[HN Gopher] Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor
___________________________________________________________________
Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor
Author : Fudgel
Score : 176 points
Date : 2026-04-01 05:28 UTC (3 days ago)
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| noduerme wrote:
| I've been a laptop purist most of my life, and prefer to work
| outside my house / office. Only recently I got a Big Monitor(tm)
| for a mini pc. It's really messed with my head. Now when I look
| at my 15" laptop everything looks incredibly small. Not just
| that, but the scroll direction is opposite on the pc, so if I'm
| working side by side I find myself accidentally scrolling each
| one backwards, or actually typing into the wrong keyboard.
| Somehow I survived this long with just laptop screens and I don't
| think it's a mistake that my focus was preserved through that.
| atsaloli wrote:
| You can configure the scroll direction on the Mac. So you can
| have them both go the same way.
| wzdd wrote:
| You can also configure the scroll direction on Windows
| (through the registry with 10, using the settings GUI with
| 11) and in Linux (depending your DE).
| plasma_beam wrote:
| Similarly, laptop purist for the past 25 years. I so much
| prefer the focus of one thing on my screen at a time, and
| toggling between apps without having to shift eyes on a large
| monitor. I also like to pick up and work from starbucks or
| wherever. I feel like we are in the minority overall but I do
| know some like us.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I always reverse the scroll direction on trackpads.
| drBonkers wrote:
| [Unnatural Scroll Wheels](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc
| e=web&rct=j&opi=8997844...)
| amunozo wrote:
| Is the difference that big if you just have a bigger monitor
| but with the same information?
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Like everything else in life, it depends :
|
| * I feel the key message here is "single vs multiple windows",
| not small vs big monitor. I love my 32" curved monitor. I too
| switched from having three monitors to having just one big
| monitor and staying with one maximizing window majority of time.
|
| It's also role dependant. I spent few years as ops manager and
| multiple windows and situational awareness / task parallelization
| were important. Not saying it's a good thing but it was the name
| of the game.
|
| Even without task parallelization, multiple windows are important
| for some roles. If I'm transforming a working excel into
| executive slide, it's nice to have them both up. If you are good
| at taking notes, having teams meeting and one note up is a life
| saver and super power. Etc
|
| But yes - I think core message is "do not assume that prevalent
| wisdom or what others do, works for your task, job, and
| personality". As another example, I think dark mode is cool, all
| my cool friends use it, and it does _not_ work for me on majority
| of applications. And that 's ok... Not everybody is cool like
| that :-)
| bombcar wrote:
| one thing I've noticed with the "single ultra wide monitor" vs
| multiple smaller ones is that if I maximize something on the
| ultra wide the "important" part is often off to the left, not
| centered.
|
| I actually redesigned my desk a bit so my ultra wide's left
| side is directly in front of me to compensate for this, which
| is a bit weird, but ... it's working so far.
| necovek wrote:
| An aside: I am generally good at keeping notes while in a
| meeting, and I have tried shared notes in One Note, but as soon
| as someone else edits something in the same spot, it creates a
| forked history requiring manual reconciliation: does this work
| for you?
|
| I've switched to Word akin to how I used to do it with Google
| Docs as that works much better.
|
| Perhaps it's given away by "One" in the name (one simultaneous
| editor)? Or am I holding it wrong?
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| I use onenote as a personal note taking system.
|
| For shared artifacts we use word, excel or PowerPoint in
| corporate onedrive and it works shockingly well, with minor
| but important caveats - you can't usually edit the same exact
| box at the same time, and it can get confused with offline
| changes by multiple people. But online changes by multiple
| simultaneous people seems to work really well. I especially
| enjoy when one person is presenting slides, an executive
| makes a suggestion, and another team member makes the change
| real time on the same deck and it shows up in presentation.
|
| We are just starting to experiment with some shared onenote
| notebooks, it seems to have a bit more learning curve and
| needs more discipline and structure than the rest of ms
| office.
| makeitrain wrote:
| I've had a 38" ultrawide for about a decade.
|
| I'd say monitor position and ergonomics matter way more than
| screen size.
|
| Navigating a stack of apps with alt+tab, ctrl+tab is extremely
| efficient. I only miss the extra space when looking at
| spreadsheets or comparing things in different windows.
|
| Some laptops have a pitiful screen height, avoid those.
|
| Ultrawide is an extra screen size that many web devs forget
| about. Good design can take advantage of it. But some fluid
| designs look terrible without constraints.
|
| I ran a vertical setup, with a monitor above my laptop. Not a bad
| way to go if you want more space for auxiliary apps.
|
| Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to get
| there.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| > Focus is essential for productivity. Do whatever it takes to
| get there.
|
| I'm posting this because it's something I went through in my
| career and I hope it helps someone who is in a similar
| situation
|
| I was undiagnosed ADHD until my 30s. In high school and
| university I was able to brute force my way through and get
| reasonably good grades. I had a really rocky start to my career
| in software. I was always getting middling performance reviews
| along the lines of "You're really good when you're working, but
| your productivity is terrible". Meanwhile my stress level was
| crazy high despite not exactly doing lots of overtime or
| anything else
|
| Even treated, ADHD can make focus very difficult. Undiagnosed,
| it is devastating
|
| Bringing it back to the words I quoted, I agree entirely. Focus
| is essential for productivity. Part of doing whatever it takes
| to get there might mean getting diagnosed and medicated
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| I went the other direction. I bought a Dell 40" for productivity
| and I feel like the increased real estate only clutters and
| distracts.
| kanbankaren wrote:
| That is very big. You would end up getting neck pain as you
| have to physically move your head to look at extremities of the
| screen.
|
| I use a 32" monitor and I find that I use only the center of
| the screen. I would downsize if not for vertical real estate.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| I've had it two years, no neck pain. I don't have to move my
| head to look around.
| antonvs wrote:
| How far away from it do you sit? I don't get neck pain, but
| I do have to move my head even on a 32", thinking of
| switching back to a 27" for that reason (plus better pixel
| density.)
| kanbankaren wrote:
| My eyes are 30" to 36" away from the monitor. The
| original reason for getting a big monitor was the idea
| that looking at something that far relaxes the ciliary
| muscles in the eye. I don't have to turn my neck at this
| distance and I don't get any headaches even if I stare at
| it for 10+ hours/day though my original point still
| stands which is I end up using only the center of the
| monitor.
| gambutin wrote:
| Being able to de-focus is actually quite useful.
|
| Imagine sitting through those lengthy team calls and having to
| concentrate on BS for 1-2 hours.
|
| Nah, I'd rather focus on getting things done in the meantime.
| bitwize wrote:
| Oooooh, 30. Getting up there, old man! Wait till you hit your 40s
| and your vision starts going... you're gonna want a big-ass
| monitor then!
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Just get reading glasses. You'll need them anyway.
| bitwize wrote:
| I'm actually nearsighted enough that I don't need readers, at
| least not yet. But my ability to accommodate has diminished,
| and as far away as I sit from the screen the myopia starts to
| kick in and even with corrective lenses it becomes difficult
| to resolve small text because my eyes can no longer make fine
| focus adjustments. So yes please, big-ass screen, big-ass
| fonts.
| hddherman wrote:
| Author here, I've actually worn glasses since I was 8. :)
|
| That's why I highlighted GNOME getting usable fractional
| scaling out of the box, it makes all the difference. Previously
| I relied on the large text accessibility feature, but toggling
| it on/off depending on what monitor I used was a pain.
| FpUser wrote:
| I used to have 3 4K monitors. At some point this has become
| highly irritating messy. Now all my desktop PCs have single 32"
| 4K monitor and no scaling. This is "small" enough to keep my
| focus and yet large enough to arrange windows in a manner I like.
| Main being development IDE vertically on the right and the UI I
| debug / test vertically on the left be it browser or pure desktop
| app.
| psyclobe wrote:
| I will never give up my 5k2k LG 32 inch lcd. Single is best I do
| agree.
