Asklemmy

I have two monitors plus my laptop screen. I keep my IDE open on one, my browser open on another, and my terminal open on the last one. It may not boost my productivity a lot each day, but saving maybe a minute every hour adds up.

It’s much easier to move my mouse to the left than it is to switch windows. When I’m not at home and I have to code on just my laptop, I do miss the extra monitors.

First screen for gaming and watching videos (landscape)

Second screen (portrait) Termal and reading documentation

I am using only one monitor. It's hard enough to position it to avoid glare from windows and overhead lamps, I cannot imagine doing it with two.

I also have 15 virtual desktops, so there's that.

3 screens are ideal for me:

• Primary

• Secondary screen to be able to look at 2 windows (that are maximized) side by side with the primary screen

• 3rd screen for static apps that are always open like email, slack, music, etc.

Having said that, getting a widescreen monitor has helped reduce my desk space requirements a lot. So now I only have 1 widescreen, and my laptop acting as the 3rd screen.

Embedded software developer here. One monitor, virtual workspaces. Because I don't need distractions.

People in here with 2+ monitors, how do you stay focused? Probably it's just me, but I have a hard time getting into the flow after getting interrupted.

I used to swear by two monitors, but switched to a single ultrawide and it's so much nicer. No bevels in the middle and therefore freedom to set up windows in whatever configuration you like. Good tiling window manager is a must though.

Software engineer. Work from home and I use the same monitors for work and personal.

Usually for work, I have code in the middle, specs on the left and the app on the right. When I’m not using specs, I have Spotify or video related things on one monitor.

For personal use, gaming is done on the middle monitor. Sometimes I have Spotify on the left, video on the right. Sometimes it’s a mix of discord/video/spotify on the left and right monitors. Sometimes I have a hockey game on one monitor and YouTube on the other.

Middle is my main.

It’s not often I don’t have something on all monitors.

I had two but switched to one 30 inch. I almost never looked at the other monitor. :)

I'm a dev manager... I have 3x4k monitors. I watch server loads, I watch the build pipeline and watch the commit logs etc.

Overkill these days, but I'm also a gamer sooooo....

I only have 1 ultra wide monitor. It's slightly less screen space than 2 monitors, but it's enough, and I like the simplicity of it.

Not a dev, but I have 3 monitors on my rig that I use for work and play.

A 24" 1080p as my main monitor for stuff like games or Blender, a smaller 18 and a half inch 720p for secondary stuff like Firefox, Discord/TeamSpeak, and monitoring Cura when the 3d printer is going, and a 21" 1080p Wacom on a monitor arm. The Wacom is kinda outside my field of view unless I'm actively using it, so most of the time it just has a performance monitor running so I can see what's hogging my resources. Having Spotify on there is nice though, the touchscreen/stylus makes running it quick and easy.

Not a software dev but tech is central to my life.

3 monitors for normal use

1 - personal streaming, video meetings

2 - remote business desktop access, main personal browsing window

3 - online chat presence window, personal email client, other

3 monitor gaming

3 monitors for racing simulators and any games that support it (which make sense)

Single monitor gaming

1 - Game related content on left 2 - Game window in center 3 - Game related social media or streaming

3 monitor home labbing

1 machine or app per monitor Triple monitor stare and compare windows GUI / CLI / Monitoring system interface

I didn't realize how extensively I used my monitors until this exercise. Feel better about the spend and space tax related to it.

I came in here late, but I just wanted to say I have three monitors, and I often use a music stand to hold up a book where my 4th monitor would be. Really helpful when your technical manual is a physical document but you're doing work on a computer. It's a "monitor" by any other name, and lines up with the rest of my monitors in a neat little row.

I have 2 monitors. My primary is ultra wide for gaming and the secondary is discord, Spotify, etc. so I can view messages and stuff without leaving my full screen game.

For work? I just use my Mac monitor like a neanderthal. Idk why but I don't really find multiple monitors helps me work faster.

I currently run 3 and am actively trying to figure out how to get more in my space.

I want my workstation to look like Neil Peart set it up.

The old data I have from the industrial engineering work was that going from one to two monitors was a 40% productivity speed up, then from two to three was about a 5% speedup, then three to four was a productivity loss.

Those numbers were on general workloads, not for specialists. It was also with UI design from 20 years ago, and the way interfaces work now the numbers are likely different.

Personally, I immediately try to get a second monitor because having only one means I lose a lot of focus and mental time just swapping the active on screen windows, but a rarely seek out a third, though a third is nice for overflow tools (chat, docs, music) to have a third screen.

2 +1 chatgpt

I currently have three monitors + a laptop, but its actually two separate workstations with two monitors each. I used to have a few more, but I definitely didn't get that much benefit from 3+ per workstation. My main benefit was being able to keep chats, email, and music player readily available/visible while still having two full screens for work.

2 is the bare minimum for work as a sysadmin.
3 is better, then I can dedicate one to communication (email, Teams, softphone), one for documentation and one to actually work on. I could see 4 being useful if you work both locally and on terminal servers but I've never tried it.

