A month ago, Mike Zamansky posted that he’d just replaced his two 27 inch monitors with a new 43 inch 4K monitor. I commented that every time I saw a post like his, I had an urge to run out and buy my own huge monitor because I would be sure it would make me a bazillion times more efficient. Sadly, I never do because I like working on my 13 inch laptop on my couch.
I was reminded of all this when I saw a post discussing the productivity gains that could be achieved with more screen real estate: either two monitors or an ultrawide monitor like the one Zamansky got. The post was interesting not so much for the experiment that the author performed—I didn’t find that particularly compelling—but for the two studies that they quoted.
More screen real estate won’t magically make you a bazillion times more productive, of course, but it can give you a significant increase of about 20 to 30 percent depending on the particulars of the monitors. It used to be that large monitors were pretty expensive but these days you can get one very reasonably. The studies quoted in the post suggest that it’s a worthwhile expense. Maybe you can even convince your boss.
If you like this sort of thing, Ali Abdaal has a video on his new(ish) 35 inch curved monitor.