To those with 2+ monitors on your machine: What's your use case, and how much does it actually boost your productivity?

Three monitors here. Primary and secondary pretty much exactly like you. Tertiary is a cheap portable one, 15", 1080p, that I've mounted above the secondary slightly angled downward and on which I have my communication apps pinned, as well as a full screen btop.

Web developer, couldn't go without three monitors. Just three 1080p panels. Center monitor has the code editor, right has the browser, and left has the ticket or designs or the music player or Slack.

I have been using 2-3 monitors for more than 20 years now it's the best.

I use 3 monitors at work, the left one is for outlook and teams, the middle one is the main development monitor, the right one is for browsers chrome/edge for work related sites, FF for surfing.

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.

Software engineer. I use three monitors. I primarily use macOS, if anyone's curious.

Main monitor is a 42" 4K LG C3 OLED, two side monitors are 34" 4K LG IPS displays in vertical orientation.

For work, I keep my IDE and browser on my main monitor and I use it for most other applications that I might use, but usually just my IDE and browser.

Left monitor is used primarily to display my Jira board and tickets, which takes up the bottom 2/3 of the screen. I use Firefox's video pop out feature to place YouTube or other videos in the top 1/3 so I can watch them while I work, if I want.

Right monitor is used primarily for Slack and Spotify. Slack takes up the bottom half. Spotify takes up the top half, and I often listen when I'm not watching videos.

Could I do all of this with spaces? Of course. Absolutely. I've had a one monitor setup, two monitor setup, and now a three monitor setup. Honestly, I really just like that I don't have to switch spaces all the time. I can reference my Jira tickets while I work and chat with people all at the same time without having to switch spaces around any time I want to see certain details about something in a ticket or something someone said.

I also play games (separate PC) and stream, so the three monitors is useful for that, as well. I have the game up on my main monitor, and I use the side monitors to show my Twitch chat/bot, OBS, Discord, etc.

One monitor for ide. One monitor for docs.

Third screen, laptop, for slack/zoom

I work in IT. I have three, 2 standard orientation and a third vertical.

I use one for email and tickets, one for general browsing and remote administration, and the vertical one split horizontally with Teams on top and my terminal client/file browser on the bottom.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Tilling WM is all I need baby

I have 5 if you count the one on my server.

One 1440p, 3 1080s- one in a vertical orientation for reading through lengthy config files. An additional 1080p that is used for specific servers, so I’m not sure if that counts since it’s technically a different machine ?

Use case varies drastically but, left to right:

Monitor 1 on the left is typically used for for videos throughout my work day, usually some Indian guy explaining a very technical concept in fractured English in a notepad document- that’s how you know you’re in deeeeep

Monitor 2 is the 1440 and it’s the main event so to speak. Whatever I’m working on the most at that moment goes onto that monitor.

Monitor 3 is the vertical monitor and used mostly for comms separated into 2-3 sections. Video calls on top, work chat underneath that. Config files opened in notepad++ when not actively using the comms.

Monitor 4 is technically on a different machine as well but it stays on my desk and looks like a normal part of the setup. I use mouse without borders to use my keyboard across both systems.

Monitor 5 is attached to an Dell Poweredge that I use as a proxmox host, which itself is used to host a pi-hole, home assistant, graylog, an truenas instance running plex. The truenas thing will probably go away and I’ll run the plex server directly on a machine with more graphical capability. On its other input is an old datto that doesn’t really do much yet.

Note: not a software dev, but a network engineer

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.

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 three, but while I felt the move from 1 to 2 all those years ago was an insanely huge boost at work, I find 3 to be a nice to have, but I don't miss it if I only have 2.

Others may have a workflow that heavily relies on three, but I don't get pissed off until circumstances whittle me down to only one.

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.

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.

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.

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....

• 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%.

2 monitors.

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

My sister uses her second monitor maninly for Discord, but sometimes it's art references or game guides.

Two screens. One is dedicated to the IDE, the other is everything else: browser, mail and chat clients, docs, maybe another IDE with a REPL to play with stuff.
\ I find I need a large code window. I know devs that use a 4K monitor the same way, but I don't have one.

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.

At home I have 4 screens, 3 in a row and one over top of the center.

The bottom ones change based on what I am doing. Games, browser, IDEs, consoles, terminal windows, etc.

