Asklemmy

Backend dev. I have an ultrawide (like two monitors in one).

Sometimes I need to test the full stack and need a lot (8+) terminals. I try to tile them all on a separate virtual desktop.

Most commonly though, I center my main application and can have two smaller, peripheral applications, one on each side.

When doing full stack, I need a browser, IDE and two terminals, tiled to give more space for the browser.

Virtual desktops, multi monitor and tmux allow me to go full ADHD, everything open at once, multiple projects on different desktops with like 5 windows open

Bonus points when I've got multiple terminals connected to the same tmux session because I forgot I already had it on another desktop or wanted it split with something else

My home setup is an ultrawide and a 1080p monitor. I find with tiling and virtual desktops more than that is surplus to requirement (even the 1080p monitor usually just has a browser open)

I'm a FE and A11y focused SWE

Laptop screen: IDE / main browser

Main monitor: terminal with dev server, and browser to localhost

I wish I could have a small, third monitor for just the terminal but my Mac struggles with one extra monitor. I also tend to work at 150% zoom because of terrible eyesight, so I don't actually have that much screen real estate.

Two and a half monitors here. Two connected to my desktop (one normal one vertical) and my laptop below them.

My laptop is for Teams calls, and the occasional reference page or video, but is mostly ignored until I need it. The main large monitor for editors and email. The vertical one for references and notes.

I would love a third monitor for the desktop but my desk is too narrow for that to be realistic.

Four monitors plus the laptop screen. It’s…a lot visually, but my productivity is significantly higher than when I only had two and the laptop screen.

They’re arranged in a square so clockwise from top right:

1. Work entry screen - this is where I’m typing a lot

2. Reading screen - this is the general source of what I’m working on

3. Outlook - I’m fully remote, Outlook is life

4. File folders - I work mainly with two or three folders all day so it just makes sense to have them uncovered

Laptop - Teams!

Of note, I use a ton of keyboard shortcuts and have generally optimized my workflow so I’m not hitting the mouse nearly as often as my coworkers. Having Outlook and Teams each have their own screen means I can keep them open and see what’s coming in while still working on my stuff on other screens. Final thing I’ll say about the arrangement, because you’re probably visualizing this making for a good gaming setup, no it wouldn’t because of how the screens are placed.

No matter what, get yourself a mirror. I don’t like people suddenly appearing by me, and since I’m using noise-cancelling headphones with music/podcasts 40+ hours a week, this keeps me from jumping out of my skin.

• Outlook (tasks, inbox, and calendar) on the left screen (sometimes vertical)
• Main work window on the right screen.
• Underneath is my laptop screen with Teams and Notepad++.

Remove 1 screen = reduce my productivity by maybe 20%.

Remove one more screen = reduce by at least another 40%.

At my past job every one in the IT team I was part of had three monitors, it was great when needed, but for the most part I was doing fine with two.

It was not uncommon to need one monitor for the work order, one monitor where I had the tool to work with and one to have the documentation of the tool.

At my current job I have two monitors, its fine.

I have two monitors but I do all my work on one the other is completely separate. Plays YouTube all day so that I have background noise to work with.

Less necessary now that I'm using a tiling wm, but previously it allows me to have IDE, program I'm working on, and a browser for googling without having to switch context to go between them

Plus if more is needed for whatever use case (terminal window for running application, teams, etc) I can split screen too

With a tiling wm at work I have teams/outlook on right, primary application (terminal/tmux, IDE, browser etc) center and googling browser on the left, and then a virtual desktop for each project I'm working on at the home if I need to switch for whatever reason

Three monitors for work and sometimes wish for a 4th. I'm doing research and pulling info from various documents into one document with commentary. A 4th would be nice so I could have email and chat on it. I've missed people asking me questions because I had documents in front of the chat and missed the pop-up. Sometimes you need 5 programes and then multiple documents open to understand what going on to explain it and then have to copy and paste from various documents.

