recently i read an article why i stopped using multiple monitors
let’s review author’s points on topic.
firstly, author stated that multiple monitors are counter-productive, they decrease your amount of focus. anything that’s on your second monitor distracts you.
you’re much more likely to keep working if your email, social media, and so on aren’t visible
well, i never had this type of problem. i don’t recieve emails every 10 minutes. i don’t have a lot in my social media feed, so i don’t check it every hour. usually it’s about four times a day. that contains twitter, vk, youtube feed.
with a single screen, i eliminate decisions. i don’t waste time deciding where to drag windows or fiddling with where to place a given window.
i don’t think that kind of decisions waste your time and need any brain activity. i found my zen, and now i drag windows only once, when computer started. i don’t need to move applications from one monitor to another.
virtual desktops for the win
the far left virtual desktop is always my browser, the one to the right is my editor. so i treat virtual desktops like physical screens that reliably present the same content.
and this is just ridiculous. instead of just moving your eyes which basically don’t need any time, he presses the keys on keyboard to switch his desktops. it is just extra work.
i use virtual desktops if i need to work with multiple projects at the same time.
same workflow when remote
here he has a good point and i almost agree with him. but on my current work i also have two monitor setup, so it doesn’t affect me dramatically.
but this point is not enough to reject opportunity to use second monitor. it’s same as you don’t eat sushi just because you can’t cook them at home. (yeah, i know, it’s pretty bad analogy, but i didn’t come up with something cleverer)
so, it is obvious that author is not a web developer, he doesn’t write code.
i won’t ever switch to one monitor setup again. second monitor boosts my productivity. i worked with one monitor a lot time and switching between applications really annoyed me.