Guys, this is a well known and under utilized effect of human psycho physiology. Visually focusing on a single point, small object, or just small visual field (aka tunnel vision) increases mental focus.
AFAIK it’s also one of the reasons we all get “glued” to smartphone screens.
I spent decades completely happy with Cmd+Tab. Now I’m helping someone develop a trading system and I need to see several log files simultaneously, a broker GUI, and neovim.
Once I realized that in order to answer a single question I needed to Cmd+Tab at least four times, often more, I added two monitors and it’s dramatically lowered my stress level.
FYI, on older MacBooks you can’t add more than one extra screen, but if you get a DisplayLink dongle it works perfectly.
Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in itself.
However, I've also learned recently it depends what you're doing.
Software development, I just want one single maximized window on a single laptop monitor. If I have a near-retina DPI monitor with 120hz+ (I can't deal with low DPI fuzziness and low refresh all day) I'll usually have a 3-4 window layout on a single monitor with the IDE taking up half the screen.
There is a minor cognitive hit from switching focus between monitors for things like reading documentation, so I don't like doing that.
Music production? Man, I could probably use like 3+ monitors. Main stems view, a separate monitor for open VSTs, a separate monitor for video, a separate one for piano roll maybe. The window juggling gets really cumbersome on a single monitor.
My friend who is a professional musician (makes music for TV shows) uses 3 large TVs for music production.
I’d say monitor position and ergonomics matter way more than screen size.
Navigating a stack of apps with alt+tab, ctrl+tab is extremely efficient. I only miss the extra space when looking at spreadsheets or comparing things in different windows.
Some laptops have a pitiful screen height, avoid those.
Ultrawide is an extra screen size that many web devs forget about. Good design can take advantage of it. But some fluid designs look terrible without constraints.
I ran a vertical setup, with a monitor above my laptop. Not a bad way to go if you want more space for auxiliary apps.
Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get there.
I think it's like for me moving to using Instagram in the browser instead of launching the app. Doesn't fight my addiction to doom scrolling directly, but it makes it awkward enough so that the small imposed friction reduces the urge with time.
If it works for you as it worked for me it's fine, but don't feel frustrated if you end up recreating bad habits in these kinds of setup. They can work but they don't really treat the root cause of the addiction.
My window management hack that I’m surprised I’ve not seen mentioned is that in macOS you can map each numpad key to a separate desktop. You essentially get a desktop control pad free with your keyboard, since I don’t know any SWE who uses needs their numpad.
My wish is that macOS would let you group desktops together in a way that solved both of these problems:
- Switching desktops across multiple monitors at once
- Merging and splitting desktops when going from multiple monitors to one monitor
Multiple desktops are critical to my workflow and how I mentally organize my digital workspace. I wish there was more customization or more powerful features around it.
I'm on the other side of this one. Two 27" 4k displays (at 2x scaling, so logical 1080p), always with editor on one screen, and documentation on the other.
This is true for programming (where editor = IDE and documentation = API docs for some thing or other), 3d modelling (where editor = CAD software, and documentation = reference drawings, diagrams, etc), and even gaming (where "editor" = Blue Prince, and "documentation" = a gigantic Obsidian vault with all my notes).
In all of those cases, I'm decidedly not multitasking. I have multiple applications running, but they're all contributing to the task at hand. Instead, I find that things having a fixed position in space they live in, and not needing to cmd-tab and find the right window/application are two things that help maintain focus.
I find it useful to have multiple monitors or a large monitor that can support multiple windows comfortably useful for development, e.g. multi-pane IDE, terminals, documentation all visible simultaneously. The distraction problem is that everything else (slack, email, internet) is just a click away. I wonder if the answer is to treat the computer desktop like a real desktop that only supports having the materials open for one task at a time. So consciously switch tasks by putting the old things away and getting out the new things.
Maybe the fact that slack and outlook take a painful amount of time to open is a feature not a bug
> One day I was doing work on my laptop on a couch because hitting 30 apparently means that sleeping slightly incorrectly results in debilitating back pain.
A factor in my debilitating back pain for me (was 31 and fit; now 37; getting better) was coping with back pain by moving to unergonomic positions like the couch/bed, which led to different and thus compounding compensations, and thus more complex recovery.
Now if my back is painful in a position, I take it as a signal to move my body, not find another static position that doesn't cause pain.
