Why I Ditched the Second Monitor
What follows is purely personal—your setup might be perfect for you. But if any of this resonates, I’d be glad.
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Ha! I just went to two screens this week after using a single screen for about five years. My second screen is purely for keeping some dashboards open that I want to make sure I'm thinking about at the start of the day. I've been turning it off after lunch when I feel like I've 'checked in' enough.
I've got 2 x 34 inch Alienware curved monitors, stacked on top of each other.
Since it's my home office, I can afford the luxury.
My laptop's lid is always closed, the screen is too small to be worth bothering.
If I was travelling, the yes, I could use the laptop's screen, but at home, there's no reason. Zero. Nada.
Same idea, my friend. I have two machines: a MacBook Air and a PC. With the MacBook, I do the same as you - I shut the lid because it's connected to a larger screen. For the PC, I work directly on the laptop screen. It’s the same concept: the most important thing is that we don’t juggle between two screens, twisting our necks left and right.
Less is more. Two screens is way too distracting. Laptop screen and e-ink tablet for notes is my setup. Super happy with it. Much more focused.
Spot on! That’s my setup now too. I figured my tablet works best for taking notes for my YouTube tutorials—and I’m not tempted to glance at it every few seconds like a robot. Since then, I’ve never felt more clear-minded. Cheers -
This is such an interesting read, I've never thought of the second monitor in that way.
I think I like the second monitor as a way to monitor chat messages. But perhaps that could be a distraction at times too, taking away from us getting into deep work.
Don't know if I'm brave enough to get rid of the second screen just yet, but defiantly has me thinking of ways to improve my workspace.
Thank you, Shaquille, for your message.
Your point in the fourth line is exactly why I decided to drop my second screen.
If your current setup works well for you and the second screen feels right, that’s great. Maybe down the road you’ll find an even better way to optimize your workspace, as you mentioned. Cheers—
amazing article
Thank you so much, Yalda.
How fun! I was just putting the finishing touches on my ode to large screens when I happened across your defense of small screens.
For an alternative perspective, check out dev.to/leeca/confessions-of-a-big-...
I think you got it wrong - It’s not really about small screens versus big ones—it’s about using one screen instead of juggling two. That way, we avoid twisting our necks back and forth.
Fair point. I use all this real estate as a single desktop. One desktop for this project, one desktop for that project, one desktop for communication / email.
When I'm working on a project desktop, I will literally not even see my email folder for hours.
I've landed on only using a single laptop screen but for completely different reasons. I spent the year trying to optimize my digital nomad setup. I used a 15" OLED second monitor I could pack down easily and laptop and monitor stands. Used my portable setup everywhere. Work, home, coffee shops, always used my full setup. Then sometime this year I discovered PaperWM and haven't looked away from scrolling tiling window managers. And the more I've used them the more comfortable I get only using one screen and ditched the second screen entirely. I've switched from PapwerWM to Niri on Linux and I think it's probably the gold standard right now. My work computer is a MacBook Pro though and I've found the PaperWM.Spoon Hammerspoon plug-in to effective enough for everyday use. It's the first thing I've used to kill my reliance on Rectangle and Alt-Tab to bend macOS into something I can use easily.
The only "negative" I've noticed is that I'm now completely comfortable working on the couch with just my mechanical keyboard over the laptop keyboard. Partially because trackpads which I've never cared for other than for convenience are excellent with STWMs. Even faster than keyboard controls for jumping between apps sometimes.
With AI it does help me focus more using just one screen instead of my extra monitor.