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| I just upgraded to a 49" curved display because it lets me view
| everything I need _for the current task_ at one time.
|
| One virtual desktop is Messages, Slack, and Outlook for all my
| comms needs.
|
| Another is IDE & browser for development work.
|
| Another is todo list, planner, notes, and browser for task
| management.
|
| Having to constantly swap app between browser, email, IDE, slack,
| etc is interruptive. Being able to switch to a single-focus
| desktop with everything visible is much more productive for me
| and reduces context switching.
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| What's your viewing distance? I currently have a 32" at about
| 80cm or so. Did not like the 34" as it has actually less
| vertical space despite having more area technically.
|
| Is the 49" ultra wide or more 16:9/16:10?
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| My viewing distance is one-arm-length (kinda close), when I
| raise my arm my fingertips just touch the screen. Definitely
| closer than my previous monitor, as you need to sit within
| the curved-screen radius to be in the sweet spot.
|
| Looks like it's 32:9 aspect ratio - it's this Samsung, it was
| on sale last week for $800: https://a.co/d/0f884LPO
| PeterStuer wrote:
| I went from triple 1440p to just two, but I am going to go back.
| I guess it al depends on the type of work you do. I know managers
| that just use their phone.
| prhn wrote:
| I learned this lesson a couple decades ago.
|
| Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in itself.
|
| However, I've also learned recently it depends what you're doing.
|
| Software development, I just want one single maximized window on
| a single laptop monitor. If I have a near-retina DPI monitor with
| 120hz+ (I can't deal with low DPI fuzziness and low refresh all
| day) I'll usually have a 3-4 window layout on a single monitor
| with the IDE taking up half the screen.
|
| There is a minor cognitive hit from switching focus between
| monitors for things like reading documentation, so I don't like
| doing that.
|
| Music production? Man, I could probably use like 3+ monitors.
| Main stems view, a separate monitor for open VSTs, a separate
| monitor for video, a separate one for piano roll maybe. The
| window juggling gets really cumbersome on a single monitor.
|
| My friend who is a professional musician (makes music for TV
| shows) uses 3 large TVs for music production.
| antonvs wrote:
| > Managing windows with OS idiosyncrasies becomes a task in
| itself.
|
| Tiling window managers are a good solution.
| kartoffelsaft wrote:
| Tiling merely changes the idiosyncrasies, and I say this as
| someone who primarily uses them. (hyprland in my case)
|
| If you created a window right now, where will it go? Which
| window will it take its space from? Does it use your focused
| window? Your mouse position? If your WM supports mixed
| floating & tiling, how does it go when you flip a window
| between them? etc. That's all cognitive load when you aren't
| familiar and still requires some hand control when you are.
| asdff wrote:
| This is why I use no window management. Windows are
| arbitrary sizes of what I happened to drag out last time.
| Windows piled on top of eachother. Some stuff in the back
| of the pile dates back weeks. A couple other piles of
| various windows in other desktop spaces. I like to think it
| is like a messy desk. Maybe closer to how we think in real
| life. Like you the tiling was a lot of faff. What goes
| where, how big shoudl they be? How can I fit xyz on both
| these windows but they can only be 5 inches wide to fit it
| all on the screen? All that friction and mental load fades
| away with the pile of junk method of window management.
| You'd be surprised how easily you find things in that pile
| too.
| lloeki wrote:
| The word you're looking for is "spatial interface".
|
| http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/spatial-nautilus.html
|
| https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/
| microtonal wrote:
| After having tried many tiling window managers over the
| years, I have also come to the conclusion that the 'pile
| of windows' model (sometimes spread across desktops)
| works best for me.
|
| The most important thing is to have a way to search
| through the pile. (Raycast window search is pretty good.)
| antonvs wrote:
| I haven't used hyprland. I can answer your questions for
| XMonad, assuming you're using a typical standard layout.
|
| > If you created a window right now, where will it go?
|
| The new window becomes the focused window. It's inserted
| into the master position. Existing windows shift down the
| (conceptual) stack.
|
| > Does it use your focused window?
|
| It uses the same screen space, yes.
|
| > Which window will it take its space from?
|
| All of the other visible windows. It recomputes the tiles
| so that all tiles except the master become smaller, to make
| room for the new one.
|
| > Your mouse position?
|
| By default, mouse position is ignored. XMonad is keyboard-
| centric by design. You can set a mouse-follow configuration
| variable if you want. I've never tried it.
|
| > If your WM supports mixed floating & tiling, how does it
| go when you flip a window between them?
|
| It recomputes the tiles in much the same way as above. It's
| as though you deleted the window from the tiling and it
| becomes floating. And vice versa. It's a very consistent
| model.
|
| I find it very natural and predictable. As far as
| "cognitive load" goes, that seems like an exaggeration, but
| again I haven't used hyprland.
|
| If by "hand control" you mean using the mouse, that's
| definitely not needed for window management. In fact by
| default, XMonad doesn't even support resizing tiles using
| the mouse, and I've never tried to enable that. I do
| commonly use the mouse for switching focus, usually because
| I'm navigating to some location in another window anyway,
| in which case focus moves automatically.
| PhilipRoman wrote:
| I'm using Hyprland right now for its wayland support, but
| IMO so far the best mental model for window management I've
| seen is that of herbstluftwm with static layouts (you can
| still use dynamic tiling and tabs with it of course)
| nchmy wrote:
| Yes, I tried a tiling window manager for about an hour and
| then stopped. It was absolute madness as the window size
| and positioning was seemingly random. I can't comprehend
| how anyone can use them
| embedding-shape wrote:
| Used to use AwesomeWM for almost a decade before I forced
| myself to simplify to Gnome for other reasons, but I
| never felt like window sizing and positioning was random,
| it always opened in the logical place, which I kind of
| feel like is the whole value proposition of a window
| manager in the first place.
|
| For curiosities sake, what window manager did you try?
| skydhash wrote:
| Tiling window manager means relying heavily on
| workspaces. You distribute the windows over workspaces.
|
| And most algorithms for management are deterministic. The
| position and the size of the new windows is always known.
| asdff wrote:
| I prefer desk based management. Windows like papers on my
| desk, piled on top of eachother peaking out from the sides.
| Seems chaotic but it is more aligned with how your brain
| works in the meatspace than looking at a bunch of things at
| once.
| EnPissant wrote:
| Do you use macOS? That's exactly how I feel on macOS because it
| is so so bad at this.
|
| Dual 4k 27" monitors on Linux with KDE Plasma near perfect.
| rkomorn wrote:
| > There is a minor cognitive hit from switching focus between
| monitors for things like reading documentation, so I don't like
| doing that.
|
| Do you not feel like there's a similar hit from switching full
| screen windows? Or is your documentation within your full
| screen IDE?
| lelanthran wrote:
| > Do you not feel like there's a similar hit from switching
| full screen windows?
|
| I feel like it should be, but in practice it isn't.
|
| Sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but switching between
| windows on the same screen has near-zero context loss.
|
| I also use a 3x3 grid of workspaces (center one is browser,
| all the others are dedicated to a single
| project/context/session/task each), and navigating workspaces
| (modifier+shift+arrows) also has near-zero contextual hit.
|
| Even more counter-intuitively, while a second screen produces
| a large and irritating context-switch cost, using a little
| (physical, pen-and-paper) notepad next to me has even less
| context-switch loss than switching windows or workspaces do.
| It happens without me even realising it - sometimes I'd arise
| from a long session of coding and be surprised at some notes
| I made while coding.
|
| There's probably something learnable about the human mind in
| all of this.
| binkHN wrote:
| No thank you. While I'm productive when mobile on my 14" 2.8K
| screen, I'm more productive with the extra headroom on my single
| 27" 4K at the office.
| deep_noz wrote:
| reading the title I thought it's a relationship advice...
| sibeliuss wrote:
| This was my secret weapon for years. My coworkers could never
| understand my focus and productivity and were always surprised
| when I said that it was due to working from a tiny laptop screen,
| and no more.
| antisthenes wrote:
| How do you view HTML/Code/JSONs in other applications?