That can sometimes be difficult to do, with job/family requirements though.
Sorry to derail the post, but I hope this helps someone avoid my issue.
I've been a laptop purist most of my life, and prefer to work outside my house / office. Only recently I got a Big Monitor™ for a mini pc. It's really messed with my head. Now when I look at my 15" laptop everything looks incredibly small. Not just that, but the scroll direction is opposite on the pc, so if I'm working side by side I find myself accidentally scrolling each one backwards, or actually typing into the wrong keyboard. Somehow I survived this long with just laptop screens and I don't think it's a mistake that my focus was preserved through that.
To me, since I always need to have two apps side by side, a 34" screen have done wonders.
I have my main app as a regular 16/9 window, and the secondary on the side.
By putting the screen at the right distance and height, I don't have to move my head and my eyes just move a little to go through everything on the screen.
And my main window still give me more information than if I had full-screened it on my MBP 14" screen (typically, I can see my whole Jira dashboard on the 34" screen while I have to scroll on the 14").
On the other hand, having two screens (laptop + external) is terrible. Not the same resolution, having to turn the head...
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One thing that is bothering me reading the article: I find the whole clutter on OP's desktop quite distracting!
The cables coming out of the laptop, the things on the wall behind the laptop... That's something that would definitely kill my focus!
At the office and at home, I've put a blank wall/separator in front of me so the only thing in my vision is the screen.
Perhaps the problem isn't the BigScreen, it's the youtube video?
I normally run applications maximized on my 28" 4k, unless I need input from 2 applications at the same time, then I tile them.
Working from my work-issued 16" Macbook Pro or any other of my laptops is a pain because of the limited estate - it's hard to see patterns at a glance or get the whole context when I can only see 30 lines of text that is truncated at <=80 columns. Plus, the fact that the keyboard isn't detachable from the screen forces bad habits on the posture.
My main home office has 5 monitors, and i still have to swipe between desktops regularly. I used to have 6, but two ultrawides stacked one above the other was a bit painful and I developed a back pain after a while.
My on the road setup typically involves a folding portable monitor (asus zenscreen duo, or something to that effect - that is 2x 1080p). Easily enough, and I don't really see a decrease in my efficiency.
But I sometimes do long distance flights and then I code/work on a single screen. I absolutely can do the same thing that I can do with my 6 screen setup with almost not noticeable effect on productivity as well. Could it be that the extra screens are just useless and an illusion of added productivity?
Interesting take. I regularly switch between just the laptop and my 3 monitor setup. Sometimes I feel like I could use a 4th one because there is just so much stuff to look at when developing. When I get to my laptop I sometimes feel like I can't be really productive on it. Having to tab all the time is not in itself an issue, but I keep getting lost when I have multiple instances of an app open - e.g. IDE. Say you have 3 projects open, I feel like I keep tabbing to the wrong one all the time.
But overall, I do like the idea that you don't actually have to see everything at once. Also takes focus away I guess.
I would love to see a study on this which tries to actually measure this.
There's little need for multiple monitors if you can switch virtual desktops very easily and quickly. The best method I've found is using a switcher control in the corner of the screen that can be operated by the mouse wheel.
The corners of the screen are the easiest targets to hit because they have effectively infinite size (see Fitts's Law). The mouse wheel is the best input to use because the mouse wheel is always non-destructive in standard desktop GUI software (equivalent to HTTP GET, not HTTP PUT). So long as your switcher control does not wrap around, you can set your two most important desktops as the first and last desktops, and access them with no conscious thought by jerking your arm and blindly scrolling the mouse wheel.
I use a patched version of lxqt-panel for this. The official version wraps around while switching desktops with the mouse wheel. This is IMO a bad idea because you always have the option of clicking the numbers directly, so it doesn't save any time. I have all animations disabled (essential for this system to be tolerable). I use three virtual desktops, with the the middle one reserved for less important tasks. The middle one requires conscious thought to access because I have to scroll the mouse wheel more carefully. But when accessing the main two I scroll the mouse wheel fast enough that I don't notice it.
Theoretically it would be possible to have unconscious access to 8 desktops this way (mouse wheel up and mouse wheel down for all 4 corners) but I haven't implemented this because I'm happy with two.
Thank you very much for sharing this article. I have been having issues with my second monitor which is connected to my my laptop making it 3 screens. It was very annoying having to replug it to dock everytime it decided to turn off. I have also been feeling less productive for quite a while now.
