One monitor for moodboard, another for materials, tablet monitor for working.

Two 4k 32 inch monitors and docked laptop screen.
One monitor directly in front which holds code, research or video call.
One monitor to the right mounted vertically and angled towards me that holds a terminal, notes/email/jira or reference documentation for whatever I'm doing on the middle screen.
Laptop is to the left of the main screen and has slack open.

I'm big on tilling window managers, so I tend to do a lot of flipping between workspaces rather than apps, in my mental model. I've gotta use a Mac for work which sucks for tilling, but I can mostly make it work.

I'm a 3 monitor person as well. 34" ultrawide as my main with two 24" widescreens side-to-side immediately above it. I use it for work and personal use.
Ultrawide has my main programs for work: internet browsers and job specific programs get about 60% of the real estate on the left, while pdf's, and other less essential programs go to the right 40% of the screen.
The top left monitor gets Teams, Excel docs, or auxiliary browsers.
Top right gets email and media (YouTube, Spotify, etc) or any overfill if I'm dealing with a particularly cluttered job.

For personal, ultrawide is obviously used for games, movies, etc, while top left has task manager, MSI Afterburner, and Throttlestop (I run a laptop). And the top right has Discord.

Three 27" monitors. Right one is portrait, has Slack and music player split screen, left is email or reference material, center one is for doing the actual work.

I work in a customer facing role but also do graphic design, write books, make music, and occasionally code things.

Massive productivity boost. When I work from my laptop I feel like a grandma.

At my job I use 3 screens. Laptop screen is for Outlook and Teams, the middle screen is for the needed local main application and the right screen is for remote server connections. Having just 2 screens or even only 1 screen would lower my productivity.

At home I'm a single screen user, but its a 4K 28" screen and large enough to hold all my crap.

Been doing it for years as a sysadmin. Great for documentation and multiple terminal windows. Interrupting programs (email, messengers) on the small screen so they are easy to review but out of direct line of sight.

Small screen makes it easy to screen share with others. They can seen the whole thing at a reasonable size.

spaces > monitors

portability > exactly what I want

I do a lot of video editing. 3 monitors all the same size. Right is main edited output. Center is all my editing tools. Left is file management, chat, stock footage, etc.

Not a computer person; just a worker with an office. I keep my laptop vertical to the right with my email/calendar usually open. I use a monitor left of this - it's big enough that I can comfortably have 2-3 windows on it - so i can have 4 things open at a time. When i have a zoom, meet, or WebEx, that takes one; second is whatever I'm supposed to report in that meeting; third and fourth are what I'm actually working on. My biggest problem is that the vertical laptop has the camera and in some video meeting apps I'm in portrait while everyone else is landscape.

If I am...

...gaming, I run the game on one monitor and something like a Wiki for said game on the other.

...doing music I have the DAW on the big screen and everything else on the other.

...working I have my focus point (CLI, IDE, SQL Dev, etc) on the small screen and all the noise (e-mail, chat, browsers, etc) on the big screen. Small screen is better for focus.

1. Teams, Outlook
2. VNC/Second virtual machine monitor if needed
3. Virtual Machine

Data on one side, assessment write up on the other. Extremely convenient. Not sure if I’m more productive or if I’m just happier.

I have an 34inch ultrawide as my main, and two 27inch screens, one above and one to the side. It's pretty awesome, play a game or do some work on the main monitor, videos, web pages, instructions in the right, and discord or other pages on the top.

I have two monitors but swap between two desktops. I wish I had a triple setup. I usually do hella coursework on it. I use split screen in each monitor so I have the guidelines of the project the full window project, documentation/notes, word, then discord, IRC, and background music.

I have 3 monitors. One I use for email/slack. The others I use for database and backend coding and VMs. I honestly the 3rd monitor is great. Aside from email and slack. I can use it for any additional documentation, requirements, or JIRA. Honestly, 3 monitors is the way to go in my opinion.

