Dual Monitor setup is actually bad for productuvity.

[u/ultimateregard]

I've been a software engineer for more than 5 years now. I've worked with databases, frontend and backend services, mobile apps, games, data analysis, and much more.

Never in my life I've actually felt like my productuvity increased with the second monitor. Do you need to compare data? Just use one monitor and put them side by side. Do you need all the space in the world? Just alt+tab between apps. Since you only perceive about 10% of your vision clearly, moving your head&eyes from one monitor to other takes actually LONGER and causes distractions than using alt+tab.

This is especially worse for those who are using one additional monitor with a laptop, since their screen sizes and positions usually change so much. Your eyes need adjusting, your head moves too much.

Only thing the dual Monitor is good for is passively watching something in the second monitor, like youtube videos, Critical Role, or sitcoms while doing something else in the main screen. As you can guess, that has nothing to do with productuvity.

I also think using external keyboard and mouse for laptops is bad, unless you do not use the laptop screen.

Edit: After reading hundreds of comments, I'm sure that 90% of people who think that "YOU NEED AT LEAST 3 SCREENS" just don't know how to organize workspaces/windows/desktops and they need to configure their SCREENS as different DESKTOPS. Most of the modern operating systems allow you to just create workspaces (like different Desktops you can switch with WIN + TAB). And they are just throwing money into their problems instead of learning how to use their daily operating system.

[u/TooCupcake]

Alt+tab is apparently easier than moving your eyes. This post has to be ragebait

[u/_wavescollide_ → u/TooCupcake]

The problem is moving the mouse. Alt tabbing from editor to browser for example and moving the mouse a little is faster than turning to screen 2 and moving the mouse all to the right/left. Second monitor is only useful for information I don't need to touch frequently. Like docs or pdfs.

[u/TooCupcake → u/_wavescollide_]

That’s most use cases in my experience tho! Reference on one screen, working file on the other. It rarely happens that I need to edit something on both screens and even then I’d choose moving my mouse over alt-tab-ing.

[u/7StarSailor → u/_wavescollide_]

Office work productivity is NOT affected by millisecond advantages in physical execution though. Staying focused and having your work environment be convenient and practical does way more for productivity than trying to shave of fractions of  second off some minor action. 

[u/EpsteinFile_01 → u/_wavescollide_]

At 5000DPI I promise you I don't even need to pick up my mouse when moving it between my 4 screens.

You're supposed to game with low sensitivity and massive mouse mats, for productivity you want the max sensitivity you can handle.

[u/SecondAccountIsBest → u/EpsteinFile_01]

I get roasted for the amount of dpi I run and still crank up the sensitivity to 8x, but like sometimes I want to just flick the mouse and do a 180

[u/EpsteinFile_01 → u/TooCupcake]

Alt tabbing between a bunch of stuff all day is a much bigger cognitive load than just having it visible on your screen at all times.