After reading this, I have let the second one stay off and then unplugged and I can already notice the difference a lot. I didn't switch between apps much or procrastinated as much. It's only been a day or two and I have yet to see how I fare in long term. For now, I am happy.
I'm using two external 1440p displays at work and one 32" 4k at home (with a MBP). Mostly front-end development and music production at home.
Aerospace improved my productivity a lot on that front. My main apps/windows are now bound to an alt+key combination - I can easily switch without alt+tabbing like in the dark ages.
All my windows usually take up the full screen - I simply can't stand a window that doesn't fill the entire screen - not sure if that's some kind of OCD.
The cognitive load of managing apps and spaces was quite high at the beginning, but now it's just muscle memory. I do recognize that it's not for everyone, but works very well for me.
It depends what I'm working on. If it's a bunch of interdependent systems that involve a large amount of data, a giant monitor is better. If the giant monitor is being used to make visible more application surfaces (Slack, email, VS Code, etc.), it makes focus worse.
The biggest improvement I've found for my focus is to force myself to close any open tabs/windows that are not absolutely necessary roughly every two hours. I used to be one of those people with 800 tabs open in the browser and 20 application windows spread across 8 desktop spaces. Was a concentration mess. Requiring myself to "clean up" periodically has really helped.
I do enjoy rocking multiple monitors, but even if I went to one, I'd still have to use a big monitor. My mind may be young but my almost 50 year old eyes aren't. (I actually run my 32 inch monitors in QHD mode)
I have a laptop to the side, and a bigger screen in front of me. And the laptop screen might as well be a picture frame: it adds no productivity gain, whatsoever. And it really confuses me. I have fond memories of my setup at work, in the result 2000's, with two big monitors on a desktop machine. I remember it working so well, and I just lost that feeling. Maybe because those were on equal footing, while the laptop screen now is the tiny little brother. Or, I'm just nostalgic and making up benefits that didn't really exist.
This was my secret weapon for years. My coworkers could never understand my focus and productivity and were always surprised when I said that it was due to working from a tiny laptop screen, and no more.
I'm not a SWE, and when I write code anymore it's just as a hobby. For work I'm in a business function and my 32" 4k monitor has been setup with 5-6 persistent windows since covid.
1. Center top: videoconferencing space. Approximately 1/3 width and 1/2 height of screen is used for Zoom/Meet/Teams.
2. Top left: chat (Slack now, previously Teams or Google Chat). Half height and 1/4 width.
3. Bottom left: Calendar (Zoom now, Google previously). Half height and 1/4 width.
4. Bottom center: primary browser window with dozens of tabs open, also used for email & calendar. 1/2 width and 1/2 height.
5. bottom right: Claude
6. Top right: working document(s). 1/3 width and 3/4 height. When I finish something, I'll close this, or occasionally move to a tab group in my primary browser.
This method of organization works pretty well and allows me to 1) get work done, 2) monitor comms, and 3) not miss meetings. If I need to focus and not allow others to disturb me, I'll just minimize the Slack & primary browser windows and make the working doc browser window(s) larger.
This is all plugged into a Macbook (14") that sits on my desk. The laptop screen contains a single browser window signed into a personal profile, and is used exclusively for non-work stuff -- mostly email.
I switched from dual monitor to single monitors with a tiling window manager. Same reason, I "flip" context far less and am less distracted. Even though there can be multiple programs on my screen at once, they are all relevant to the current tasks context so I find if I do get distracted by one, it's not like getting distracted from the whole context.
Previously I would be "alt-tabbing" and constantly losing focus. Like stepping through a doorway and forgetting why you came into that room.
I just upgraded to a 49" curved display because it lets me view everything I need _for the current task_ at one time.
One virtual desktop is Messages, Slack, and Outlook for all my comms needs.
Another is IDE & browser for development work.
Another is todo list, planner, notes, and browser for task management.
Having to constantly swap app between browser, email, IDE, slack, etc is interruptive. Being able to switch to a single-focus desktop with everything visible is much more productive for me and reduces context switching.
Something that's helped me lately is setup alfred commands where various apps are bound to a combination key press. It's on my split keyboard and I can't recall but it's a combination of keys, but, I think ctrl+cmd+option (all on the right hand thumb cluster) and a letter where the letter is bound to an app
- z launches conductor (coding agents with worktrees)
- w launches wezterm
- f launches firefox
- c launches chrome
- d launches obsidian
- s launches slack
So I'll keep one of these full screened on the main monitor at all times. And then I've got maybe spotify open on the laptop usually which I generally ignore most of the day.