For personal I liked it when I had 4 monitors. Main for web browsing and one for chats. The other two, one for playing video or music and the other to drag stuff to. The other two really shined when I would do photo editing or writing. Spreading things out over 3 monitors made things easier. Right now with my living situation I'm pretty much on a laptop so one monitor. Really makes photo editing not as fun and writing when I need to keep pulling up references stuff outright frustrating at times. I actually have more than 4 monitors at home since I kept picking them up at thrift stores, (DVI into USB adapters are nice) but didn't find any real benefit to more than 4. But once everything settles I plan on getting my 4 monitors setup back and a Linux station for certain projects with 2 monitors and Raspberry Pi with 1 monitor.

Three screens billed as "business expense" actually used as a sim racing rig.

But you will end up filling any screen space you have. When coding I very quickly fill out the space, to see files and folders I am intereacting with, communication apps, websites, IDE, ticket screen. Some days I wish I had 4.

I'm an engineer (a non-IT engineer) and have 4. There is so much ensuring consistency between drawings and documents. I'd like 5 (including the inbuilt one) but graphics card on my high performance company laptop says no.

At least one for file explorer, then other three could be pdf editor, or word, or excel, or internet browser.

I regularly have 4 drawings open, plus another reference, plus windows explorer for file management.

It's never enough. I could totally do with more than 4 screens, I'm already squeezing multiple drawings onto one monitor.

I have two. Early career I found the second one absolutely improved my productivity - perhaps by 50% or more - as it helped me multitask really effectively.

Now, later in my career I have had kids for a while. My multitasking went out the window when I had kids - I find it hard to juggle more than one or maybe two things I'm working on at a time. I suspect this was due to poor sleep - parents never seem to really catch up to sleeping full nights like before kids. Instead of multitasking on lots of small things I transitioned to more in-depth work where I can focus for longer periods on a single thing.

Now, I think having a second monitor is still useful but I can function fine without it. It's maybe a 10% boost if that.

I've got two monitors which mostly ends up meaning I have twice the amount of screen to lose application windows in.

I have 3 monitors. One I use for email/slack. The others I use for database and backend coding and VMs. I honestly the 3rd monitor is great. Aside from email and slack. I can use it for any additional documentation, requirements, or JIRA. Honestly, 3 monitors is the way to go in my opinion.

I do 'light' software development for a SAAS. I use a single ultra wide. It has PiP settings so I can display my personal if I'd like while working, or have everything displayed on the work side as a triple window or dual window setup. The flexibility is great but overall ultra wides are still niche and a general pain in the ass. Good luck getting any game to run more than 90fps when you're pushing a 5k resolution and 240 refresh.

Media editing and production. Otherwise it's dope to have my email, texts, torrents, Explorer/Finder, and music occupy one screen, and my web browser in the other.

I have 2 at work. Sometimes I just have our ticket software on one and Firefox on another both full screen. When works crunching I might have multiple PDF manuals open on one and PDF schematics on another and could use a 3rd for a browser window to search for old similar problems in our daily reports. I'm able to work best when I can keep 1 screen dedicated to what I'm working on and the others for information gathering.

At home I typically just have 1 screen for gaming. I might set my laptop up on the desk if I want to browse the web or chat while playing.

For work, I have 2 monitors, and my docked laptop. The main two monitors are hugely beneficial for software development, as I can reference design docs or requirements while writing code, or I can have the debugger running on one screen, while the app runs on the other.

The laptop screen is where Teams and Outlook sit, so I can glance over at messages from the team, and maybe respond, without having to swap around any of my workspace.

I have two monitors but swap between two desktops. I wish I had a triple setup. I usually do hella coursework on it. I use split screen in each monitor so I have the guidelines of the project the full window project, documentation/notes, word, then discord, IRC, and background music.

I have three identical monitors in a row. Primarily I use the center one, for productive work and gaming, but often I'll have something up on the second screen that I'm working with as well. It's more rare that I actively use the third one, but some tasks have more than two or three windows and now I can see all of them full size at once.

I've occasionally used them as a single ultra wide screen for gaming, but since then I've gotten an hmd for VR and that is better.

I have 4. My main and second are 46" each, the 3rd. is a 27" in normal/landscape, and the 4th is a 27" in portrait. The main is in front of me, the 2nd. is to the right and angled toward me, the 3rd. faces me at 90 degrees from the main, and the 4th. Is mounted above the 3rd. I used them originally for streaming and all of the windows I had open to monitor everything at the time as well as the game I was playing. Now I find them useful for working on projects, watching videos or movies while I play a game, and working on multiple spreadsheets at the same time. The one in portrait is especially helpful when I'm looking at a season's worth of a scheduling spreadsheet.