I have 2 at work. Sometimes I just have our ticket software on one and Firefox on another both full screen. When works crunching I might have multiple PDF manuals open on one and PDF schematics on another and could use a 3rd for a browser window to search for old similar problems in our daily reports. I'm able to work best when I can keep 1 screen dedicated to what I'm working on and the others for information gathering.

At home I typically just have 1 screen for gaming. I might set my laptop up on the desk if I want to browse the web or chat while playing.

Media editing and production. Otherwise it's dope to have my email, texts, torrents, Explorer/Finder, and music occupy one screen, and my web browser in the other.

I've got two monitors which mostly ends up meaning I have twice the amount of screen to lose application windows in.

I have two monitors: a 27 inch 1440p and a 17 inch CRT for retro gaming. No productivity.

Less necessary now that I'm using a tiling wm, but previously it allows me to have IDE, program I'm working on, and a browser for googling without having to switch context to go between them

Plus if more is needed for whatever use case (terminal window for running application, teams, etc) I can split screen too

With a tiling wm at work I have teams/outlook on right, primary application (terminal/tmux, IDE, browser etc) center and googling browser on the left, and then a virtual desktop for each project I'm working on at the home if I need to switch for whatever reason

Two and a half monitors here. Two connected to my desktop (one normal one vertical) and my laptop below them.

My laptop is for Teams calls, and the occasional reference page or video, but is mostly ignored until I need it. The main large monitor for editors and email. The vertical one for references and notes.

I would love a third monitor for the desktop but my desk is too narrow for that to be realistic.

I'm a FE and A11y focused SWE

Laptop screen: IDE / main browser

Main monitor: terminal with dev server, and browser to localhost

I wish I could have a small, third monitor for just the terminal but my Mac struggles with one extra monitor. I also tend to work at 150% zoom because of terrible eyesight, so I don't actually have that much screen real estate.

I bought a second display for my last job because the pan got us wfh. I’m on a Mac and ran my Windows VM o the second display. My current job doesn’t allow me to connect to VPN from a personal device, so the second display is dormant. I throw web browser windows for things I want to look at later over there so I don’t forget to come back to them (I have a billion open web windows / tabs on the main display).

I always have used 2. I use multiple desktops really hard (for a long time in Linux and MacOS, and with third party Windows stuff till they finally caught up) and find it more convenient for compartmentalizing than multiple monitors.

The only times I want to (and occasionally do) go more than 2 is watching F1 with data viewing and so many camera angles up

Three monitors here. I'm an engineer so left monitor is usually reference material (drawings, spec sheets, formulae, etc), center is usually my primary workspace (email, python, CAD, etc) and right is music, communications, and calendar for the next goddamned meeting.

Left and center are 24" 1080p, right is 15" laptop. I'm thinking of upgrading the next time the office gets tech money.

I have four monitors. Two slightly angled directly in front of me, one angled on the left and a small 10 inch directly below my two main monitors that I use specifically for discord and my friend's chat app he's working on.

Why two directly in front of me with the split in the middle? I only have to shift my head slightly to move between the game I'm playing and whatever I'm watching.

But it's more useful when I'm working on pixel art because I can have my drawing on one main monitor and my reference in the other while having a show or stream on the secondary angled on my left and chat stays on the small monitor.

As for if that helps productivity, I have no idea.

But I sure like my setup now.

Independent IT Contractor: I have a 4-wide 1080p screen setup. I keep Slack/Teams on one screen, the semicircle setup means I can only really look at 3 at the same time. I upgraded from 3 screens because I kept having to juggle windows around while troubleshooting someone's webserver.

Also used this setup when I was really heavy into FFXIV- I like having wikis/alerts open and visible, so one screen for that, the game, discord, and then the last one was just for youtube/netflix.

Video games. On one screen is the game, on the other screen is a web browser with the wiki opened. Also have YouTube for the tough puzzles. Helps a ton.

I use 3 monitors. One is for the task I'm doing, one is for reference material for the task, and the third is for my sanity. That last one is where youtube/memes/whatever are. I can focus extra hard if I need to, but I prefer not to. When I started out, I used to get home completely burned out, and incapable of doing anything but eating, showering, and vegging out in front of the TV or PC.

