 Desktop computer users are always looking for ways to increase their efficiency when it comes to their computer usage. Buying better hardware is certainly a way to increase efficiency in productivity, but before you go spend outrageous amounts of money on a really high-end processor or a whole bunch of RAM, I challenge you guys to consider upgrading to a multi-monitor setup first. Because almost every computer these days has the ability to run dual monitors at least. Most computers already have two monitor ports on them, and usually all you need to do to get that second monitor working is plug it in, right? It's very easy to get a dual monitor setup on most modern equipment these days. Now going three monitors or more can be a bit trickier. You may have to invest in a better graphics card at that point. Most mid-level to high-end level graphics cards these days though seem to have at least four monitor ports. Some of the really high-end graphics card have as many as six monitor ports on them and of course if you need to plug in more than six monitors to a machine you can always have multiple GPUs installed in your computer. For me personally I moved to a three monitor setup probably about six or seven years ago and I can tell you I would never go back to using just one monitor not on my personal workstation. I couldn't. I think any desktop workstation you owe it to yourself to try out multi monitors. What are the advantages? Well there's actually a ton of advantages to using multiple monitors. First of all you can run multiple applications on your system simultaneously. For example you know I could have on my left hand screen let's assume I have a dual monitor setup on my left hand screen I could have a web browser pulled up for researching a topic while on the right hand screen I could have my word processor open where I'm typing a paper or something and you know I can have the browser open to research the topic as I'm writing it and they're both visible on screen especially if I needed to compare the thing I'm writing to what I'm reading side by side that's what makes multiple monitors so incredibly productive. If you had a single monitor and wanted to do something like that then you couldn't view both applications at the same time not full screen anyway you would have to be constantly alt tabbing between them and even that is a little hard especially if you're really having to compare two documents you know that you really need to see side by side and there's no real way to do that if you only have one monitor. Another interesting aspect to multi monitors especially for those of you that are in school or those of you that do a lot of work like your employment requires you to do work maybe on your personal machines or even at your machine at the office doing collaborative work is much easier on a multi monitor system for example say I need to be on a video conference call with some co-workers to discuss some collaborative project we're doing I could have zoom or Skype or some video chat client open on one monitor and on the other monitor I could have files open your reference files or browser whatever it is that I need open to actually do the work we're talking about when I could still have the chat open on one monitor and then whatever it is I'm actually working in on another monitor and even though most of what I'm talking about in this video is kind of focused on desktop you know work stations those of you that have laptops owe it to yourself to investigate plugging in a second monitor to your laptop because laptop screens are tiny right there are small screens and sometimes if you're doing real work on a laptop it's nice to plug in a bigger monitor because you can instead of using that 13 inch screen on that laptop behind me I can plug in a 27 inch monitor to it and instead do my work on that monitor I could actually work on both monitors I could work on the 13 inch monitor and the 27 inch monitor because then I have two screens to put stuff in I can put the stuff on the big screen that I really need you know that large screen real estate to focus on and then I could put the less important stuff maybe on the laptop's 13 inch screen I think one of the biggest advantages of using multiple monitors is the fact that monitors are just not that expensive depending on the model now there's some really high-end monitors that can you know price you into the thousands of dollars but for the most part I mean you can buy a 24 inch monitor these days for under a hundred bucks you know some decent monitors I'm much better monitors than what you could have paid five times that amount of money you know just a few years ago so monitors are not expensive so if you're really wanting to boost efficiency and productivity I would start there first before investing thousands of dollars into CPUs and GPUs and RAM for me personally on my triple monitor setup how do I deal with the three screens well typically for most of my work I use the far left monitor and the middle monitor the far right monitor I use while recording matter of fact I could show you my triple monitor screens in action the far right monitor that is where I always have OBS and a file manager open while I'm recording I have OBS of course open so I could record using OBS I have a file manager open to verify that OBS actually is recording the file to the proper directory I want these files to be recorded to and right now I do have some show notes open as well and then the second monitor though is my middle monitor is the screen I normally record that's the screen you guys see in all of my videos the first monitor typically while I'm recording is where I would pull up a web browser and you know that that's typically what I have on that first screen is I'll have a web browser maybe I want some show notes or research something while I'm recording so that's the first monitor the third monitor is where I have all my recording stuff and the second monitor is the desktop that I'm actually recording most of my videos now is there any hard evidence to back up my claims that multi monitors increased productivity actually yes there is there's actually a lot of studies out there that back this up there was a study done just a couple of years ago in 2017 Fujitsu Siemens computers published a study that analyzed whether multi monitors boost productivity and what they found was going from one monitor to a dual monitor setup increased productivity 25% that's huge right that is a gigantic increase in productivity so just plugging in a second monitor to your computer and your computer chances are already supports at least two monitors anyway there's no reason not to at least be running dual monitors the study found that if you increased to three monitors you're you increased your productivity all the way to 35.5% so dual monitors takes you to a 25% increase triple monitors takes you to a 35% increase there's some other increases as you add monitors but it starts becoming a point of diminishing returns I really think triple monitors are probably the sweet spot that's where I've landed and that's kind of where I suggest you guys go now are there any disadvantages to using multi monitors because there's got to be pros and cons to everything right well honestly there's not really any disadvantages to multi monitors I mean if I had to be kind of picky I would say having multi monitors can make you less productive if you're the kind of person that now has all of this extra screen real estate and you're going to put crap on it like chat programs and social media apps and messaging clients and Twitter clients and things like that on your screen then that stuff is probably going to start distracting you from doing the actual work you should be doing on the computer so avoid that you know don't have all that you don't have to have things on your screen all the time I have three monitors going right now two of them don't have anything on them so don't feel like that you just have to have stuff running on your desktop all the time because you have all these monitors the other thing is multi monitors do require you to have a large desk especially once you go three monitors and this three monitors set up I need about six feet just for monitors you know that's a lot of room taken up by these monitors and obviously you do have to pay for the monitors themselves there's a monetary cost involved but again monitors are not that expensive anyway and honestly it will probably end up paying for itself it'll probably save you money in the long term just based on the productivity gains you get from using multi monitors to sum everything up I think using a multi monitor setup leads to an increase in efficiency and productivity due to that larger more flexible visible workspace that you have to work with and due to how simple it is to set up multi monitors and the fact that the associated costs for setting up multi monitors has really dropped dramatically in recent years the cost of monitors is so cheap I really think every workstation should be at least a dual monitor setup with a triple monitor setup really being ideal now if you use multi monitors share in the comments below your setup let us know how many monitors you're using the size and everything and let us know has using multi monitors improved your workflow if at all now before I go I need to think a few special people I need to think the producers of the show I need to think Devin Fran Gabe Corbinian Mitchell Akami Arch 5530 Chris Chuck David the other David Donnie Dylan Gregory Lewis Paul pick VM Scott and Willie they're the producers of the show they are my highest tiered patrons over on Patreon without these guys this episode about why you should use three monitors it wouldn't have been possible the show is also brought to you by each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen these are all my supporters over on Patreon because the distro tube channel is supported by you guys the community if you'd like to support my work consider doing so look for DT over on Patreon alright guys peace