|
| I have an instance of Postman open on my work laptop, and the
| useful area of the output constitutes maybe 20% of the screen.
|
| Do you just scroll around endlessly every 2 seconds? Or do you
| have amazing eyesight and use tiny fonts?
| sibeliuss wrote:
| Cmd+Tab skills! But mainly, its a matter of only ever doing
| one thing at a time and optimizing for that in lots of little
| ways.
|
| This "rule" is especially useful now that I'm coding
| primarily through agents. Secret weapon number 2, while
| everybody else is getting burned out running ten agents at
| once and producing slop, while I'm now writing more (and
| better) code than ever.
| asdff wrote:
| Use more information dense editors. I work in tmux and nano.
| acuozzo wrote:
| > How do you view HTML/Code/JSONs in other applications?
|
| Not GP, but I'll be forever thankful to have been able to
| make my career focused on embedded software.
|
| In my line of work there's nothing to view because there's no
| visual component at all. If my user(s) "see" the results of
| my work, then it means I've catastrophically fucked up.
|
| I spend 90% of my time working in vim within XTerm.
|
| The closest I get to UI/UX is a UART debugging interface.
| ActorNightly wrote:
| Its funny to read these comments where people think that focus
| is something that they can attain.
|
| Your secret weapon isnt the laptop. Your secret weapon is a
| combination of a) actually giving a fuck about what you are
| doing, and b) the vibe of the workspace that makes you enjoy
| doing what you are doing.
|
| Focus comes from a reinforcement loop of happy hormones that
| come from doing what you are doing. You can't focus on things
| that you don't enjoy doing.
| Kuyawa wrote:
| I've used a cheap 50" TV as monitor for almost a decade now and I
| can't complain. Sight is 20/20 at 60yo, no eye strain, no
| headaches, nothing. I only use it for coding (sublime) and
| browsing (brave), so I don't care about
| resolution/retina/pixels/colors/curvature/etc.
| UnhappyMeaning wrote:
| I've tried every set up that I have the privilage of having:
|
| - 11in Macbook Air
|
| - 16in Macbook Pro
|
| - 1 X 27in monitor mounted with MB Pro in clamshell mode
|
| - Linux Mint desktop on old Dell Inspiron with 4gb of RAM
|
| and after using all of these to try and increase my productivity,
| I'm still an unfocused and possibly ADD riddled human. I'm not
| cut from the same cloth as my other productive peers who do not
| watch much YouTube and can type away at a black `vim` terminal on
| one half of their screen with software documentation on the other
| half of the screen.
| asdff wrote:
| >I'm not cut from the same cloth as my other productive peers
| who do not watch much YouTube and can type away at a black
| `vim` terminal on one half of their screen with software
| documentation on the other half of the screen.
|
| What stops you? Have you tried ripping the bandaid off, putting
| documentation on one screen and vim on the other? Putting your
| cellphone in a drawer across the room? Pulling the plug on your
| router if need be?
| jaffa2 wrote:
| Better to proclaim on the internet that you are special and ADD
| than just doing the work. I mean, who even are you if you dont
| have an 'ism of some sort these days? (Almost always self
| diagnosed)
| ronb1964 wrote:
| I went the opposite direction. I'm running a 45" LG UltraGear
| curved ultrawide OLED at 3440x1440. At first I thought the real
| estate would make me more productive. What actually happened is I
| have apps spread across the whole thing and spend more time
| rearranging windows than working. The article makes a fair point
| -- a smaller screen forces you to commit to one thing at a time.
| I'm not ready to give mine up, but I can't argue with the logic."
| Leomuck wrote:
| Interesting take. I regularly switch between just the laptop and
| my 3 monitor setup. Sometimes I feel like I could use a 4th one
| because there is just so much stuff to look at when developing.
| When I get to my laptop I sometimes feel like I can't be really
| productive on it. Having to tab all the time is not in itself an
| issue, but I keep getting lost when I have multiple instances of
| an app open - e.g. IDE. Say you have 3 projects open, I feel like
| I keep tabbing to the wrong one all the time.
|
| But overall, I do like the idea that you don't actually have to
| see everything at once. Also takes focus away I guess. I would
| love to see a study on this which tries to actually measure this.
| _thisdot wrote:
| I feel that tabbing to the wrong instance of an app is a
| problem that can be solved on the software level. It's a
| nightmare on the default macOS app switcher. I use an app
| called Contexts as a solution and it works reasonably well.
| There seems to be some free and open source solutions as well.
| riidom wrote:
| Single-screen user here. I like virtual desktops in addition to
| alt-tabbing.
| justonceokay wrote:
| I'm an adamant single-screen alt-tabber. I hardly ever even
| have two windows open side-by-side.
|
| I've always felt that I can alt-tab 2-3 times per second and
| that it's faster to not move my eyes. Why look at docs next
| to code when I can only read one at a time anyway? It's also
| embedded in my muscle memory to switch to specific apps by
| Apple-space typing 2-3 characters. So Firefox is "Apple-
| space-fi". It's so fast I feel slowed by having apps side-by-
| side.
|
| Anything that requires me dragging windows to their special
| place is a non-starter. To me that feels like playing with my
| food. I wonder if this is just because I type very quickly?
|
| I'm aware I'm in the minority.
| yzydserd wrote:
| Same here. Single screen, single app, at least 95% of the
| time. For decades.
|
| I'd like to try a squarish monitor, but it seems to be a
| barren wasteland of choice: mateview, dualup, or flexscan.
| Meh.
| bdcravens wrote:
| I do enjoy rocking multiple monitors, but even if I went to one,
| I'd still have to use a big monitor. My mind may be young but my
| almost 50 year old eyes aren't. (I actually run my 32 inch
| monitors in QHD mode)
| seemaze wrote:
| This is what so few people realize. Size is relative viewing
| distance and pixel density. Small screens are designed to be
| viewed at decreased focal distances, making you more cross-
| eyed.
| Surac wrote:
| went from 27" Mint to 13" Mac Book Neo. I'm extreme astonished
| how this has changed my workflow. Smaller screen realy works
| better for me. The change from Mint to MacOS was not hard and
| most programs are the same.
| ben8bit wrote:
| I was actually wondering about this a few months ago; if big
| monitors work against focus. There is something zen about having
| a limited amount of screen real estate & focusing on 1 thing at a
| time.
| bitexploder wrote:
| There is something powerful about environment and what it does to
| our minds. For the author, giving up the monitor is totally valid
| and may work for many people. I can often convince myself to
| chance a habit by adding a simple extra physical step. This is
| harder on a computer. It takes discipline to not just end up with
| dozens of windows and even more browser tabs in some roles. I
| just aggressively close windows when starting a new task or
| thinking. Most likely you don't need whatever you are closing :)
| Xcelerate wrote:
| It depends what I'm working on. If it's a bunch of interdependent
| systems that involve a large amount of data, a giant monitor is
| better. If the giant monitor is being used to make visible more
| application surfaces (Slack, email, VS Code, etc.), it makes
| focus worse.
|
| The biggest improvement I've found for my focus is to _force
| myself_ to close any open tabs /windows that are not absolutely
| necessary roughly every two hours. I used to be one of those
| people with 800 tabs open in the browser and 20 application
| windows spread across 8 desktop spaces. Was a concentration mess.
| Requiring myself to "clean up" periodically has really helped.
| aenis wrote:
| I was wondering about this for a while now.
|
| My main home office has 5 monitors, and i still have to swipe
| between desktops regularly. I used to have 6, but two ultrawides
| stacked one above the other was a bit painful and I developed a
| back pain after a while.
|
| My on the road setup typically involves a folding portable
| monitor (asus zenscreen duo, or something to that effect - that
| is 2x 1080p). Easily enough, and I don't really see a decrease in
| my efficiency.
|
| But I sometimes do long distance flights and then I code/work on
| a single screen. I absolutely can do the same thing that I can do
| with my 6 screen setup with almost not noticeable effect on
| productivity as well. Could it be that the extra screens are just
| useless and an illusion of added productivity?