The top is always a better in the left 2/3rd mostly playing music or videos. The right third is Element/Matrix which bridges in all my other chats (FB, WhatsApp, signal, telegram, Discord, gmessages, etc) so I can see them in one tidy spot.

=

At work I have 8 screens 6 in a 2 tall by 3 wide config, a big one on the side, and another touch screen on the other side. Which is all used for control and monitoring... And often feels like not enough when things get busy.

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.

Two monitors. One is 1440p and mainly for games and other tasks, while the other one is a really old and kinda shitty 1080p monitor i use while im doing stuff on the better monitor. I usually watch youtube or have a discord voice call open, sometimes i use it to have a tutorial or wiki page open like that i dont always have to alt tab and see the page again. Its really useful and i cant stand using a single monitor anymore haha. Thankfully im ok using the steam deck still

WFH is one laptop and 2 screens. Email is on Portrait mode screen. That one is also great for reviewing long-ass PDFs. It's a FUCKING DELIGHT I tell you.

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.

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.

Really, the more monitors the better as far as I'm concerned. For my home desktop I just have an ultra widescreen and it's basically fine for most stuff as I functionally treat it like two monitors when doing anything outside of a game - I'd still love a second though, especially for while gaming as I miss having a wiki or whatever up in view.

For work we provide everyone with a laptop and two monitors, so that's three screens. Even the least technical of our staff love it and would hate to go back to having less screens. It's so helpful having multiple websites/spreadsheets/whatever open at once when working on anything involving comparing information.

Web developer. I use three monitors.

It's absolutely essential. I have code open on one screen, the browser to show updates on another screen, and notes and other random stuff on the 3rd screen.

It's useful for lots of other stuff too. Doing taxes and business paperwork: notes on one screen (tiling windows to keep them organized), forms to fill out on another.

The effect on productivity is absolutely enormous. I could never go back to a single screen workflow.

I have 2x27" screens. 1 is 1080 the other 1440.

For work, I would say it's invaluable (software developer) to have say VSCode/VS running on local machine and say an RDP session open. Or to have open Jira issues on one screen or basically the actual program code and another screen with information/testing environments. It's far better than finding the window you need all the time with alt-tab/the task bar.

Outside work, I generally have youtube on the 1080 screen while doing other things (games/personal development etc) on the 1440 screen.

As for a third monitor. I think there's definitely valid use cases. But, I have a big desk but another 27" screen would just take up too much space. I am tempted in the future to replace the 1080 with something higher resolution though.

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

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.

I like the single ultrawide, maybe with the laptop screen for a meeting app. Two monitors just feels like a compromise and for a little extra you can just remove the border entirely

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.

First screen for gaming and watching videos (landscape)

Second screen (portrait) Termal and reading documentation

Basically, for all situations, left is communication, center is the application I'm using (game, ide, etc.), right is information (documentation, other resources, guides, or whatever else). What each application is changes based on what I'm working on, but the function is the same essentially always.

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 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.

School work:
Left = Jabref
Center = texmaker
Right = PubMed, Elsevier, sci hub, etc

Gaming:
Left = discord
Center = game
Right = game guide, YouTube, media

Work (I hate literally all of these programs):
Left: slack
Center: Asana, onenote
Right: gdocs

I'm in IT/remote administration and have 3 monitors. The left is my main screen and where ticketing/remote windows live, middle screen is email/chats/research, and the right screen is a smaller, portrait oriented monitor for reading long documents (or trying to follow my own code) or I'll throw my security camera feed and YouTube on that one to have visible out of the corner of my eye.

Used to have two. Went back to one. Professionally I feel like 2 monitors is a must ( excl. Laptop ). Or a single big ass monitor.

We've got ( a single ) curved screens at work. It also works because it's wide enough.

Professionally I do believe it boosts productivity. Personally/at home not really ( for me ). It can be convenient if you play an MMO and want to look something up while still seeing the game.

I do have a spare monitor but I disconnected it as I was rarely using it.

1. IDE
2. Browser
3. DB Client or browser dev tool

Not a developer, but I will always use 2 monitors when I can - using the secondary for Outlook: inbox on one side, calendar on the other. I will also swivel this for showing presentations/plans/documents to members of my team in face to face meetings, and will move Zoom windows to in webinars etc it whilst I get on with some actual work on the main monitor.

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. :)

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.

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.