Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor

> 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.

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.

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 learned this lesson a couple decades ago.

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’ve had a 38” ultrawide for about a decade.

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 guess it depends the type of work you do.

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...

------------

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 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 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 was wondering about this for a while now.

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.

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.

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.

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.

> 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 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).

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.

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.

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.

My productivity skyrocketed when I reduced my monitor count from 3 to 1.

I tried the big chonkers, but the humble 27" 1440p is unbeatable for me. I'm not being paid enough money to worry about that many pixels.

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.

Is the poster sure or have they checked that the gains and perceived higher level of focus are not just because of the Change? Rather than the actual change? Maybe in a few months a bigger monitor will suddenly work better not because its bigger but because its a change?

Personally i love a big monitor, i use 32” screens (but only 1 at a time) on my Mac, pc and gaming pc. But in reality i do most ‘real work’ on my 16” mbp. And i drop the res to make everything bigger snd nice to read on the laptop.

No thank you. While I'm productive when mobile on my 14” 2.8K screen, I'm more productive with the extra headroom on my single 27” 4K at the office.

Like everything else in life, it depends :

* 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 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.

It all depends. I couldn’t work on a large screen, but having two is good, so I can have the code on one and the notes / web research/ AI discussions on the second. Constantly alt-tabbing means constant focus changes, I can’t see how that can improve focus, but if it works for the poster, great.

ALT-TAB is much faster than moving my head

> 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.

You working out? PT?

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)

> too easy to put YouTube running on the left side, and whatever else on the right.

After reading the first sentences, I knew this was going to come up. I have an ultrawide screen but never watch videos next to my work. It just doesn’t work. When I’m working, I want to be productive. Somehow it’s also really bad for the brain to put things side by side as anyone I know who does this has poor focus

I was actually wondering about this a few months ago; if big monitors work against focus. There is something zen about having a limited amount of screen real estate & focusing on 1 thing at a time.

Hmmm, I have been thinking about this too. 10 years ago I was more productive when all I had was a bottom of the barrel 21 inch Benq monitor instead of the 3 big monitors I use now. Maybe I was younger. Or maybe I should just switch back to my old screen for a few days, and see what happens...

There is something powerful about environment and what it does to our minds. For the author, giving up the monitor is totally valid and may work for many people. I can often convince myself to chance a habit by adding a simple extra physical step. This is harder on a computer. It takes discipline to not just end up with dozens of windows and even more browser tabs in some roles. I just aggressively close windows when starting a new task or thinking. Most likely you don't need whatever you are closing :)

I've tried every set up that I have the privilage of having:

- 11in Macbook Air

- 16in Macbook Pro

- 1 X 27in monitor mounted with MB Pro in clamshell mode

- Linux Mint desktop on old Dell Inspiron with 4gb of RAM

and after using all of these to try and increase my productivity, I'm still an unfocused and possibly ADD riddled human. I'm not cut from the same cloth as my other productive peers who do not watch much YouTube and can type away at a black `vim` terminal on one half of their screen with software documentation on the other half of the screen.

The MacOS window manager is so bad that I've resorted to three monitors plus the built in screen. Two monitors have fullscreen terminal emulators and the last has the browser. The built-in screen handles all the distracting stuff whenever I can be bothered to look down at it.

With Xmonad I had 10 spaces on a single laptop screen (actually however many I wanted) with the flick of a button. And yes, I know about hacks like aerospace and the others that require disabling system integrity

100% in agreement. Trying to get rid of my 32" 4K. Too much head panning and scanning. I want to comfortably see the entire screen without effort at less than 12 inches away. Creatives likely get some benefit with large displays, but for people who read, code, do productive stuff, it's too much screen, too much pixels.

27" @ WQHD res seems just about right. 4K if you absolutely must.

I went the opposite direction. I'm running a 45" LG UltraGear curved ultrawide OLED at 3440x1440. At first I thought the real estate would make me more productive. What actually happened is I have apps spread across the whole thing and spend more time rearranging windows than working. The article makes a fair point — a smaller screen forces you to commit to one thing at a time. I'm not ready to give mine up, but I can't argue with the logic."

I went from triple 1440p to just two, but I am going to go back. I guess it al depends on the type of work you do. I know managers that just use their phone.

I switched to Niri (https://github.com/niri-wm/niri) about six months ago and I find it does wonders for focus.

Set the default window width to 1/4 or 1/3 of the screen width (depending on the screen size) and it's easy to keep just the right context visible.

I've used a cheap 50" TV as monitor for almost a decade now and I can't complain. Sight is 20/20 at 60yo, no eye strain, no headaches, nothing. I only use it for coding (sublime) and browsing (brave), so I don't care about resolution/retina/pixels/colors/curvature/etc.

Maybe this is why I feel like unplugging the laptop from monitor, to use it on the bed.

Going to try not plugging the monitor at all, it might save my sleep.

Went from ultrawide back to my 27 inch monitor and definitely feel more focused. Having everything open "just in case" was killing my output. Nothing alt+tab can't fix.

Being able to de-focus is actually quite useful.

Imagine sitting through those lengthy team calls and having to concentrate on BS for 1-2 hours.

Nah, I’d rather focus on getting things done in the meantime.

I love alt+tab way too much to ever go back to multi screen.

A different angle: multiple screens can cause neck problems if you’re tilting your head in a weird direction for too long

I feel the same way. In general, I prefer working on a couch with my laptop. My eyes aren't great and I end up ruining my posture at a desk, invariably.

went from 27" Mint to 13" Mac Book Neo. I'm extreme astonished how this has changed my workflow. Smaller screen realy works better for me. The change from Mint to MacOS was not hard and most programs are the same.

Oooooh, 30. Getting up there, old man! Wait till you hit your 40s and your vision starts going... you're gonna want a big-ass monitor then!

I will never give up my 5k2k LG 32 inch lcd. Single is best I do agree.

Horses for courses.

I use one 24 inch monitor with my laptops, and keep all the interruptions like Messages/Signal and Mail on the smaller screen. Nothing else generates notifications.

It's a matter of discipline,that's all.

Same here.

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.