| bombcar wrote:
| I find real loss on a single screen in many cases; so much so
| that I'll get up and move downstairs to get the extra screens.
|
| _It really depends on what kind of work I 'm doing_ - and if
| I'm on the plane, I'm going to likely do work that does well
| single-screen; replying to emails, dicking around on HN, etc.
|
| But in maxscreen mode (or at least two screens) then I'm
| "doing" something on the main screen while looking at reference
| material, output, chat, other things on the second.
| ozim wrote:
| If I am writing backend code I am mostly in a single IDE
| window moving tabs with code files to other screens is
| working but is inconvenient.
|
| When I work on frontend I much rather have preview on second
| screen and most likely reference next to it.
|
| When writing documentation or requirements I cannot imagine
| working on a single screen as essentially I am integrating
| multiple data sources into one, like I need to see how app
| looks now and before release, what changed and still have my
| working space for draft.
|
| Switching windows to quickly look up documentation is fine
| but when creating requirements having time to understand what
| needs to be in which place how it has to evolve I need to
| have it right there so that my imagination doesn't runaway.
| convexly wrote:
| Went from ultrawide back to my 27 inch monitor and definitely
| feel more focused. Having everything open "just in case" was
| killing my output. Nothing alt+tab can't fix.
| antonvs wrote:
| I think a single 27" 4K is a sweet spot. I currently have a 32"
| 4K and I'm considering switching back.
| convexly wrote:
| Agreed, pixel density at that size in 4k is a treat.
| plqbfbv wrote:
| Perhaps the problem isn't the BigScreen, it's the youtube video?
|
| I normally run applications maximized on my 28" 4k, unless I need
| input from 2 applications at the same time, then I tile them.
|
| Working from my work-issued 16" Macbook Pro or any other of my
| laptops is a pain because of the limited estate - it's hard to
| see patterns at a glance or get the whole context when I can only
| see 30 lines of text that is truncated at <=80 columns. Plus, the
| fact that the keyboard isn't detachable from the screen forces
| bad habits on the posture.
| kshacker wrote:
| I gave up my monitor pre-covid, a few years earlier than that
| actually, and have not looked back.
|
| The only thing that does make me wonder at times is that my video
| in a zoom'ish app looks different than other people's video in
| some manner, but all that means is that maybe I need 1 backup and
| mirrored display for video calls, but maybe I can live with it.
| daniel-ash wrote:
| I love alt+tab way too much to ever go back to multi screen.
|
| A different angle: multiple screens can cause neck problems if
| you're tilting your head in a weird direction for too long
| eemil wrote:
| Same here, I've found a single (not too big) monitor to be best
| for ergonomics.
|
| Still keep a second monitor around, but it's exclusively for
| screen sharing. Speaking of, having a dedicated monitor for
| sharing is really nice:
|
| - It can have a standard resolution and aspect ratio (1080p)
| which is perfect for sharing
|
| - It is a clean slate. I only share stuff I consciously move to
| that monitor. No need to clear my screen or burden my
| colleagues with unrelated windows in our call.
|
| - Yes app sharing exists, but screen sharing is just more
| reliable and works better for sharing multiple things
| sequentially/simultaneously.
| 0xfaded wrote:
| The MacOS window manager is so bad that I've resorted to three
| monitors plus the built in screen. Two monitors have fullscreen
| terminal emulators and the last has the browser. The built-in
| screen handles all the distracting stuff whenever I can be
| bothered to look down at it.
|
| With Xmonad I had 10 spaces on a single laptop screen (actually
| however many I wanted) with the flick of a button. And yes, I
| know about hacks like aerospace and the others that require
| disabling system integrity
| maleldil wrote:
| If you were using a maximised app per workspace, I recommend
| setting up Hammerspoon for quick app switching. I have hyper +
| J for terminal, hyper + K for browser and so on. No space
| switching, but since each app occupies the full screen, it
| doesn't matter.
| edoloughlin wrote:
| I switched to Niri (https://github.com/niri-wm/niri) about six
| months ago and I find it does wonders for focus.
|
| Set the default window width to 1/4 or 1/3 of the screen width
| (depending on the screen size) and it's easy to keep just the
| right context visible.
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| Niri is so good. The spatialized layout really keeps me aware
| of where I need to go.
|
| I do wish it had virtual outputs though. Such that we can
| either combine screens to form a big monitor, or subdivide a
| screen to make multiple outputs. I have been doing some coding
| on a 42" OLED tv, and I really want both a side tray and an
| overhead output. There's stilch which does this; I wonder if
| River is capable enough to do something similar.
| https://github.com/wegel/stilch
| chrisra wrote:
| I feel the same way. In general, I prefer working on a couch with
| my laptop. My eyes aren't great and I end up ruining my posture
| at a desk, invariably.
| oojuliuso wrote:
| 100% in agreement. Trying to get rid of my 32" 4K. Too much head
| panning and scanning. I want to comfortably see the entire screen
| without effort at less than 12 inches away. Creatives likely get
| some benefit with large displays, but for people who read, code,
| do productive stuff, it's too much screen, too much pixels.
|
| 27" @ WQHD res seems just about right. 4K if you absolutely must.
| theshackleford wrote:
| > I want to comfortably see the entire screen without effort at
| less than 12 inches away.
|
| I wouldn't use a display from this close. It's better for my
| eyes to have a larger display a little further away. I'm closer
| to 30" with a 32" and another desk with a 38"
|
| > but for people who read, code, do productive stuff, it's too
| much screen, too much pixels.
|
| I do all of those things and find the opposite. So it would
| seem it's more down to individual preference.
|
| > WQHD res seems just about right.
|
| I would dislike this. Especially for text and even more at
| closer distances.
| bix6 wrote:
| > One day I was doing work on my laptop on a couch because
| hitting 30 apparently means that sleeping slightly incorrectly
| results in debilitating back pain.
|
| You working out? PT?
| farfatched wrote:
| > One day I was doing work on my laptop on a couch because
| hitting 30 apparently means that sleeping slightly incorrectly
| results in debilitating back pain.
|
| A factor in my debilitating back pain for me (was 31 and fit; now
| 37; getting better) was coping with back pain by moving to
| unergonomic positions like the couch/bed, which led to different
| and thus compounding compensations, and thus more complex
| recovery.
|
| Now if my back is painful in a position, I take it as a signal to
| move my body, not find another static position that doesn't cause
| pain.
|
| That can sometimes be difficult to do, with job/family
| requirements though.
|
| Sorry to derail the post, but I hope this helps someone avoid my
| issue.
| birole wrote:
| I had the same kind of issues and moving a bit and doing little
| not so complex exercises helped a lot. I strongly recommend
| everyone. Health shall always be the first prio
| huijzer wrote:
| > too easy to put YouTube running on the left side, and whatever
| else on the right.
|
| After reading the first sentences, I knew this was going to come
| up. I have an ultrawide screen but never watch videos next to my
| work. It just doesn't work. When I'm working, I want to be
| productive. Somehow it's also really bad for the brain to put
| things side by side as anyone I know who does this has poor focus
| nurettin wrote:
| I'm super productive on a 28" with yt constantly open slightly
| hidden behind the terminal window. EDM, chess videos, speedrun
| videos, having them in the background actually reduces boredom
| and lets me achieve more. Laptop is on the side with slack in
| case there is an alert or an important message.
|
| That said, shout out to the well being app that comes with the
| latest gnome version! I allow it to force me to get up and walk
| around for five minutes at awkward times. I do light exercises
| like push ups and australian pull ups or get coffee while I wait.
| Being forced off the computer while I'm trying to focus actually
| makes the day more interesting.
| not_your_vase wrote:
| Hmmm, I have been thinking about this too. 10 years ago I was
| more productive when all I had was a bottom of the barrel 21 inch
| Benq monitor instead of the 3 big monitors I use now. Maybe I was
| younger. Or maybe I should just switch back to my old screen for
| a few days, and see what happens...
| iammrpayments wrote:
| Maybe this is why I feel like unplugging the laptop from monitor,
| to use it on the bed.