And if I need two apps I'll use rectangle to tile windows side by side
It seems like a minor thing but it's a less cognitively burdensome workflow for me as the day goes on than cmd tab would be.
Also here's the link to conductor, I'm not affiliated but really like their tool imperfections and all https://www.conductor.build/
I usually use center 2/3 of 27'' screen with just a single top-level window for a similar reason. That puts it up to around 20.5'' and around 6:5 aspect ratio. I don't find having many windows shown at the same competing for my attention more productive. I don't benefit from having multiple code columns shown at once that much either and would rather switch among tabs or windows via shortcuts.
* I feel the key message here is "single vs multiple windows", not small vs big monitor. I love my 32" curved monitor. I too switched from having three monitors to having just one big monitor and staying with one maximizing window majority of time.
It's also role dependant. I spent few years as ops manager and multiple windows and situational awareness / task parallelization were important. Not saying it's a good thing but it was the name of the game.
Even without task parallelization, multiple windows are important for some roles. If I'm transforming a working excel into executive slide, it's nice to have them both up. If you are good at taking notes, having teams meeting and one note up is a life saver and super power. Etc
But yes - I think core message is "do not assume that prevalent wisdom or what others do, works for your task, job, and personality". As another example, I think dark mode is cool, all my cool friends use it, and it does not work for me on majority of applications. And that's ok... Not everybody is cool like that :-)
I have ADHD. I use a single 24 inch monitor. It is easier for me to have every window maximised. I'm seemingly the only person in the company that does this. Alt+tab is my friend
When I was in IT I had a second monitor, but I only ever put terminals and rdp screens for remote computers on it. This screen my machine, other screen other machine.
I gave up my monitor pre-covid, a few years earlier than that actually, and have not looked back.
The only thing that does make me wonder at times is that my video in a zoom'ish app looks different than other people's video in some manner, but all that means is that maybe I need 1 backup and mirrored display for video calls, but maybe I can live with it.
Sometimes things are so obvious to me I don't even think they'd be worthy of a discussion. But this is one of my blind spots, as I've come to realize over many years.
For development, I've always been happy with a 13" screen and nothing else. Not only that, but having all apps in full screen. It brings so much clarity to my mind. Exceptions (because f*ck dogma, right?) have been when I was in charge of monitoring some long-running process, in which case a secondary screen in vertical layout was very useful. Another one was for music making with Ableton Live: 2 screens was much more practical, independently of each individual screen size.
Just because of the setups I've just described, I've been looked at weird, or asked way too much questions. go figure.
Went the opposite direction for a while, two monitors, then came back to one. The context switching between screens was costing more than the extra screen real estate was giving. Single monitor forces you to be more deliberate about what deserves your attention right now.
For me anything bigger then 27' is just too big. I also stopped working with two monitors.
Main thing that was contributing to that is Cosmic desktop environment is has amazing defaults and adaptive scaling and if I need two displays just put window in second workspace.
For years, I resisted even using an external monitor, preferring to work on my laptop's monitor instead. I finally switched to using a monitor when poor posture started getting uncomfortable.
I almost always have just one window on the screen, maximized. I'm also using virtual desktops to switch between the browser/app and the IDE. This kind of setup really helps me with the focus, but at the same time it's not too annoying.
I used to just use the macOS virtual desktops, but with the Apple Silicon transition, they also added annoyingly slow animation for desktop switching. That can not be turned off (seriously, wtf, Apple?). I jumped to FlashSpace the second I found about it.
I prefer big, high-resolution monitors at appropriate distance (I am at 4k 43" at roughly 36"/90cm viewing distance in my home office and 32" at 28"/70cm at work) to be able to put all task-related content on the same screen.
I need to do cross referencing quite a bit, and even with quick iterations in development, I like having documentation and output (terminal, browser...) side by side with Emacs as my IDE (I don't use Emacs' built-in window management as much, but it'd be the same thing).
Using large 16:9 screens ensures I keep enough vertical space compared to ultra-wides, and high res is crucial for smooth text (scaled properly).