Big center monitor: ide, terminal

Big left monitor: browser. Jira ticket, documentation, email, etc. sometimes also notes. Http client (trying Bruno now).

Small laptop monitor: slack, sticky notes

I used to use my 3rd monitor for company email and chat programs so they would stay out of the way of my actual work.

Primary "workspace", comms, docs/reading/reference data.

On a Mac the Expose features such as ability to customize your screen rather than have to deal with fixed real estate plus additional virtual desktops are also highly notable in that regard. There are definitely advantages of having additional physical screens over the window management approach, but also vice versa too. I would say just try it, but note that it does take quite a bit of getting used to, as too in a sense does multiple monitors especially if trying to use different windows from the same app - browser - on different ones.

Also if cost is no factor at all, instead of multiple monitors you can have large nice screen + laptop, for the ultimate portability. There too there are advantages and disadvantages both - e.g. while working on one the other will fall asleep, if the nice screen is a separate computer rather than mere monitor.

To someone wondering what to try: something will appeal to you - listen to your inner voice and let it guide you! If you are wrong, you still learn from the experience;-).

After having tried most standard configurations at various jobs and home (never a third monitor though, I prefer the ease and simplicity of a single large monitor. Everything is a few keystrokes away but I tend not to need to see all things at the same time. Sometimes, extremely rarely, it does seem too constraining, but not enough to justify the additional cost of a second monitor (not just money but setup and my attention time), and this works well enough for me. Others will similarly do what works best for them in turn.

• Monitor 1: Outlook
• Monitor 2: Browser and various messaging apps
• Monitor 3 (the big screen): IDE

At home I have the game I'm playing on one screen and Discord and a web browser on the other so I can communicate and look things up without needing to alt tab.

For work I generally have references, teams, email, and other stuff on other screens and a main one that I'm working on. Like querying a database while testing, editing screenshots for docs and issues, having reference docs open, etc. I don't do development itself, but do a lot of requirements documentation, testing, and project management stuff on web apps. Sometimes it is just two screens, but sometimes I have the laptop open too and put teams and email on it so I don't have to bring it forward if something comes up.

i work in video. i have one monitor as my primary "work" space. that's where i put my timeline, or whatever I'm working on the most in that moment. sometimes it's color controls, sometimes it's keyframes and effects controls.

monitor 2 is actually my best monitor. that's the video clean feed. that's my big color accurate monitor.

monitor 3 is bins and scopes and effects and whatever other control surfaces and monitors i might need.

I use three at the office, and two at home.

In both setups the laptop is my keyboard and small screen, above it is a 34 inch 21/9 aspect ratio curved display. At the office I also have a standard monitor off to the side.

The large screen is my primary work space, with various code editors, UI dev tools, web browser, reference docs, and terminal windows.

The laptop screen has email, all my short cuts, and a virtual version of the UI I'm working on because it is also a touch screen.

When I have the third screen I use it for teams, a few system monitoring tools, and youtube for music.

I used dual side by side monitors for years, but found that having the split in the center meant I was always sitting with my neck turned, and this lead to a lot of pain and headaches. Having them top / bottom is a lot more comfortable and my large screen is high enough I now sit up straight.

A curved screen at the right distance also means a lot less eye strain.

Two monitors one computer? Bah! Why not two monitors two computers!

One main monitor connected to my Windows machine, and a second monitor next to it connected to my work Mac. Using Synergy, one mouse and keyboard plugged into Windows controls both machines.

Then, add a Framework laptop propped up on the left running Linux, also controlled with Synergy. Three monitors, three computers! Now when people ask what OS I run it's an easy answer: all of them at the same time lol

2 +1 chatgpt

A little different, but I do a lot of random 3D printing related stuff on my computer including CAD. I got one of those small ultra wide monitors meant for a raspberry pi, and put it under my main monitor. I run rain meter widgets on it for time, media control, etc. I also throw videos and stuff on there for while I'm working. It's been pretty sweet! I can use solidworks on top, and have a little video working on the bottom, and have a clock easily visible for time management.