Which is better for the job: two monitors or one large

Many people prefer to work with two monitors, especially programmers, for whom it is common practice to code on one monitor and immediately check on the other. In general, the comfort of using the monitor depends on the tasks you are performing. However, there are several factors that raise doubts about the benefits of dual monitors for both productivity and health.

For several years, everyone has agreed that two monitors help you work more efficiently, as does one large monitor.

This position was recommended after a number of studies, and information appeared in several articles in The New York Times. It didn't seem to matter that these studies were orchestrated by monitor manufacturers like NEC and Dell.

But even if we assume that the manufacturing companies really cared about people, and not about increasing sales, there are several advantages of one large monitor.

Single-tasking

Multitasking takes up a lot of mental energy and is bad for productivity. In this mode, it takes 40% more time to complete one task than when performing only one task.

Why it happens? It takes time to switch between tasks and regain concentration. Plus, doing multiple tasks at the same time is more likely to make mistakes or quickly forget what you were doing.

By removing the second monitor from your desktop, you are more likely to focus on just one task. However, Dell does not agree with this. Here's an excerpt from an article on productivity and dual monitors:

In fact, the concentration of this employee has already been broken, since he is distracted from important work by correspondence in the messenger and checking letters in the mail client. And a lot of open windows have nothing to do with it.

Even if he has four monitors, one for each task, and he periodically looks at them, there can be no deep concentration.

Plus, if you switch your attention from one monitor to another, you risk losing the thread, forgetting what you just worked on.

This is why psychology professor David Meyer of the University of Michigan argues that working with multiple monitors, as opposed to concentrating on one, can negatively affect productivity. People get distracted and interrupt the flow of thoughts in one direction.

The more pixels the better

Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet, argues that you need to worry about pixels, not monitors.

Even the NEC study concluded that "wide-screen monitors are as good for increasing productivity as two screens, or even more useful."

But be careful: the dependence of productivity on the size of the monitor works in the opposite direction. It reaches a certain limit, and then turns in the opposite direction.

How big does a monitor need to be to work comfortably on it?

A 22 "monitor increases performance by 30% over a 19" monitor. Well, the most peak of productivity was observed when working with a 26-inch monitor: people did 20% more than on a 22-inch monitor.

But a 30-inch monitor is already overkill. Performance figures with such a monitor fell compared to the 26-inch champion. True, working on such a wide screen is still better than on a 19-inch one.

The same study found that one wide screen is more suitable for text editing tasks.

Health

It turns out that two monitors can negatively affect your productivity (of course, depending on how you use them), but can it affect your health? Unfortunately it can.

More often than not, people sit far enough away from a dual monitor that they have to squint and stretch their necks to see well. In addition, by placing two monitors on a table, both are placed directly in front of you. This position makes you stretch your neck and tilt your back forward.

One study found that constant tension in the neck muscles while using two monitors increases the risk of muscle and bone disease.

In the study, 10 healthy participants performed three tasks: reading for 10 minutes, typing on the keyboard for 5 minutes, and performing tasks 1 and 2 using one and two monitors.

The study found that when using two monitors, head and neck rotation increased by 9.0 ° compared to using a single monitor.

The researchers concluded that this position increases the risk of neck muscle disease. And with prolonged work at the computer, the risk only increases.

By using one wide monitor, you avoid an unnatural neck position, which means you reduce the risk of developing disorders.