Screens - For Better or For Worse
Screens. You love to hate ‘em.
I have been wondering about acquiring another monitor for work. The sweet spot is enough screen real estate to comfortably glance at messages without being interrupted with notifications, have a terminal open and ready (even if small), have your development environment front-and-center, and perhaps have some reference material or notes open, too.
At the present, I work on a MacBook with a single external monitor. I use the default window manager and swipe between virtual desktops when I need to reference something and get back to coding. This does keep me focused on one thing at a time, but it is super annoying if I have to swipe back and forth multiple times. I may as well be flipping back and forth between pages in a book.
Ocassionally, I will sacrifice my work chat in favor of some reference material on the laptop screen. This is non-ideal not only for the loss of chat visibility, but because the size and physical location of the laptop screen is so different and disjoint from the primary monitor. This may come off as nit-picky, and perhaps it is. After all, I stare at these screens for most of my waking hours and at the end of the day, I am still not sure about getting a second external monitor.
In a few weeks, I am moving on to a new opportunity and will be switching to a non-Mac device for work. I am not yet sure between Linux or Windows, but I know that whatever I go with, I want to remain productive.
So we come back to the screen. The pixel grid. The light box.
When you are comfortable with your window manager and it supports robust partitioning, all you need is a high resolution screen. If you don’t have this, then multiple screens really come in handy. Even with only 2 window snapping zones - left and right - you can have 4 focused applications at the same time, or 6 if I get another external monitor. But that’s the thing - I could stop using the laptop screen entirely if I just get another monitor. Close the lid, store it vertically, free up some desk space. Sounds nice. Very zen.
But when push comes to shove - is it productive?
I have fallen victim to my own devices in having no clear “primary” monitor when I have 2 monitors. It creates a situation where I will be working on something to the left, have a separate thought, go investigate that thought on the right, and then, because I don’t mentally separate “primary” and “auxiliary” screens in this configuration, I will deep-dive on that separate thought and get nothing done.
Which is funny, because I already have the next post idea, but I am forced to focus on this post with my one active screen.
So what is the takeaway here? The moral of the story?
Pay attention to what makes you productive and optimize it.
You want to be good at your job, and you also want that extra time back from wasting less of it on unimportant things. Higher quality focused work is also more fulfilling, as you find yourself more deeply engaged in your problem solving. One, three, or even ten screens - what matters is providing yourself the environment you need to thrive.
I just wish the monitor I want was cheaper. It would make this decision much easier.