I'm super productive on a 28" with yt constantly open slightly hidden behind the terminal window. EDM, chess videos, speedrun videos, having them in the background actually reduces boredom and lets me achieve more. Laptop is on the side with slack in case there is an alert or an important message.
That said, shout out to the well being app that comes with the latest gnome version! I allow it to force me to get up and walk around for five minutes at awkward times. I do light exercises like push ups and australian pull ups or get coffee while I wait. Being forced off the computer while I'm trying to focus actually makes the day more interesting.
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AFAIK it’s also one of the reasons we all get “glued” to smartphone screens.
In this paper, more than 20 deg visual field for a screen and subject performance went down: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01678...
Once I realized that in order to answer a single question I needed to Cmd+Tab at least four times, often more, I added two monitors and it’s dramatically lowered my stress level.
FYI, on older MacBooks you can’t add more than one extra screen, but if you get a DisplayLink dongle it works perfectly.
Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in itself.
However, I've also learned recently it depends what you're doing.
Software development, I just want one single maximized window on a single laptop monitor. If I have a near-retina DPI monitor with 120hz+ (I can't deal with low DPI fuzziness and low refresh all day) I'll usually have a 3-4 window layout on a single monitor with the IDE taking up half the screen.
There is a minor cognitive hit from switching focus between monitors for things like reading documentation, so I don't like doing that.
Music production? Man, I could probably use like 3+ monitors. Main stems view, a separate monitor for open VSTs, a separate monitor for video, a separate one for piano roll maybe. The window juggling gets really cumbersome on a single monitor.
My friend who is a professional musician (makes music for TV shows) uses 3 large TVs for music production.
I’d say monitor position and ergonomics matter way more than screen size.
Navigating a stack of apps with alt+tab, ctrl+tab is extremely efficient. I only miss the extra space when looking at spreadsheets or comparing things in different windows.
Some laptops have a pitiful screen height, avoid those.
Ultrawide is an extra screen size that many web devs forget about. Good design can take advantage of it. But some fluid designs look terrible without constraints.
I ran a vertical setup, with a monitor above my laptop. Not a bad way to go if you want more space for auxiliary apps.
Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get there.
If it works for you as it worked for me it's fine, but don't feel frustrated if you end up recreating bad habits in these kinds of setup. They can work but they don't really treat the root cause of the addiction.
My wish is that macOS would let you group desktops together in a way that solved both of these problems:
- Switching desktops across multiple monitors at once
- Merging and splitting desktops when going from multiple monitors to one monitor
Multiple desktops are critical to my workflow and how I mentally organize my digital workspace. I wish there was more customization or more powerful features around it.
> it was too easy to put YouTube running
That is what is killing your focus and giving ADHD-like symptoms (supposing obviously that you don’t actually have it).
Never ever put something to play on background while you do something. That on the long run will kill your attention span and focus ability.
> On a 34" ultrawide monitor, it was too easy to put YouTube running on the left side, and whatever else on the right.
Yes, if you were doing that, almost any change to your environment that stops that will be good. I don't think you'd have to give up your monitor.
This is true for programming (where editor = IDE and documentation = API docs for some thing or other), 3d modelling (where editor = CAD software, and documentation = reference drawings, diagrams, etc), and even gaming (where "editor" = Blue Prince, and "documentation" = a gigantic Obsidian vault with all my notes).
In all of those cases, I'm decidedly not multitasking. I have multiple applications running, but they're all contributing to the task at hand. Instead, I find that things having a fixed position in space they live in, and not needing to cmd-tab and find the right window/application are two things that help maintain focus.
Maybe the fact that slack and outlook take a painful amount of time to open is a feature not a bug
> One day I was doing work on my laptop on a couch because hitting 30 apparently means that sleeping slightly incorrectly results in debilitating back pain.
A factor in my debilitating back pain for me (was 31 and fit; now 37; getting better) was coping with back pain by moving to unergonomic positions like the couch/bed, which led to different and thus compounding compensations, and thus more complex recovery.
Now if my back is painful in a position, I take it as a signal to move my body, not find another static position that doesn't cause pain.
That can sometimes be difficult to do, with job/family requirements though.
Sorry to derail the post, but I hope this helps someone avoid my issue.
To me, since I always need to have two apps side by side, a 34" screen have done wonders.
I have my main app as a regular 16/9 window, and the secondary on the side.
By putting the screen at the right distance and height, I don't have to move my head and my eyes just move a little to go through everything on the screen.
