What’s your preferred work monitor setup?

2x 27“ 1440p monitors side by side in landscape is the sweet spot for me. One as my primary monitor I am centered in front of, the second one to the side for referencing stuff.

I tried various methods over the years but I keep coming back to this. Sometimes the reference monitor gets used in portrait mode but that is rare.

For me it is the opposite as you experience. If I need to keep switching to reference things it distracts me and pulls me out of focus. If I just need to turn my head a little I keep my focus.

Ultrawides are ultimate for productivity. Having the real estate of two screens in one means proper side by side work.

I have a 38" 3840*1600 Curved Ultrawide connected to my work laptop. The laptop's smaller screen is useful for communication software like Teams, while having multiple programs or browsers with tabs open next to each other at regular size on the UW is prime.

I'm in software development and have gone through a couple different multi-monitor setups and landed on a single monitor as well. Currently using a single 27" 1080p (had a 30" 4k which tipped and broke and haven't minded the smaller/lower res). I plug my monitor into my laptop and close the lid of the laptop. Part of my motivation is I work out of the office a couple times a week with just my laptop and I like my workflows to be the same between office and out. I also didn't find any extra productivity or enjoyment in multi-monitor setups.

Couple things that I find necessary for this to work for me:

• Monitor on a height and angle adjustable arm NOT mounted to my desk. I hate my monitor jiggling when I type so I have my desk against a wall and the monitor arm mounted to the wall. I have a sit/stand desk and the mount arm has just enough vertical adjustment to get a comfortable height in either position. I just have to remember to move it up so I don't crash my desk into it haha!
• Multiple desktops. I have either 3 or 4 virtual desktops in use most days. Music/Communication apps on one. Browser tabs for reference and research in another. Actively working project/s in the 3rd and 4th.
• Custom hotkeys for quickly and easily switching tabs and virtual desktops. I use cmd + h/l for switching to an adjacent virtual desktop and cmd + ctrl + h/l for moving a window to the adjacent desktops. I then have cmd + j/k for cycling through windows on a particular desktop.

I think I'd definitely use a second monitor if the virtual desktops/hotkeys weren't setup. It took a bit of getting used to but the more regimented I am in keeping apps in their "correct" virtual desktop the less time I spend lost among windows or hunting for what exactly is playing music etc.

3x27”

• 1 monitor contains slack or video calls
• 1 monitor contains my IDE
• Last monitor contains a terminal or browser depending on what project I’m working on

In the office I only have two monitors at max so comms have to share with the ide monitor. Basically every app runs maximised - on my personal desktop I use tiling more but my employer provided work machine is a Mac and the features and shortcuts are too limited. Sometimes I only have one monitor or only the laptop display due to the hot desking setup. I find that such a impediment as to discourage working on the office

I increasingly find more is better in terms of number of screens and total screen area.

In ye olden days I had the single CRT monitor, then later on I (not sure when) I bought a 43 inch black friday TV and that became my monitor and sound (it had what I thought of at the time as fairly good sound, and what I now recognize as only adequate for anything that isn't quality music listening time).

At some point during my residential telecom contracting days, a customer tipped me a small 19 inch flatscreen TV and for a while I kept it in the van as a test TV, but later hooked it up as a 2nd monitor and found that even though my primary was big, I liked having the additional space.

Years later I bought another 43 inch black friday TV, this time a 4K because I wanted the upgrade for certain imaging and video analysis. Hard to tell if you're getting a better take with your 4K microscope camera if you don't have a 4K monitor to view the take or recordings on. At that point I decided I wanted to keep my original 43 inch and rotated it to portrait view on my right side (the 19 inch is on the left) and that was my setup for more than a year.

Recently I added a Dell 24 inch above my primary monitor, but I don't use it often because I need to tilt my head up to use it. If my chair had a headrest and it was comfortable for me (I have a ponytail which makes headrests difficult) then I think it would be fine, but as it is it isn't great. My current plan is to move the 24 inch to the bottom left side and elevate my old 19 inch just above that.

Video showing current setup.

At home I use only 1 4K 32" monitor and I find it great. At work I have a smaller 4K monitor (27"), so I add my laptop screen on a laptop stand. Mostly I just keep Teams there.

