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A partial myth: workers with more monitor square inches are more productive

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Debunking. I love it, but this one hit home. I have written positively about productivity gains for lawyers who use two monitors (See my post of Sept. 30, 2009: monitors with 6 references.).

Support for my conclusion came from a study in 2008 that found productivity gains of 30-50 percent for text and spreadsheet tasks. The bubble meets pin, however, in PC World, Oct. 2010 at 77. NEC, a manufacturer of widescreen displays, commissioned the study, which should give pause to its findings, and in fact the researchers found a bell-curve distribution. “For a single-monitor setup, over 26 inches is too much, while dual-display gains top out at 22 inches.” Even more tellingly, “If you’re planning on using that second display for e-mail, Twitter, or other Internet-related distractions, however, you’re probably going to end up being less productive overall.” Sigh

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One response to “A partial myth: workers with more monitor square inches are more productive”

  1. Steven B. Levy, Author of Legal Project Management says:
    November 30, 2010 at 10:53 am

    The EMail issue is acute. Monitor real estate is highly valuable in comparing documents, doing research while writing, and similar tasks where a single task involves multiple panes or windows.
    Humans stink at multitasking; the moment you do two tasks in multiple windows, you’re losing rather than gaining productivity.