What is best for the job: two screens or one large
Productivity Health / / December 19, 2019
Many people prefer to work with two monitors, especially programmers, for which to code on one monitor and then check on the other - a common practice. Overall ease of use of the monitor depends on the tasks that you perform. However, there are several factors that cast doubt on the benefits of dual monitor for productivity and health.
For several years, all agreed that the two monitors help to work more efficiently, as well as one monitor with wide screen.
This position was recommended after a series of studies and information appeared in several articles of The New York Times. It seemed that no matter what these studies were organized monitor manufacturers such as NEC and Dell.
But even if we assume that the companies producing really cared about people, not about increasing sales, there are several advantages of a single large monitor.
single-tasking
Multitasking takes a lot of mental energy, and a bad influence on productivity. In this mode, the execution of a job, goes to 40% longer than if only one problem.
Why it happens? Switching between tasks and concentration of reconstitution takes time. In addition, performing multiple tasks at once, you are more likely to make a mistake or quickly forget what we did.
Removing a second monitor to your desktop, you'll be more likely to concentrate on only one task. However, this does not agree for Dell. Here is an excerpt from articles on productivity and two monitors:
"Let's imagine a common scenario. The employee scans an Excel spreadsheet, but this time his mail client, web browser and instant messenger running in the background. To go from one to another, it is necessary to change the active window, and disrupt concentration, distracted from important work... "
In fact, the concentration of the employee is already broken, because it distracted from the important work of correspondence in the messenger, and check e-mail client. And a lot of open windows here at anything.
Even if it will have four monitors, one for each task, and it will periodically look at them, a deep concentration as this can not be.
Also, if you switch the focus from one monitor to another, you risk losing the thread, to forget over what you just worked.
That's why a psychology professor David Meyer of the University of Michigan says that working with multiple monitors, as opposed to the concentration of one, can adversely affect the productivity. People are distracted and interrupt the flow of thought in a single direction.
The more pixels, the better
Clay Johnson, author of "The Information Diet" says that you need to take care of the number of pixels, rather than monitors.
Even the NEC study concluded that "monitor with wide-screen TV is as good for productivity gains, as well as two screens, or even more useful."
But be careful: efficiency dependence on the monitor operates in the opposite direction. It comes to a certain limit, and then turn in the opposite direction.
How big should be the monitor to on it was convenient to work?
22-inch monitor increases the productivity by 30% compared with a 19-inch. But the most productive peak was observed when working with 26-inch monitor that people do 20% more than the 22-inch.
But the 30-inch monitor - it is already too much. Performance metrics with monitor dropped compared with a 26-inch champion. However, work on such a large screen is still better than 19-inch.
The same study showed that a wide screen is more suitable for tasks related to editing text.
Health
It turns out, two monitors can have a negative impact on your productivity (of course, depending on how you use them), but whether it can affect your health? Unfortunately, it may.
Most people sit far enough away from the dual monitor, so they have to squint and crane your neck to see well. In addition, by placing two monitors on the table, both put in front of him. This situation causes the crane to tilt forward and back.
one study It proved that the constant tension of the muscles of the neck when working with two monitors increases the risk of diseases of the muscles and bones.
In the study, 10 healthy participants performed three tasks: reading for 10 minutes, press on keyboard for 5 minutes and performing first and second problems using one and two monitors.
According to the study we found that when using two monitors rotation of the head and neck has increased by 9.0 ° compared to using a single monitor.
The researchers concluded that this situation increases the risk of diseases of the neck muscles. And during prolonged work at a computer risk is increasing.
Using a wide monitor, you avoid the unnatural position of the neck, and therefore reduces the risk of violations.