In college, a dorm-mate burned me a copy of windows 2000 server, which supported multiple video cards, so I could run two 19" Crt monitors. I built a wooden frame to stack them one above the other. Moving my computers was a whole car load by itself.

Since ~2015, my daily driver has been three 24" 1280x1200 monitors mounted on a triple monitor arm. It's probably still my favorite setup I've ever had.

Started a new job recently, and the setup there is a 27" QHD monitor, a 34" display with the same pixel resolution, and my work macbook as the third display. The wide monitor is in the middle, with the laptop and the smaller monitor to either side. I like it okay, but this is my first time using a mac, so everything about it feels clunky to me.

For work travel, I recently bought this portable setup. It folds out and clips to my laptop to give mr three 14" screens. Folded up it is about the same size as the laptop. I haven't really had a chance to put it through its paces, but next week I will be traveling and doing heavy dev work, so we'll see how it is.

At the office I use a single 27" 2k monitor and my 15.6" 1080p laptop monitor. At home I just use 2 27" 2k monitors (foolishly different brands, so I had to spend a lot of time calibrating the colours to feel the same). More than enough real estate to look at code and spreadsheets.

||--
(arrayed circumferentially around a nintety-degree corner desk with coplanar portrait displays serving as a single unit, effectively triple-head)

...i believe that they're all 2560x1440, but the two portait displays are smaller (and thus greater pixel density) than the landscape pair, nearly a square form-factor when used together for displaying two-page document spreads; i use the larger displays for technical drawings and miscellaneous windows...

...while i'd prefer a pair of curved 4K displays, or even better a single 8K curved display, curved televisions are tough to find these days and my current arrangement works well-enough for general productivity...

If I am stuck with the awfulness that is windows, any multiples of monitors have to use the same display scaling. There are so many visual annoyances and bugs that come from mixed scaling sizes. This usually rules out the laptop+external monitor, since laptops usually have 150%+ scaling. Or at least the laptops I have been given for work. So clamshell mode it is.

My monitors need to be as high resolution as I can get it. Size doesn’t really matter, but it needs to be large enough to not need to scale up the display to read things. My previous roles have been analyst type roles, so a ton of looking at spreadsheets. With spreadsheets, you literally just need as many pixels as you can get. I would keep asking my work for higher resolution monitors, and they would keep sending larger monitors that were still 1080p. That literally just makes things worse. I ended up buying my own cheap 4k monitors.

So my current setup is 2x 4k 27" monitors, just because I invested in those at my last job. I like the idea of a single 5k or 6k large monitor, but I don’t have the money for that right now.

I usually go between two different setups, purely just because I don't have an assigned desk at my office and that means I'm not always guaranteed a monitor. On the days I do get a monitor, I usually have my monitor stacked above my laptop screen. I'll tilt my laptop screen back quite a bit to reach my eyes and I'll adjust the monitor to be just at my eye level. I usually put my main work on the big monitor and have my emails/chats on the laptop screen.

Similar to you, I do find myself sometimes being less productive with all the available screen real estate when I do have an extra monitor. On the days I have a monitor, I'll have a million windows open and I'm constantly context switching between things, slowing me down in the long run. However, on the days I have only my laptop, I tend to focus my work into only a few windows and I find it easier to get things done. That being said, I do prefer the days I have a monitor due to the better ergonomics. I believe my company allows me to order a laptop stand to improve my ergonomics but I haven't really cared too much just yet (I know I'll regret that in a few years).

I've also never really found too much value in multiple virtual desktops either. I tried that for a while, especially on the days where I only have my laptop screen. But, for some reason, "out of sight, out of mind" really hit me and I'd often forget that I have multiple virtual desktops with windows I need. I'm more productive with just alt-tab and tiled windows.

One 13" laptop screen. Or maybe 14", I haven't measured the new laptop work just forced upon me. Everything opens where I expect to see it, only one wire and only while the laptop needs charging, and it's harder to get distracted from the task at hand when the task at hand takes up the entire workspace.

I do fix the weird 150% zoom thing every time, though. I don't understand why the default is to make everything huge on the smaller screen that you will be sitting closer to.

