Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors
I can hardly imagine being productive on a single monitor anymore.  After having three 19&quot; monitors for a couple very productive years, I tried switching to two 27&quot; monitors.  It added up to more space, to be sure, but I spent way too much time managing windows.<p>And then I took a job with a startup and bought a laptop since they wanted me to show up in the office on occasion, and working with one monitor was like driving with one eye open.  I started to get better at it, but there was so much extra effort involved in context switching.  Even as it became muscle memory, it didn&#x27;t come close to beating a simple glance to the left or right.<p>They offered a separate monitor, but I chose to go back to working from home and switched to three 22&quot; monitors, which has been perfect for years (though I want at least one more now for testing non-linux apps).<p>Focus has nothing to do with monitor layout.  I have three monitors, but only one thing is happening at any given time.<p>When I&#x27;m coding, email, slack, etc, are all off.  It&#x27;s a terminal on my left with git, and logs, a fullscreen IDE in the middle, and documentation and test application on the right.<p>When I&#x27;m shopping, it&#x27;s reviews in the middle, shopping cart on the left, and search on the right.<p>When I&#x27;m catching up on slack &#x2F; email, they&#x27;re both open on separate screens with an extra for research (Github, etc).<p>When I&#x27;m editing photos, its the collection on the left, editor in the middle, research (editor docs, etc) on the right.<p>Focus is all about strictly doing one thing at a time.  Multiple monitors is about switching contexts without losing focus.  The only problem I have now is that I don&#x27;t blink often enough.<p>Also, to the point about &quot;Same Workflow When Remote&quot;, I just choose not to work while traveling any more.  I&#x27;m not as productive, nor do I want to learn to be more productive while on the road.  That used to be a dream for me;  And then I <i>really</i> tried it;  And I <i>really</i> sucked at it.  I&#x27;d rather have my sit&#x2F;stand desk, comfortable chair,  and tea pot - all optimized for focus - than try to drive uncomfortably with one eye open.