By Clay Johnson

Is the Multiple-Monitor Productivity Boost a Myth?

Dear Lifehacker,
I've always heard that multiple monitors were supposed to boost your productivity, but this post on rebuilding your attention span mentions, in passing, a second monitor myth. So what's the deal? Do multiple monitors boost productivity or not?

Signed,
Multiply Confused

Photo by Steve Price.

Dear Confused,
First, thanks for a great question! We'd almost always read that multiple monitors were a nice productivity kick in the pants, too (we've even offered some tips for making the most of your multiple monitors), so to answer your question, we thought it was only appropriate to ask the person who mentioned the second monitor myth you're referring to. So we asked technologist Clay Johnson from InfoVegan: What's the deal with this multi-monitor myth? Here's what he said:

Manage Pixels, not Monitors

My How to Focus article got a lot of people thinking about attention fitness and how they could use interval training to increase their attention spans. One thing I mentioned was quite controversial—that I got rid of a second monitor. A lot of people disagreed—People love their multiple monitors, and we've been told over and over again that multiple monitors "boosts productivity."

Let's shine some light here on the multi-monitor setup. Just where do these productivity claims come from?

The first report I could find is a report from the University of Utah in 2003 followed up by a new one in 2008. If you follow the money, you can likely predict the results—the study was commissioned by monitor manufacturer NEC. And surprise, the results of the study are: buy bigger, more expensive monitors!

What's surprising is that the media crooned over the multiple monitor part of the study, when the study came to the conclusion that it was pixels, not monitors that increased productivity. What's also surprising is that while the report mentioned that there were productivity gains in certain tasks with more screen real estate, those gains begin to taper between 26 and 30 inches, or at monitors where the native resolution is 2560x1440 or greater.

My take: there's an optimal number of pixels you need to complete the tasks you need to complete. Worry about that number, not the number of monitors you have. That optimal number, for the vast majority of people is about 2500x1400. In 2003—before widescreen became commonplace—it was the case that 2 17-20"(2560 pixels wide) LCDs was the only affordable way to acquire an optimal number of pixels. Today, you can pick up a 27 inch display with 2560x1440 pixels along with a computer attached to it for under $1500. This number of pixels allow you to accomplish most tasks—whether it's writing code and debugging, writing a blog post and reading primary sources, or editing one spreadsheet with data from another.

So whether it's multiple monitors or one big monitor with lots of pixels, what do you do once you've reached your optimal pixel number?

Managing your pixels is just as important to your productivity as having them. Part of what makes multiple monitors appealing is that it makes multiple window management a little easier—you can open up one big window in each monitor you use—but mastering window management is something one ought to do whether they're working on a 15" laptop or a 4 24" widescreen monitors. On the Mac, Divvy is a great tool for this. Divvy allows you to create set window positions and associate them with hotkeys. As an avid gamer, I've set up my Divvy keyboard shortcuts like those of a first person shooter. The Q key puts a window in the top left 25% of the screen, W makes the window take up the top half of the screen, E takes the right 25% of the screen. The A key makes the window take the left of the screen, the D key makes it take the right. Z, X, and C work the bottom row. R, F and V split the right hand column up into thirds so that I can run multiple terminal windows on the right while I'm writing code on the left.

Ed. note: Windows users may want to try similar apps like WinSplit Revolution or Window Manager. If you're on a Mac and don't want to pay for Cinch, you may also want to take a look at the free, open-source ShiftIt.

Remember: the key to having strong focus is the elimination of distraction. While a lot of space has its plusses, too much space is only creating room for more distractions. Having your mail, twitter, and IMs pop up in one monitor while you truly work in another is just giving your distractions equal ground to what you're working on. Even having relatively static things up in extra screen space is a distraction. A todo list in a second monitor is nothing but a constant reminder of other things you could be working on other than the task at hand. Keeping anything up other than what you're working on is a great way to keep yourself distracted from doing the important stuff you don't want to do.

And that's Clay's well-reasoned take on the matter. Your mileage and experience may vary depending on the kind of work you do, but keep the trade-offs in mind while you're adding more screen real estate. For some of you the extra pixels might not be a problem, but as Clay said, the more space you've got, the more distraction land mines you're potentially placing in front of yourself. Hope that answer helps!

Love,
Lifehacker

Clay Johnson blogs at Infovegan.com, a blog about information dieting and civic accountability. He was formerly the director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation and founder of Blue State Digital—the technology company behind Barack Obama's web site.