My setup in the office:

• Apple keyboard and MX Master mouse with my MacBook Pro sitting behind them, with an ultra wide on an Ergotron type arm above it.

• Secondary Lenovo laptop for working on evil Dotnet stuff sits on the side of the desk. It doesn't deserve peripherals, because Windows is bad and should feel bad.

Setup for home:

• Mechanical keyboard and Logitech wireless gaming mouse with my personal MacBook Pro (M3 Max) on low riser.

• Old 1080p monitor on the right side.

• Arturia Minilab Mk2 MIDI controller on the right side of the corner desk, with my Switch 2 dock behind it (also hooked up to the monitor).

• When I work from home, I just shuffle the Macs around.

I've settled on a single monitor solution, a 46" 4K display. I've got hotkeys setup (I'm on Ubuntu) that let me pop a window into each quarter and half screen vertically or horizontally, and usually have 3 virtual desktops on the go. Its basically like having 4x 1080p displays, but with no borders and more flexibility.

Usually my 1st desktop is all web browser windows, usually a couple in top left and right with email and monitoring dashboards and a larger window in the middle on top. If I'm on a video call I'll generally put it in a largish window in the middle.

2nd desktop is usually "development", generally split into 4x quarter displays, often with larger editor windows I Alt-tab to the front and fill the bottom half of the screen.

3rd desktop is usually "live/production" server shells, again usually 4x quarter displays.

I've been running this setup for a few years now and I'm generally happy with it.

In the past several years I've gone through the following configurations:

• one 27" 1440p 16:9
• one 35" 1440p ultrawide
• two 35" 1440p ultrawides stacked vertically (probably the best option)
• one 42" oled TV with one 35" 1440p ultrawide on top
• one 40" 4k ultrawide with one 35" 1440 ultrawide on top

For productivity moving to two ultrawides was helpful, but going larger on my primary monitor hasn't been that helpful. The oled TV was good for gaming, but not great for text clarity and window management. Even after trying for a while, I haven't managed to make good use of the extra height of the 4k monitor. It's mostly the width that helps in most cases for me. The 4k ultrawide is pretty good on its own in terms of real estate, but there are not many affordable options. So, I think two stacked 1440p ultrawides are probably the sweet spot in terms of having a large amount of area without overspending.

It actually depends on OS. If it’s a Mac I prefer having one big monitor, like 32” at least. Maybe with a smaller side monitor, but an iPad set up would work as well.

If it’s a PC I think at least 2. Just because Windows UI seems to not do well unless windows are maximized. Everything seems designed to run full screen.

After going through various iterations of dual monitor setups, I realized that I'm most productive/comfortable with a single 1080p monitor (size isn't super important but probably at least 24").

Currently I'm using a 3440x1440 ultra-wide--my thinking was I could split my editor into 3 panes instead of just 2, but in practice I find I only really use 2 at a time anyway (and I just split the 3rd off to something random so that the pane widths stay consistent), and browsing the web at this width looks absurd. I think I'll probably go back to another 1080p if/when this one bites the dust.

One monitor angled in "portrait mode" is incredibly useful

2 x 27" at 1080. I'd love to get 4k, but this is what worked in the home office budget I received.

I have one monitor centered in front of me in landscape and one to my right in portrait. Landscape monitor is used for general work. Portrait monitor gets used for reading documentation, notes, etc.

When I was working as a student tech there was a setup in my office with a portrait monitor, I tried it and suddenly being able to see so much without scrolling was a game changer. Started using it in my setups ever since.

I still work from just my laptop screen for probably 1/3-1/2 of the day. I'll start my day at the dining table waiting for my kids to wake up and will often keep working there after they go to school since I get focused in on what I'm doing.

I have mine like this --- a 1080p that is another system, 1440p as my main and then a little 13" Samsung QB13R, which is meant for signage, but is awesome for notes or any reference material, videos, etc.

