The productivity benefits in this case are remarkable.

Tomas

[Andrew Maule]

Back when I was using a desktop and not a laptop I had dual monitors, helped a lot. Made me multitask more though which was a bit of a problem.

[mrsteady]

I first used two dual monitors at a job I had about two years ago, let me tell you once I got my first paycheck I immediately splashed out and bought two lcds for home. It really does give such a productivity boost, especially for a content writer. It is not too expensive to set up and any graphics card with a digital output can support it with an adapter and the correct drivers.

Setting it up in Linux was a bit of a challenge but hey if you enjoy doing that stuff its all fun. Windows users have it far easier though and its pretty much just click a button and it works.

[tommygadget]

I went to eBay and found 3 decent older laptops for $700. I created a complete image with XP and all my software and put it on all three. Now, when Firefox freezes one and I have to reboot, I work on the others. One has Linux which I now use for uploads because I am paranoid about getting spyware/adware from the Internet.

TomG.

[Josh Anderson]

You could just go with one 30'':

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG SyncMaster 305T Black 30" 6ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 1000:1 - LCD Monitors

Or this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824113013

Put two of those suckers together!

One of those two are the monitor I plan to get next with 2560x1600 resolution :-)

The price of the Gateway has come down a lot in the last couple months.

[IMChick]

Originally Posted by tommygadget

I went to eBay and found 3 decent older laptops for $700. I created a complete image with XP and all my software and put it on all three. Now, when Firefox freezes one and I have to reboot, I work on the others. One has Linux which I now use for uploads because I am paranoid about getting spyware/adware from the Internet.

TomG.

I thought I was the only one who wanted to insulate myself and protect the PC as much as I could from the viruses and etc. floating around by limiting which PC had net access. It sounds kooky when I try to explain it to people sometimes, really.

I just loove dual monitors for work, but have to say that you really can't beat them for general time wasting, either!

[lakshaybehl]

I have two computers on a network, but they both are operated from one Keyboard and Mouse...

[MalachaiGoodman]

I wonder if you get similar performance gains with one really big widescreen monitor or with things like the multiple desktops in Expose on OSX... I hear Windows 7 has a feature that lets you snap a window to half the screen...

[tomfra]

Originally Posted by MalachaiGoodman

I wonder if you get similar performance gains with one really big widescreen monitor

Most of the time it's not about the size itself but about the resolution. You would have to get a real big 2560x1600 LCD to replace the width offered by 2 17" 1280x1024.

Only a few LCDs have such a high resolution though, most of the 24"+ ones have 1920x1200 which is pretty good still anway.

Regarding the software, I don't think this would be a problem. Most of the time the bundled ATI or Nvidia SW does the job, and there are alternatives if it does not.

Tomas

[snidge]

It can make a huge difference. I bought a few Samsung Syncmasters and I just need to warn people to stay away from those monitors. I have gone through 5 when you include the exchanges and now the warranty is up and Samsung is just happy I didn't get around to exchanging them more within the 3 years.

2 monitors can really help though. Depends what you do obviously. In development it is nice because you can have flash or whatever open on one monitor and your code on another. Throw in a 3rd and you have the preview ready to go and it is just perfect!

[Andrei Rotariu]

I never understood the whole 2 monitor thingy. Maybe im just stupid but is that not what TABs are for. I have 3 tabs open right now.

[jlandells]

GoinDeep,

Tabs are fine when you're in one application (like Firefox or IE) but multiple monitors let you have multiple applications open at the same time, without having to constantly switch between them.

For example, when I'm designing websites, I have dreamweaver open on one screen and a browser on the other, so that I can instantly see what the page looks like when I tweak it, without having to constantly switch.

Another example is when I'm adding images to my web pages. I have one screen showing previews of my images whilst I'm using the other to build the code. That way, I can see exactly what they look like whilst I'm coding, without having to switch.

My recommendation to you would be to try it. Get a cheap 2nd monitor from ebay and see if it works for you - some people just don't take to it. If it doesn't work out, simply sell the 2nd monitor again on ebay!
(Check that your PC can support a 2nd monitor first, though...)

Hope this helps!

-John.

[Andrei Rotariu]

im always open to new ideas. I just seems as though its more for designers, programmers and networking folk. Hmmm we'll see.

[bombdiggity]

I had a friend once who had two touch-screen monitors. They were really great for getting multiple tasks done at the same time, but I think that if it was me I would have too much trouble keeping up with everything. If anyone plans on getting an extra monitor, they should look into getting one that has touch-screen like my friend for easier use.

[FlightGuy]

I have two 22"s as well... side by side, too. The problem is that they're both on two separate computers, but the right one is barely ever used. Maybe I should just set up dual monitors.

AGH I need a bigger desk.

[Nathan Hangen]

How else would I pwn people in WoW?

[Conference-TV]

Could you use two monitors in one pc?

[Brenton]

Originally Posted by Conference-TV

Could you use two monitors in one pc?

Yes you can, there is plenty of information on google about it. You may have to buy something if you gfx card cant support it.

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Jillian Slack

The big benefit? Always being able to have your primary task visible and not covered up by off-topic windows like web pages and IM sessions. Says Fanjoo, "A huge desktop didn’t remove all distractions, but it blunted their force. Now I could keep my e-mail and the Web open on one screen while my Microsoft Word document ran on another. This kept me on task. Even if I did go off to the Web, my document was always visible, beckoning me to come back to work."

Here's a crazy idea: what about one monitor with just that primary task on it?

What's the point of getting another monitor, just so you can have a bunch of stuff open that is "off-topic" and "distractions"?

Using that logic, you could be 88% more productive if you put a couple of TVs with sitcoms next to your monitor. If that's not good enough, maybe a couple of barking dogs and crying babies could be added to the mix. Then you'd really be productive, wouldn't you?

[Scott Lundergan]

Just as an fyi, this article is all over twitter, social media sites, internal company email forwards, etc.

Anyways, this works amazingly well for graphics, multimedia, designers, video content creators where having just one monitor slows them down because of workflow with multiple programs open that integrate with one another like Adobe CS4 Bridge.

Having another monitor to have facebook, etc open would take down that productivity and I would get distracted, but it is essential for me with media, as at any one time, I have over 600 media files spread across 5 terabytes of storage that I have in sync with working projects, usually with related scripts, client notes, etc.

This way, I can focus on creating content more-over and getting things done than stumbling looking for files and gettting taken out of my workflow constantly

I can see how it can be used for completely off topic sites like ebaums world for some humor while working and thus ongoing distractions.

Scott

[absbica]

what about 8 monitors?

ChaCha CEO Has Pretty Damn Sweet 8-Monitor Computer