|
| Going to try not plugging the monitor at all, it might save my
| sleep.
| jaffa2 wrote:
| Is the poster sure or have they checked that the gains and
| perceived higher level of focus are not just because of the
| Change? Rather than the actual change? Maybe in a few months a
| bigger monitor will suddenly work better not because its bigger
| but because its a change?
|
| Personally i love a big monitor, i use 32" screens (but only 1 at
| a time) on my Mac, pc and gaming pc. But in reality i do most
| 'real work' on my 16" mbp. And i drop the res to make everything
| bigger snd nice to read on the laptop.
| tariky wrote:
| For me anything bigger then 27' is just too big. I also stopped
| working with two monitors.
|
| Main thing that was contributing to that is Cosmic desktop
| environment is has amazing defaults and adaptive scaling and if I
| need two displays just put window in second workspace.
| timeonecom wrote:
| It all depends. I couldn't work on a large screen, but having two
| is good, so I can have the code on one and the notes / web
| research/ AI discussions on the second. Constantly alt-tabbing
| means constant focus changes, I can't see how that can improve
| focus, but if it works for the poster, great.
| cyberax wrote:
| Same here.
|
| For years, I resisted even using an external monitor, preferring
| to work on my laptop's monitor instead. I finally switched to
| using a monitor when poor posture started getting uncomfortable.
|
| I almost always have just one window on the screen, maximized.
| I'm also using virtual desktops to switch between the browser/app
| and the IDE. This kind of setup really helps me with the focus,
| but at the same time it's not too annoying.
|
| I used to just use the macOS virtual desktops, but with the Apple
| Silicon transition, they also added annoyingly slow animation for
| desktop switching. That can not be turned off (seriously, wtf,
| Apple?). I jumped to FlashSpace the second I found about it.
| SanjayMehta wrote:
| Horses for courses.
|
| I use one 24 inch monitor with my laptops, and keep all the
| interruptions like Messages/Signal and Mail on the smaller
| screen. Nothing else generates notifications.
|
| It's a matter of discipline,that's all.
| wiether wrote:
| I guess it depends the type of work you do.
|
| To me, since I always need to have two apps side by side, a 34"
| screen have done wonders.
|
| I have my main app as a regular 16/9 window, and the secondary on
| the side.
|
| By putting the screen at the right distance and height, I don't
| have to move my head and my eyes just move a little to go through
| everything on the screen.
|
| And my main window still give me more information than if I had
| full-screened it on my MBP 14" screen (typically, I can see my
| whole Jira dashboard on the 34" screen while I have to scroll on
| the 14").
|
| On the other hand, having two screens (laptop + external) is
| terrible. Not the same resolution, having to turn the head...
|
| ------------
|
| One thing that is bothering me reading the article: I find the
| whole clutter on OP's desktop quite distracting!
|
| The cables coming out of the laptop, the things on the wall
| behind the laptop... That's something that would definitely kill
| my focus!
|
| At the office and at home, I've put a blank wall/separator in
| front of me so the only thing in my vision is the screen.
| necovek wrote:
| I prefer big, high-resolution monitors at appropriate distance (I
| am at 4k 43" at roughly 36"/90cm viewing distance in my home
| office and 32" at 28"/70cm at work) to be able to put all task-
| related content on the same screen.
|
| I need to do cross referencing quite a bit, and even with quick
| iterations in development, I like having documentation and output
| (terminal, browser...) side by side with Emacs as my IDE (I don't
| use Emacs' built-in window management as much, but it'd be the
| same thing).
|
| Using large 16:9 screens ensures I keep enough vertical space
| compared to ultra-wides, and high res is crucial for smooth text
| (scaled properly).
| JSR_FDED wrote:
| I spent decades completely happy with Cmd+Tab. Now I'm helping
| someone develop a trading system and I need to see several log
| files simultaneously, a broker GUI, and neovim.
|
| Once I realized that in order to answer a single question I
| needed to Cmd+Tab at least four times, often more, I added two
| monitors and it's dramatically lowered my stress level.
|
| FYI, on older MacBooks you can't add more than one extra screen,
| but if you get a DisplayLink dongle it works perfectly.
| cookiengineer wrote:
| The reason I love my old cheap 1080p monitors so much is
| because they need less organizational overhead compared to a
| large 4k monitor where you constantly have to fix UI scaling
| bugs and zoom in/out, force different fonts for shitty web
| pages etc.
|
| I am never gonna sway away from i3 [1], a notification free
| tiled window desktop system is just way too convenient. When I
| have to bootup a Windows VM for work (I am a malware analyst
| most of the time) I am losing my mind with all the
| notifications and blocking popup windows all the time. I have
| no idea why people are tolerating this as their work setup. It
| is hostile design to its users.
|
| I use my computer to work. I don't want a computer that works
| me all the time.
|
| [1] for desktop/GUI apps I use a mixture of GNOME forks and
| LXDE apps. Everything that makes popups when running in the
| background is avoided.*
| Faaak wrote:
| In sway + Wayland, these UI scaling bugs are fixed
| cookiengineer wrote:
| ... while other bugs are introduced :-/
|
| Can't switch because of old hardware and vulkan/mesa legacy
| reasons.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| KDE + Wayland is fine, too... except in some Java apps and
| LibreOffice with its ancient crap toolkit.
|
| Firefox, MS Edge (my MS Teams sandbox) and any GTK apps
| _do_ work.
| skyyler wrote:
| Yeah, I don't have UI scaling bugs with Niri + Wayland.
| stingraycharles wrote:
| "compared to a large 4k monitor where you constantly have to
| fix UI scaling bugs and zoom in/out, force different fonts
| for shitty web pages etc."
|
| counterpoint: this doesn't appear the case with Apple, as
| they have defaulted their OS entirely to retina-level density
| now, removed subpixel rendering, and anything non-5K may look
| off (and you need to go through hoops to make it look well).
|
| As such, I'm typing this in a MacBook with 3x5K displays
| connected.
| necovek wrote:
| Subpixel rendering has nothing to do with any of this: it
| was messing up on non-RGB pixel layout panels like VA and
| OLED, and it used to be a simple setting in GNOME (hidden
| these days unfortunately).
|
| Still, even 5K at 27" is not without noticeable jagged
| edges in diagonal lines and textual characters (though I've
| only tried 4K at 24", but that's a similar DPI and angular
| resolution if at the same distance) if your visual acuity
| (with or without correction) is around 20/20 or better
| (mine is better with glasses/contacts).
|
| I hate how the text looks with a Mac on a 4K 32" screen,
| let alone 4K 42" screen.
| t_mahmood wrote:
| And I love my multi monitor setup, because each monitor has
| its own set of app, and I can remove window switching by a
| lot.
|
| I put my browser on 2k monitor so no need to fight with
| resolution and other things
|
| but IDE is always on 4k monitor, no scaling, slightly larger
| font size, so I can see more code. And all the log, and note
| app are on 3rd 1080p monitor.
|
| And Wayland gnome was pretty solid for me, until recently
| gnome-shell eating over 2/3gb on long run. Switched to niri
| for the time being, which is working pretty solid.
| mrob wrote:
| 1080p is plenty for text-based work if you're not using
| Chinese or Japanese. It looks as sharp as 4K when you disable
| text anti-aliasing.
| ekropotin wrote:
| It absolutely doesn't look as sharp as 4k, even on 22" inch
| screen
| mrob wrote:
| I've seen 4K monitors in person. Disabling anti-aliasing
| (with full hinting enabled) on a 1080p monitor increases
| text sharpness to equal that of anti-aliased text on a 4K
| monitor. The only drawback is that the font no longer
| approximates the shape of printed text. This doesn't
| matter except in the outlier cases of Chinese and
| Japanese, which use some extremely visually intricate
| characters.
| ActorNightly wrote:
| >but if you get a DisplayLink dongle it works perfectly.
|
| LOL
|
| Im currently typing this on a work issued Macbook thats about 2
| years old at this point, and 40% of the time, when I plug in a
| cable, it decides it wants to turn on and turn off hdmi output
| in rapid succession.