Creative entrepreneur. Center screen is for whatever I'm currently working on, be that product design, our website, emailing clients or suppliers, research, whatever. Right screen will have relevant reference material for whatever is on the center screen. Left screen is for music controls/discord, but it's also a drawing tablet for any time I need to drop the mouse and start hand-drawing for design work, at which point the music and chat move to the right screen.

If I am...

...gaming, I run the game on one monitor and something like a Wiki for said game on the other.

...doing music I have the DAW on the big screen and everything else on the other.

...working I have my focus point (CLI, IDE, SQL Dev, etc) on the small screen and all the noise (e-mail, chat, browsers, etc) on the big screen. Small screen is better for focus.

1 horizontal/1 vertical + laptop.

Horizontal is directly in front of me, used for whatever I'm currently focusing on - usually IDE or browser.

Vertical is to the side, used for anything auxiliary to my current task - browser, bug report, notes, chat, git gui, etc.

Laptop monitor is for anything I want to monitor, but don't need to look at constantly - logs, news, incoming bug reports, etc.

I also make use of virtual desktops, so I have one for chat/email/general browsing, one for code editing with browser, git gui, IDE, and one for notes/zoom. Laptop screen doesn't shift with virtual desktops so I always keep the monitoring open.

Single large 48” 4K gang here. It’s like 4x 24”+ 1080p monitors in a square with no bezels.

I’m a video editor with two 27” monitors. One landscape the other portrait. I used to use both monitors for premiere but found moving the mouse around that much annoying so I condensed all my panels into one monitor and use the portrait one for notes and communication. I feel like I could go back to a single monitor system in the future but I like having two

2 monitors plus laptop. One is mainly used for IDE and git, other one for anything else that's relevant: browser, Jira, notes, second editor to reference stuff. Laptop screen is to the side and mainly used for chats.

Wouldn't mind a third big screen, often notes, DB, RDC or brower have to be juggled around.

Accountant. Constantly comparing two different files, or looking at one app and one spreadsheet. I also maintain a couple of the applications and again, need to look at something while entering it, or look at support thread while working to fix the application.

I started using two so I could more easily remote game with my sibling.

The second one would have their screen stream up, so it was like we were playing split screen co-op back in the day. :)

One monitor for moodboard, another for materials, tablet monitor for working.

Software engineer. I have a laptop to which I attach a curved widescreen monitor and a split mechanical keyboard with rainbow LEDs. The keyboard travels with me, and I have similar monitors at home and at work

I'm a software engineer. I have an ultrawide for my personal stuff (a odyssey g9) , for productivity it functions as 2 27in displays side by side, usually youtube/twitch and whatever task I should be doing. When I game the wide aspect ratio is nice. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it is nice.

Above the ultrawide I have 2 27in for work. kinda hard to say what they usually have open but heres a handful of scenarios:

• meeting notes / meting presentation
• Jira Ticket / remote to the test system
• monitoring my code compiling / team chat
• IDE / Documents or chat
• debugger / notes

but really any combination of 2 tasks (usually one being monitored or referenced and one being worked on). I have been thinking about getting another vertical monitor exclusively for chat. Having chat already open and responding breaks my concentration a lot less than having to pull up the chat over top of whatever I was doing. It's definitely diminishing returns

Some other display topologies I see used:

• one coworker uses a large TV (I think 60in) and then partitions the display into various virtual multi-monitor setups depending on his needs.
• My wife (a dev ops engineer) has a 30in in the middle and 2 verticals at the side

Software dev here, and I'm pretty confident that 4 is the ideal number, as long as you have window snapping to split them in half:

Left (inputs): half current ticket, half whatever documentation you need

Main (work): IDE, half test code, half actual code

Right (outputs): half terminal, half web page (frontend) or postman (backend)

Bottom (comms): Smaller laptop screen dedicated to slack / email

Video games. On one screen is the game, on the other screen is a web browser with the wiki opened. Also have YouTube for the tough puzzles. Helps a ton.

I use three at the office, and two at home.

In both setups the laptop is my keyboard and small screen, above it is a 34 inch 21/9 aspect ratio curved display. At the office I also have a standard monitor off to the side.

The large screen is my primary work space, with various code editors, UI dev tools, web browser, reference docs, and terminal windows.

The laptop screen has email, all my short cuts, and a virtual version of the UI I'm working on because it is also a touch screen.

When I have the third screen I use it for teams, a few system monitoring tools, and youtube for music.

I used dual side by side monitors for years, but found that having the split in the center meant I was always sitting with my neck turned, and this lead to a lot of pain and headaches. Having them top / bottom is a lot more comfortable and my large screen is high enough I now sit up straight.

A curved screen at the right distance also means a lot less eye strain.

One monitor for ide. One monitor for docs.

Third screen, laptop, for slack/zoom

i work in video. i have one monitor as my primary "work" space. that's where i put my timeline, or whatever I'm working on the most in that moment. sometimes it's color controls, sometimes it's keyframes and effects controls.

monitor 2 is actually my best monitor. that's the video clean feed. that's my big color accurate monitor.

monitor 3 is bins and scopes and effects and whatever other control surfaces and monitors i might need.