And my main window still give me more information than if I had full-screened it on my MBP 14" screen (typically, I can see my whole Jira dashboard on the 34" screen while I have to scroll on the 14").
On the other hand, having two screens (laptop + external) is terrible. Not the same resolution, having to turn the head...
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One thing that is bothering me reading the article: I find the whole clutter on OP's desktop quite distracting!
The cables coming out of the laptop, the things on the wall behind the laptop... That's something that would definitely kill my focus!
At the office and at home, I've put a blank wall/separator in front of me so the only thing in my vision is the screen.
I normally run applications maximized on my 28" 4k, unless I need input from 2 applications at the same time, then I tile them.
Working from my work-issued 16" Macbook Pro or any other of my laptops is a pain because of the limited estate - it's hard to see patterns at a glance or get the whole context when I can only see 30 lines of text that is truncated at <=80 columns. Plus, the fact that the keyboard isn't detachable from the screen forces bad habits on the posture.
My main home office has 5 monitors, and i still have to swipe between desktops regularly. I used to have 6, but two ultrawides stacked one above the other was a bit painful and I developed a back pain after a while.
My on the road setup typically involves a folding portable monitor (asus zenscreen duo, or something to that effect - that is 2x 1080p). Easily enough, and I don't really see a decrease in my efficiency.
But I sometimes do long distance flights and then I code/work on a single screen. I absolutely can do the same thing that I can do with my 6 screen setup with almost not noticeable effect on productivity as well. Could it be that the extra screens are just useless and an illusion of added productivity?
But overall, I do like the idea that you don't actually have to see everything at once. Also takes focus away I guess. I would love to see a study on this which tries to actually measure this.
The corners of the screen are the easiest targets to hit because they have effectively infinite size (see Fitts's Law). The mouse wheel is the best input to use because the mouse wheel is always non-destructive in standard desktop GUI software (equivalent to HTTP GET, not HTTP PUT). So long as your switcher control does not wrap around, you can set your two most important desktops as the first and last desktops, and access them with no conscious thought by jerking your arm and blindly scrolling the mouse wheel.
I use a patched version of lxqt-panel for this. The official version wraps around while switching desktops with the mouse wheel. This is IMO a bad idea because you always have the option of clicking the numbers directly, so it doesn't save any time. I have all animations disabled (essential for this system to be tolerable). I use three virtual desktops, with the the middle one reserved for less important tasks. The middle one requires conscious thought to access because I have to scroll the mouse wheel more carefully. But when accessing the main two I scroll the mouse wheel fast enough that I don't notice it.
Theoretically it would be possible to have unconscious access to 8 desktops this way (mouse wheel up and mouse wheel down for all 4 corners) but I haven't implemented this because I'm happy with two.
After reading this, I have let the second one stay off and then unplugged and I can already notice the difference a lot. I didn't switch between apps much or procrastinated as much. It's only been a day or two and I have yet to see how I fare in long term. For now, I am happy.
Aerospace improved my productivity a lot on that front. My main apps/windows are now bound to an alt+key combination - I can easily switch without alt+tabbing like in the dark ages.
All my windows usually take up the full screen - I simply can't stand a window that doesn't fill the entire screen - not sure if that's some kind of OCD. The cognitive load of managing apps and spaces was quite high at the beginning, but now it's just muscle memory. I do recognize that it's not for everyone, but works very well for me.
The biggest improvement I've found for my focus is to force myself to close any open tabs/windows that are not absolutely necessary roughly every two hours. I used to be one of those people with 800 tabs open in the browser and 20 application windows spread across 8 desktop spaces. Was a concentration mess. Requiring myself to "clean up" periodically has really helped.
1. Center top: videoconferencing space. Approximately 1/3 width and 1/2 height of screen is used for Zoom/Meet/Teams. 2. Top left: chat (Slack now, previously Teams or Google Chat). Half height and 1/4 width. 3. Bottom left: Calendar (Zoom now, Google previously). Half height and 1/4 width. 4. Bottom center: primary browser window with dozens of tabs open, also used for email & calendar. 1/2 width and 1/2 height. 5. bottom right: Claude 6. Top right: working document(s). 1/3 width and 3/4 height. When I finish something, I'll close this, or occasionally move to a tab group in my primary browser.