| microtonal wrote:
| I always use DisplayPort over USB-C DP-Alt (or Thunderbolt on
| some displays) and I literally never have a problem across
| various LG, Dell and Apple Studio Displays.
|
| MacBook Pro M1 Pro or MacBook Pro M5
|
| Sounds like something is really broken in your setup?
|
| On the other hand, sleeping/waking Thunderbolt displays on my
| ThinkPad with Linux regularly leads to kernel panics, across
| several kernel versions.
| znpy wrote:
| Recent thinkpads are a bit of shit-tier laptops, and linux
| doesn't help much (it's not linux's fault).
|
| for personal use I gave up after almost twenty years of
| thinkpad+linux and got a MacBook neo. So far it's been
| great, much much better than my shit-tier ryzen-based x13g1
| with 8c/16t and 32gb RAM. (Edit: it's also more reliable
| when driving my 34" 1440p external display).
| BirAdam wrote:
| I had used Linux since mid-1990s and gave it up for Apple
| Silicon. Not fighting my hardware/software has been great
| despite the diminution of Apple's software stack.
| necovek wrote:
| M1 non-Pro could only support one external screen through
| TB, and I think it carried on through at least M2 Air. It
| would also frequently get my Dell screen into a weird hung
| state after suspending and attempting to reconnect,
| frequently requiring a power cycle of the screen (not even
| connecting a Linux laptop back to it got it fixed). At some
| point, it seems to have gotten fixed and I am not seeing it
| anymore.
|
| Linux, however, has worked great ever since I got the USB-C
| DP Alt-mode screen back around 8 years ago with my Thinkpad
| X1 Carbons over the years. I do have trouble getting a
| stable 8K at 60Hz through it with Iris Xe (gen13), but that
| does not work with Macs either.
|
| Linux did have issues with using different scaling factors
| on multiple connected screens, but I only ever used one
| monitor so it never bothered me.
|
| On top of that, it still does support subpixel rendering,
| and you can even tune pixel layout (RGB, BGR...) for VA and
| OLED panels, so text never looks crappy or janky as it can
| on Macs with low DPI screens (eg. large 4k screens of 40"+,
| but noticeable even on 32" 4k).
| piperswe wrote:
| DisplayPort over DP Alt Mode != DisplayLink. DisplayLink is
| a way to send compressed video streams over a normal USB
| connection.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| Yeah, I've moved back and forward between multiple monitors and
| a single one, multiple times throughout my professional career,
| depending on what I'm doing. Game development usually makes me
| end up using at least two monitors, just programming
| frontend/backend usually works best with a single monitor (for
| whatever reason), producing music and video editor also works
| best with at least two monitors, but other creative things like
| writing works best with one, and so on.
|
| At least personally, there is not a single setup that works for
| everything, I'm switching basically as often as I change what I
| work on.
| znpy wrote:
| I was about to post something very similar: the degree of
| benefit you get from having multiple displays depends a lot on
| the amount of multi-tasking that you have.
|
| If you can focus most of your time on a single window then a
| single monitor is just fine.
|
| But when you have to reason across multiple windows very very
| often then multiple displays help a lot.
|
| For me it's a bit messy: i am a cloud engineer and the kind of
| work i do varies multiple times a day. At some point I'm
| writing terraform code and all i need is my editor and a shell
| (sometimes my editor is in my shell) while ten minutes later i
| might be doing incident response and then i need a multitude of
| windows (shell, web browser showing logs, web browser showing
| metrics, web browser showing the aws console, web browser
| showing the meeting with other people handling the incident
| with me, shell, other stuff)...
|
| So yeah, it really depends.
| BirAdam wrote:
| Similar job. My solution was a single 4k monitor and Stage
| Manager. I can tile viewing a log and having a terminal open,
| and then just pop back to a browser when I need to. Plus,
| terminal can have tabs.
|
| When monitors were 1024 by 768, I needed more than one
| monitor. Now that everything is designed to be one's only
| window at 1920 by 1080, I need a 4k monitor. I imagine that
| when 4k becomes the default, I will need a 16k monitor.
| doubled112 wrote:
| I am somewhat surprised by how long 1080p being the
| standard has stuck.
|
| People often seem shocked that I use mostly 4K screens, but
| I've had one of them for almost 10 years now.
|
| It also seems that 8K has died for now. I think we still
| have time.
| jrm4 wrote:
| Great example of "what works for you" I think - I'm in the camp
| of:
|
| I did multiple monitors for a long time, and probably my best
| productivity thing was switching to one AND ONLY ONE big enough
| 4k. Basically allows me to switch between "one focused monitor
| most of the time" and "the equivalent of 2 or 3, maybe even 4"
| if I need it.
| yunnpp wrote:
| M-x on a tiling window manager. I agree Cmd+Tab / Ctrl+Tab is
| inefficient. Linear vs constant time context switch.
| hashmal wrote:
| Sometimes things are so obvious to me I don't even think they'd
| be worthy of a discussion. But this is one of my blind spots, as
| I've come to realize over many years.
|
| For development, I've always been happy with a 13" screen and
| nothing else. Not only that, but having all apps in full screen.
| It brings so much clarity to my mind. Exceptions (because f*ck
| dogma, right?) have been when I was in charge of monitoring some
| long-running process, in which case a secondary screen in
| vertical layout was very useful. Another one was for music making
| with Ableton Live: 2 screens was much more practical,
| independently of each individual screen size.
|
| Just because of the setups I've just described, I've been looked
| at weird, or asked way too much questions. go figure.
| densh wrote:
| I usually use center 2/3 of 27'' screen with just a single top-
| level window for a similar reason. That puts it up to around
| 20.5'' and around 6:5 aspect ratio. I don't find having many
| windows shown at the same competing for my attention more
| productive. I don't benefit from having multiple code columns
| shown at once that much either and would rather switch among tabs
| or windows via shortcuts.
| bob1029 wrote:
| My productivity skyrocketed when I reduced my monitor count from
| 3 to 1.
|
| I tried the big chonkers, but the humble 27" 1440p is unbeatable
| for me. I'm not being paid enough money to worry about that many
| pixels.
| sassymuffinz wrote:
| I recently got rid of my 27in vertical monitor that I had been
| using for years. I found I was getting really stressed lately
| and feeling closed in at my desk. Getting rid of it has
| improved my mental health at work, no idea why it suddenly
| became an issue the last year as I used to have 3 when I was a
| twenty something.
| m-a-r-c-e-l wrote:
| ALT-TAB is much faster than moving my head
| pdpi wrote:
| I'm on the other side of this one. Two 27" 4k displays (at 2x
| scaling, so logical 1080p), always with editor on one screen, and
| documentation on the other.
|
| This is true for programming (where editor = IDE and
| documentation = API docs for some thing or other), 3d modelling
| (where editor = CAD software, and documentation = reference
| drawings, diagrams, etc), and even gaming (where "editor" = Blue
| Prince, and "documentation" = a gigantic Obsidian vault with all
| my notes).
|
| In all of those cases, I'm decidedly _not_ multitasking. I have
| multiple applications running, but they 're all contributing to
| the task at hand. Instead, I find that things having a fixed
| position in space they live in, and not needing to cmd-tab and
| find the right window/application are two things that help
| maintain focus.
| smallstepforman wrote:
| At 27", 2560x1440 withouth scaling is your better option vs UHD
| and x2 scaling. You need a pair of screens for true bliss.
| pdpi wrote:
| It might be _your_ better option, but it 's not mine. I
| really value sharp text, and 4k@2x is vastly superior to
| 1440p. I really do miss my 5k iMac 27", but 60Hz doesn't cut
| it anymore these days, and I'm not about to drop PS5k on a
| pair of Apple Studio Displays.
| ehnto wrote:
| I switched from dual monitor to single monitors with a tiling
| window manager. Same reason, I "flip" context far less and am
| less distracted. Even though there can be multiple programs on my
| screen at once, they are all relevant to the current tasks
| context so I find if I do get distracted by one, it's not like
| getting distracted from the whole context.
