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Photo by laffy4k

One of the easiest ways to double your productivity is to purchase another computer screen for a dual monitor setup. I have used a dual monitor setup for years, and I can’t imagine ever reverting to single monitor use. Unfortunately, I only have one monitor at my workplace, and it’s almost torture trying to maneuver around 10 open windows. It might be a bit of an overstatement, but I believe the dual monitor set-up is the greatest idea in the computer age. The only thing greater would be a tri-monitor setup. I’ve used this before too, and I must admit that it is quite sweet.


While some people might see a dual monitor setup as a luxury, I would argue that in some fields, it is a requirement. It’s just too difficult to do things when you have limited viewing space. Minimizing and maximizing windows can get quite annoying and can hinder your ability to get things done. Once you get a taste of the dual monitor treatment, the odds are incredibly high that you will not be able to live without it.

Now that flat panels are plentiful and affordable, there is really no reason to NOT pick up another monitor! In addition, flat panels are pretty space efficient so you don’t have to worry about it monopolizing all the surface area on your desk. New flat panels can probably cost you around 200 dollars for a decent 17″ Dell Flat Panel. Personally, I like the wide screen flat panels. I also like them to be larger than the norm. On my desktop, I have a 24″ wide screen flat panel coupled with a 19″ standard flat panel. And these days, most video cards have dual outputs, so you probably won’t have to purchase another video card for the extra monitor. Even if you did, there are cheap video cards out there that can get the job done.

So how exactly does an extra monitor help your productivity. Let me count the ways:

  1. You can edit a document while looking at a reference page in your web browser.

  2. You can compare documents side by side.

  3. You can play video games in one monitor, and do work in the other monitor. Or, you can play two different video games at once.

  4. You can have twice as many windows open at once.

  5. Since I do a lot of computer programming, dual monitors are almost a requirement. Being able to view multiple pages of code is invaluable and can really amp up the productivity.

  6. Makes Wordpress easy to use. I like to have a post that I’m editing open on one monitor while I’m editing the post on another monitor. This way, I can see the HTML code and the effects of my changes immediately without having to minimizing and maximizing windows.

  7. For Computer Programmers, dual monitors are must. Being able to view multiple pages of code is invaluable and can really amp up the productivity.

  8. For Matlab Users, a dual monitor setup is a Godsend. Editing m-files, and running commands at the command prompt, looking at the workspace . . . Matlab alone takes up my entire viewable space whenver I use it. Using Matlab on a single monitor is just laughable.