I have an 34inch ultrawide as my main, and two 27inch screens, one above and one to the side. It's pretty awesome, play a game or do some work on the main monitor, videos, web pages, instructions in the right, and discord or other pages on the top.

2 27” 4k monitors. I do 98% of everything on the main monitor. The screen to the right contains a few sticky notes (I use Zhorn Stickies) and a Ticktick widget with all my tasks for the day. When I start up Obsidian, I have a saved Ivy Lee list that appears in a spot on the right side monitor as well. It’s just basically quick-glance scrap space.

Data on one side, assessment write up on the other. Extremely convenient. Not sure if I’m more productive or if I’m just happier.

Teacher here. I have my laptop (16”) and an ultra wide (34”) on my desk, and a projector behind me. I keep my email, attendance, and calendar on the laptop screen.

On the ultra wide, I keep my grade books and various spreadsheets, since more width makes it easier to see more data, and I have my daily agendas/lesson plans. Again, more width makes it easier to see the whole week at once. I keep that fixed to 2/3rds width of the screen, and the other side is reserved for Spotify at like 1/6th width

The projector is used to show the daily agenda, videos, instructions, etc. I very frequently screencast my iPad to the projector, so I can fill out worksheets on it with the class and they can see me write or circle things.

I can’t even fathom having any less screen real estate now. I gotta be able to see it all at once!

Gaming: I have a game that has tons of third party software that tracks game elements real-time that are far easier to read, contain more information, and more readily understandable than any in-game menu. So play the game on one monitor, have the apps running in windows on the second one.

3D design. Have the work window open for maximum real estate on one monitor, have pop-out menus and tools on the other for things that maybe don’t have hot keys or shortcuts assigned. Also, a small browser window for “how do I” question when I hit a roadblock.

2 monitors.

Primary is for what I'm focusing on. Secondary is for things I need to look at while the primary is up.

Author (not very successful, but still).

Main screen is for writing and editing. Second screen holds notes, maps, etc for reference as I write. If I'm editing, second screen usually has a music player going, along with notes about changes needed.

I can't say it's necessary, but the second screen really does help keep me focused better. Instead of having to switch windows and then come back, or have windows stacked up and have to move things, being able to just glance at the secondary screen is awesome.

Like, I'll have my name list up, a map of the area, and the notes for the chapter up on the secondary screen, with a fourth window tiled with any extras needed (like quick sketches for things). It's a mid sized monitor (27 inch iirc), so everything is readable with my reading glasses but it doesn't hog desk space. The main monitor is a 31 inch where I can have librewriter up and sized to where I need it, with a notepad window to the side for copy/paste usage or quick sections that inspiration hits but it isn't the right section to just enter it into the working file.

Compared to the single monitor set up I used to have, it saves me time, and *more important) allows me to stay in flow state better, which means better writing, with less editing needed later. I can, when I'm actually writing rather than trying to write, double or triple my output compared to before.

not a software dev, but a linux user and a stout technology enthusiast.

I have 3 monitors setup on my primary workstation. Two landscape in a stacked arrangement, it's just tidy and works well enough for a secondary media display, organizational monitor. And then my third is portrait for anything i keep long term tabs on, chat programs, music player, system resources, etc...

I recently switched from KDE to i3wm, and i find i need inherently less monitor. i3wm does all the sorting organization and bullshit i hate for me automagically, it's perfect for opening a terminal to check something, or work on something real quick, and being able to have one static window, and two tabbed/stacked windows on one monitor is HUGE. Super nice for terminal breakouts with a browser for documentation. If you're ever balls deep in a config and testing shit actively, you'll immediately understand how much of a godsend it is.

Anyway, floating window managers are dead and anything shipping a floating window manager is a dead product on arrival.

Scientist here, a lot of my job is writing texts with references to other literature of the field, or reviewing such texts (or PowerPoints). Main screen has the document open, the other is actually in portrait format and has gazillions of open pdfs on it that are relevant to whatever I'm working on. I had to get this setup for working from home because productivity dropped immensely with only one screen.