|
| Previously I would be "alt-tabbing" and constantly losing focus.
| Like stepping through a doorway and forgetting why you came into
| that room.
| petters wrote:
| > On a 34" ultrawide monitor, it was too easy to put YouTube
| running on the left side, and whatever else on the right.
|
| Yes, if you were doing that, almost any change to your
| environment that stops that will be good. I don't think you'd
| have to give up your monitor.
| t_mahmood wrote:
| Yep, I just turn on the Leechblocker's lockdown mode which
| blocks all the distracting sites on my browser, I can focus on
| my work, without giving up any of my monitors, and all the
| advantages they provide me
| layer8 wrote:
| Switching to a non-ultrawide monitor might already have
| sufficed.
| bluescrn wrote:
| Yeah, you can't blame the monitor setup for distractions.
|
| Up to a point, more screen real-estate is a universally good
| thing. Although beyond, say, two 24-27" screens or one great
| big one, you get into rapidly diminishing returns.
| itmitica wrote:
| Is he blaming displays for his lack of concentration discipline?
| OfirMarom wrote:
| Thanks for this. I enjoyed this more "informal" type of article
| :) I'm sort of the opposite. I've been using my small laptop
| screen for ages and want to try a bigger monitor to see how it
| feels.
| gchamonlive wrote:
| I think it's like for me moving to using Instagram in the browser
| instead of launching the app. Doesn't fight my addiction to doom
| scrolling directly, but it makes it awkward enough so that the
| small imposed friction reduces the urge with time.
|
| If it works for you as it worked for me it's fine, but don't feel
| frustrated if you end up recreating bad habits in these kinds of
| setup. They can work but they don't really treat the root cause
| of the addiction.
| sourcegrift wrote:
| The answer to half the problems in this thread is a tiling window
| manager
| krater23 wrote:
| Working without 3 monitors or maybe a good tiled ultrawide feels
| just like digging a hole with a spoon. But I'm the type of
| developer that needs videos or music on the side that the work is
| not just boring enough to stop it. Has nothing todo with the work
| itself that I do. When it gets difficult I can press the pause
| button.
| brador wrote:
| Stop ignoring obesity.
|
| Pull up the BMI chart, do the calculation. Get to normal at 1kg
| drop a week. Done. It works. Back pain solved.
| _pdp_ wrote:
| Solid advise but I think that it is less known that tight
| glutes can cause lower back pain too even when your BMI is
| normal. Basically sitting too much and not stretching enough is
| a cause for the pelvic misalignment.
| strangelove026 wrote:
| Something that's helped me lately is setup alfred commands where
| various apps are bound to a combination key press. It's on my
| split keyboard and I can't recall but it's a combination of keys,
| but, I think ctrl+cmd+option (all on the right hand thumb
| cluster) and a letter where the letter is bound to an app
|
| - z launches conductor (coding agents with worktrees)
|
| - w launches wezterm
|
| - f launches firefox
|
| - c launches chrome
|
| - d launches obsidian
|
| - s launches slack
|
| So I'll keep one of these full screened on the main monitor at
| all times. And then I've got maybe spotify open on the laptop
| usually which I generally ignore most of the day.
|
| And if I need two apps I'll use rectangle to tile windows side by
| side
|
| It seems like a minor thing but it's a less cognitively
| burdensome workflow for me as the day goes on than cmd tab would
| be.
|
| Also here's the link to conductor, I'm not affiliated but really
| like their tool imperfections and all
| https://www.conductor.build/
|
| Also also, shimmering obsidian is great for alfred users. Can
| search notes in my vault with spotlight
| https://github.com/chrisgrieser/shimmering-obsidian
| LeoDaVibeci wrote:
| I have always avoided multiple monitor setups for this reason,
| however, I don't think the size of my monitor affects things as
| much as my usage of it.
|
| Have you tried using a big monitor but just keeping windows as
| full-screen? I find this to be much less distracting. And of
| course, phone face down and notifications turned off.
|
| Not my app, but I'll plug Dayflow here (YC backed). It's really
| great for measuring what you're working on, and they have local
| only mode for full privacy.
| dev1ycan wrote:
| I became complete garbage at video games the moment I bought a 27
| inch monitor.
|
| I also can't ever focus on doing tasks like programming and such
| since I got my big monitor.
|
| Although I definitely can't give up my 3 27 inch monitors...
| tuzemec wrote:
| I'm using two external 1440p displays at work and one 32" 4k at
| home (with a MBP). Mostly front-end development and music
| production at home.
|
| Aerospace improved my productivity a lot on that front. My main
| apps/windows are now bound to an alt+key combination - I can
| easily switch without alt+tabbing like in the dark ages.
|
| All my windows usually take up the full screen - I simply can't
| stand a window that doesn't fill the entire screen - not sure if
| that's some kind of OCD. The cognitive load of managing apps and
| spaces was quite high at the beginning, but now it's just muscle
| memory. I do recognize that it's not for everyone, but works very
| well for me.
| eitally wrote:
| I'm not a SWE, and when I write code anymore it's just as a
| hobby. For work I'm in a business function and my 32" 4k monitor
| has been setup with 5-6 persistent windows since covid.
|
| 1. Center top: videoconferencing space. Approximately 1/3 width
| and 1/2 height of screen is used for Zoom/Meet/Teams. 2. Top
| left: chat (Slack now, previously Teams or Google Chat). Half
| height and 1/4 width. 3. Bottom left: Calendar (Zoom now, Google
| previously). Half height and 1/4 width. 4. Bottom center: primary
| browser window with dozens of tabs open, also used for email &
| calendar. 1/2 width and 1/2 height. 5. bottom right: Claude 6.
| Top right: working document(s). 1/3 width and 3/4 height. When I
| finish something, I'll close this, or occasionally move to a tab
| group in my primary browser.
|
| This method of organization works pretty well and allows me to 1)
| get work done, 2) monitor comms, and 3) not miss meetings. If I
| need to focus and not allow others to disturb me, I'll just
| minimize the Slack & primary browser windows and make the working
| doc browser window(s) larger.
|
| This is all plugged into a Macbook (14") that sits on my desk.
| The laptop screen contains a single browser window signed into a
| personal profile, and is used exclusively for non-work stuff --
| mostly email.
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| > On a 34" ultrawide monitor, it was too easy to put YouTube
| running on the left side
|
| This has zero to do with an ultra-wide monitor and all to do with
| a lack of self-discipline.
|
| I bought one of the first 38" ultra-wide monitor that came out
| from LG and, ten years later, I'm still rocking on it every day.
|
| You know what? My main computer _doesn 't even have sound_. You
| read that correctly. No sound. So no Youtube vids. No games. Not
| that I'd be tempted: but because I've got actually zero need for
| sound on that machine.
|
| And I'm no luddite: I've got two servers at home, more in
| datacenters, countless Pi's, NUCs, and laptops. But on my work
| machine: it is no sound and a 38" ultra-wide.
|
| If you need to use a monitor the size of a stamp to make sure you
| can't run youtube vids at the same time you're working, the issue
| is you, not the monitor.
| siliconpotato wrote:
| this looks like a recipe for eye strain and poor posture. waiting
| for the follow up post in a month.
| wateralien wrote:
| Read this on my third screen while waiting for 4 Claude sessions
| to finish.
| Tade0 wrote:
| Ah, the defocuser 3000.
|
| I can't stay "in the zone" while waiting for Claude. On the
| other hand whenever I'm blocked on something, I just ask it and
| get my answer way earlier than I would if I used a search
| engine.
|
| It's quite the dilemma.
| FrojoS wrote:
| Guys, this is a well known and under utilized effect of human
| psycho physiology. Visually focusing on a single point, small
| object, or just small visual field (aka tunnel vision) increases
| mental focus.
|
| AFAIK it's also one of the reasons we all get "glued" to
| smartphone screens.
|
| In this paper, more than 20 deg visual field for a screen and
| subject performance went down:
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01678...