This method of organization works pretty well and allows me to 1) get work done, 2) monitor comms, and 3) not miss meetings. If I need to focus and not allow others to disturb me, I'll just minimize the Slack & primary browser windows and make the working doc browser window(s) larger.
This is all plugged into a Macbook (14") that sits on my desk. The laptop screen contains a single browser window signed into a personal profile, and is used exclusively for non-work stuff -- mostly email.
Previously I would be "alt-tabbing" and constantly losing focus. Like stepping through a doorway and forgetting why you came into that room.
One virtual desktop is Messages, Slack, and Outlook for all my comms needs.
Another is IDE & browser for development work.
Another is todo list, planner, notes, and browser for task management.
Having to constantly swap app between browser, email, IDE, slack, etc is interruptive. Being able to switch to a single-focus desktop with everything visible is much more productive for me and reduces context switching.
- z launches conductor (coding agents with worktrees)
- w launches wezterm
- f launches firefox
- c launches chrome
- d launches obsidian
- s launches slack
So I'll keep one of these full screened on the main monitor at all times. And then I've got maybe spotify open on the laptop usually which I generally ignore most of the day.
And if I need two apps I'll use rectangle to tile windows side by side
It seems like a minor thing but it's a less cognitively burdensome workflow for me as the day goes on than cmd tab would be.
Also here's the link to conductor, I'm not affiliated but really like their tool imperfections and all https://www.conductor.build/
Also also, shimmering obsidian is great for alfred users. Can search notes in my vault with spotlight https://github.com/chrisgrieser/shimmering-obsidian
* I feel the key message here is "single vs multiple windows", not small vs big monitor. I love my 32" curved monitor. I too switched from having three monitors to having just one big monitor and staying with one maximizing window majority of time.
It's also role dependant. I spent few years as ops manager and multiple windows and situational awareness / task parallelization were important. Not saying it's a good thing but it was the name of the game.
Even without task parallelization, multiple windows are important for some roles. If I'm transforming a working excel into executive slide, it's nice to have them both up. If you are good at taking notes, having teams meeting and one note up is a life saver and super power. Etc
But yes - I think core message is "do not assume that prevalent wisdom or what others do, works for your task, job, and personality". As another example, I think dark mode is cool, all my cool friends use it, and it does not work for me on majority of applications. And that's ok... Not everybody is cool like that :-)
When I was in IT I had a second monitor, but I only ever put terminals and rdp screens for remote computers on it. This screen my machine, other screen other machine.
The only thing that does make me wonder at times is that my video in a zoom'ish app looks different than other people's video in some manner, but all that means is that maybe I need 1 backup and mirrored display for video calls, but maybe I can live with it.
For development, I've always been happy with a 13" screen and nothing else. Not only that, but having all apps in full screen. It brings so much clarity to my mind. Exceptions (because f*ck dogma, right?) have been when I was in charge of monitoring some long-running process, in which case a secondary screen in vertical layout was very useful. Another one was for music making with Ableton Live: 2 screens was much more practical, independently of each individual screen size.
Just because of the setups I've just described, I've been looked at weird, or asked way too much questions. go figure.
Main thing that was contributing to that is Cosmic desktop environment is has amazing defaults and adaptive scaling and if I need two displays just put window in second workspace.
For years, I resisted even using an external monitor, preferring to work on my laptop's monitor instead. I finally switched to using a monitor when poor posture started getting uncomfortable.
I almost always have just one window on the screen, maximized. I'm also using virtual desktops to switch between the browser/app and the IDE. This kind of setup really helps me with the focus, but at the same time it's not too annoying.
I used to just use the macOS virtual desktops, but with the Apple Silicon transition, they also added annoyingly slow animation for desktop switching. That can not be turned off (seriously, wtf, Apple?). I jumped to FlashSpace the second I found about it.
I need to do cross referencing quite a bit, and even with quick iterations in development, I like having documentation and output (terminal, browser...) side by side with Emacs as my IDE (I don't use Emacs' built-in window management as much, but it'd be the same thing).
Using large 16:9 screens ensures I keep enough vertical space compared to ultra-wides, and high res is crucial for smooth text (scaled properly).
That said, shout out to the well being app that comes with the latest gnome version! I allow it to force me to get up and walk around for five minutes at awkward times. I do light exercises like push ups and australian pull ups or get coffee while I wait. Being forced off the computer while I'm trying to focus actually makes the day more interesting.