   ┌───────────┐┌───────────────┐
   │           ││               │
   │  23" 1080 ││   24" 1440p   │
   │           ││               │
   └───────────┘│               │
          ┌─────┴─┬─────────────┘
          │  13"  │
          │ 1080p │
          └───────┘

I have a [very nice] 4k in between two old 1080p HDs. They are arranged as though on 3 sides of an octagon, i.e. angled 45 degrees from one another. Some sizeable proportion of the time, the two side monitors are not in use, but, when I do want them, they are nice to have. Main work happens in the central 4k, of course, but sometimes I want things in the periphery, available to be glanced at without mouse or keyboard input. A few such uses:

• multi-document work
• video chat
• video editing (work in center, preview on side)
• sports (usually baseball, a very "backgroundable" sport)
• presentation editing (work in center, slideshow on side)
• gaming: have Discord, wikis, etc. on side monitors
• gaming: the rare game can support multi-monitor, such as Euro Truck Simulator 2 (multi-monitor driving is fun!)
• gaming: can have a game console connected on another input of one of the side monitors

That said, once in a rare while I will use just the central monitor (with the other two off). Sometimes to focus; sometimes to reduce strain on the GPU (some games restrict themselves to just one monitor better than others); sometimes simply to reduce heat generation in the room.

If I need to bring a laptop into the picture, it can sit right on the desk, and cover only maybe the lower third of one of the monitors. A kind of "three and a half monitors" situation.

To your other point, multiple monitors don't seem to lower my productivity, at least not in any way that I notice.

Depending on what I'm running but for work I use my provided MacBook 14 inch I run it open on a stand as my 'side/spare' monitor.

My main monitor is a 32 inch 4k display, mostly run two windows side by side, tall enough that I find I get great coverage for the kinda work I do.

Did have a 3rd but found I didn't need it since the 32inch is essentially two displays, at least I use it that way.

MacBook being open means I can use the mic, cam and fingerprint reader for password manager etc.

My current setup is a 14" laptop right in front of me with a 27" 1440p monitor centered above/behind it, but ideally I'd want another monitor of the same size to one side or the other. Monitor has my IDE, laptop has full-screen terminal in one virtual desktop (which would go on the extra monitor if available) and then everything else overlapping in another.

Before shifting to working from home I had three monitors plus the laptop in the office but that was overkill.

An outdated photo of my desk. Since upgraded the monitor to a ROG Strix XG43UQ, vari Active Seat, a heavy gas strut arm for the monitor, and a light gas strut for the keyboard/mouse tray. Both arms are affixed to the gray steel tube, which doubles as a cabling channel.

Right now my setup is basically three monitors:

First is an ultra wide 32” LG running at 75Hz hooked to my Mac via Thunderbolt, my gaming PC via DisplayPort, and my work computer via HDMI. I use my monitor’s input toggle to swap between them based on what I’m doing.

Second is a cheap 1080P 32” HD TV hooked to my Mac via HDMI as a secondary monitor and positioned directly above it on a dual monitor pole that clamps to my desk that is dearly love to be rid of.

Third is a cultiva duplicate of the other TV and placed to my left that holds my Apple TV, my Xbox, my Switch, and my BluRay player.

What I’d ultimately love to do is to connect all of my computers and my media stuff into one single monitor, and be able to bring them up as windows on my Mac, or my Linux. The capture card I have now is USB-C based and simply far too weak to handle that. I’m thinking that my gaming rig and a proper card will have to be the real solution.

Right now that’s not feasible with my budget of zero dollars, so I’m planning a consolidation where I move my gaming and movie setup to the main input on my second TV above my main TV, and stop using it as a second monitor for my Mac as I’m not really making good use of it that way, and I’m not really enjoying having to fully turn sideways to play video games.

I scan my classroom. I forgot to clean my lenses this morning, so it's a bit smudgy. Someone is acting out - it's the kid who's still missing their own glasses after several months. I call out to them. They squint at me. I squint back. We lock eyes, not sure if we're really registering one another.

Another day in the classroom. I wish I had more eyes.

I had various multi-monitor setups in the past but I am back to a single screen now. This seems the best for me for distraction-free work.

I don't want to get into much detail, but I really like my setup at work: https://i.imgur.com/DvGGvAO.jpeg

I have 2 main 4k Dell monitors, one vertical.
And two small monitors that I use all the time for all the devices I have to support.

I also open my laptop screen when I have a meeting, so I don't have to obstruct any work view.