| tom_ wrote:
| Ah, excellent! Some scientific evidence for my preferred setup:
| 2 x 9:16 27" monitors, one in front and one to the side. (Plus
| another display, of no specific kind. Laptop, landscape
| monitor, etc.)
|
| I sit with my eyes about 1 metre from the screen, and a 27"
| portrait display is approx 33 cm wide. So I think that's
| tan(FOV/2) = 16.5/100 = 0.165; FOV/2 = atan 0.165; FOV/2 = 9.37
| degrees; FOV = 2*9.37 = 18.74 degrees. It's almost perfect!
|
| (But even if my maths is wrong: this has proven a good setup
| for me, which I've used for many years now, and I recommend it
| to anybody thinking of experimenting with their desk setup.
| Many monitors come with a stand that allows rotation, so it's
| not necessarily difficult to try. If you don't like it, you can
| always switch back.)
| miguno wrote:
| So that's why Counter-Strike pros are nose-to-the-monitor close
| to their screens.
|
| Example of player Yekindar: https://preview.redd.it/yekindar-
| xd-v0-zsm7fzd5jd5e1.jpeg?wi...
|
| "I need you to be focused!"
| johnea wrote:
| Here on HN, this should obviously be considered a market
| opportunity!
|
| I'm considering a startup to make millennial blinders:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinders
|
| Of course, being an aging boomer, using an 85" monitor isn't
| decreasing my focus at all. I just look at the part of the
| screen I'm using at the moment.
|
| Personally I find it helpful to be able to spread windows out
| on that giant screen so that any one of them is instantly
| available at a glance (and I still use 8 "desktops"). Of
| course, I also don't reboot, well maybe once or twice a year
| after a kernel update. So setting all those windows up isn't
| something I do every time I sit at the computer.
|
| I do feel sorry for the generations born into internet brain
| damage (seriously). My son is GenZ and (thankfully) struggles
| with the typical symptoms less than others, but is still
| affected.
|
| This is clearly a consequence of growing up with constantly
| network connected hand held computers, and the maliciously
| crafted web platforms that exploited that constant
| connectedness.
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| Nope. I have 3 screens in an H layout, and I am deliriously happy
| with them;
|
| The middle screen is BenQ RD280U; the 3:2 ratio is amazing after
| so many widescreen ones. Never going back to coding on a
| widescreen.
|
| One Dell UQ2720Q on each side, vertically.
| mrob wrote:
| There's little need for multiple monitors if you can switch
| virtual desktops very easily and quickly. The best method I've
| found is using a switcher control in the corner of the screen
| that can be operated by the mouse wheel.
|
| The corners of the screen are the easiest targets to hit because
| they have effectively infinite size (see Fitts's Law). The mouse
| wheel is the best input to use because the mouse wheel is always
| non-destructive in standard desktop GUI software (equivalent to
| HTTP GET, not HTTP PUT). So long as your switcher control does
| not wrap around, you can set your two most important desktops as
| the first and last desktops, and access them with no conscious
| thought by jerking your arm and blindly scrolling the mouse
| wheel.
|
| I use a patched version of lxqt-panel for this. The official
| version wraps around while switching desktops with the mouse
| wheel. This is IMO a bad idea because you always have the option
| of clicking the numbers directly, so it doesn't save any time. I
| have all animations disabled (essential for this system to be
| tolerable). I use three virtual desktops, with the the middle one
| reserved for less important tasks. The middle one requires
| conscious thought to access because I have to scroll the mouse
| wheel more carefully. But when accessing the main two I scroll
| the mouse wheel fast enough that I don't notice it.
|
| Theoretically it would be possible to have unconscious access to
| 8 desktops this way (mouse wheel up and mouse wheel down for all
| 4 corners) but I haven't implemented this because I'm happy with
| two.
| SteveStavros wrote:
| Went the opposite direction for a while, two monitors, then came
| back to one. The context switching between screens was costing
| more than the extra screen real estate was giving. Single monitor
| forces you to be more deliberate about what deserves your
| attention right now.
| jebarker wrote:
| I find it useful to have multiple monitors or a large monitor
| that can support multiple windows comfortably useful for
| development, e.g. multi-pane IDE, terminals, documentation all
| visible simultaneously. The distraction problem is that
| everything else (slack, email, internet) is just a click away. I
| wonder if the answer is to treat the computer desktop like a real
| desktop that only supports having the materials open for one task
| at a time. So consciously switch tasks by putting the old things
| away and getting out the new things.
|
| Maybe the fact that slack and outlook take a painful amount of
| time to open is a feature not a bug
| motoboi wrote:
| > it was too easy to put YouTube running
|
| That is what is killing your focus and giving ADHD-like symptoms
| (supposing obviously that you don't actually have it).
|
| Never ever put something to play on background while you do
| something. That on the long run will kill your attention span and
| focus ability.
| pliesfan97 wrote:
| My window management hack that I'm surprised I've not seen
| mentioned is that in macOS you can map each numpad key to a
| separate desktop. You essentially get a desktop control pad free
| with your keyboard, since I don't know any SWE who uses needs
| their numpad.
|
| My wish is that macOS would let you group desktops together in a
| way that solved both of these problems:
|
| - Switching desktops across multiple monitors at once
|
| - Merging and splitting desktops when going from multiple
| monitors to one monitor
|
| Multiple desktops are critical to my workflow and how I mentally
| organize my digital workspace. I wish there was more
| customization or more powerful features around it.
| rubslopes wrote:
| My setup is similar: I use hyperkey (caps lock) + letters to
| switch between apps, that are (almost) always maximized. So I'm
| always focusing on one app at a time.
| ant6n wrote:
| I dunno. I wish as a start, MacOS would improve window
| management, so I don't keep jumping around the various desktops
| all the time and get lost.
| xbryanx wrote:
| Aerospace helps deliver some of this functionality for you.
| Although the keyboard shortcuts take a little while to learn.
| foobarchu wrote:
| > since I don't know any SWE who uses needs their numpad
|
| Not while coding, but I use mine very frequently in the other
| 60% of my job.
| ulcer wrote:
| Maybe I am just too fussy, but the sliding animation that comes
| from switching is so disorienting and slow to me. I use
| multiple desktops a lot and sometimes I need to dart back and
| forth pretty quick and my god does that blurry transition grate
| on me. It really makes it feel like I am using a dusty old
| computer instead of a brand new four thousand dollar top of the
| line machine.
|
| I have found some hacky options to do this, but they are just
| too janky for my taste. I would love to have Apple implement
| this at the OS level so I don't need to keep experimenting with
| Aerospace/Rectangle/Hammerspoon... Apple please allow me to
| disable the destop transition animations and make your OS feel
| snappy for once.
| sverhagen wrote:
| I have a laptop to the side, and a bigger screen in front of me.
| And the laptop screen might as well be a picture frame: it adds
| no productivity gain, whatsoever. And it really confuses me. I
| have fond memories of my setup at work, in the result 2000's,
| with two big monitors on a desktop machine. I remember it working
| so well, and I just lost that feeling. Maybe because those were
| on equal footing, while the laptop screen now is the tiny little
| brother. Or, I'm just nostalgic and making up benefits that
| didn't really exist.
| rkomorn wrote:
| I used to use the laptop screen as slack/mail/calendar, and
| really, rather than helping in any way, it was probably more of
| a productivity sink: all the interrupts were conveniently more
| visible.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I have ADHD. I use a single 24 inch monitor. It is easier for me
| to have every window maximised. I'm seemingly the only person in
| the company that does this. Alt+tab is my friend
|
| When I was in IT I had a second monitor, but I only ever put
| terminals and rdp screens for remote computers on it. This screen
| my machine, other screen other machine.
| yunnpp wrote:
| For a long time at my previous job, I had an empty desk that I
| would deploy my laptop onto every morning, then pack and leave
| the desk empty again when I left. People jokingly asked whether I
| had been fired when they saw the empty desk. A regular 15" screen
| and no clutter in my field of view greatly improved my
| concentration.
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