My last post was about the new world of adjustment flexibility I found when moving to workstations involving Chief monitor mounts. But another important factor to consider when asking “why monitor mounts?” is the ability to easily multitask with multi-monitor installations.
It wasn’t too long ago that all I needed to complete my task was a word processing program and maybe email. These days, I seem to have about six programs open at any given time, and about five windows in each program to juggle through. I’m going back and forth between them, copying and pasting notes or directions, reading a PDF attachment for info, monitoring social media accounts, and checking email.
Doing all this on a single screen can be a huge pain, and time consuming. I graduated to a dual screen workstation set-up when I moved to Chief, and life hasn’t been the same since. No more frustrating moments wasted trying to size a PDF, email and Word window to all fit on one 16-inch surface. Just a quick slide of the reference documents to the side screen on a monitor mount and centering the document I will be actively working with front and center.
In a New York Times article “In Data Deluge, Multitaskers Go to Multiscreens,” journalist Matt Richtel notes, “There is a growing new tactic for countering the data assault: the addition of a second computer screen. Or a third.” Indeed, in 2011, tech firms sold 179 million monitors worldwide and only 130 million desktop computers.
One way to enhance productivity in such multitask environments is through monitor mounting solutions that enable users to integrate from two to twenty monitors in a customized workstation. One Utah study found that using multiple monitors raised productivity in every measure and that “multi-monitor users got on task quicker, did work faster and got more work completed with fewer errors than persons using a single monitor.”
In fact, multi-screen users in the study were “6 percent quicker to task, 7 percent faster on task, generated 10 percent more production, were 16 percent faster in production, had 33 percent fewer errors and were 18 percent faster in errorless production.”
Chief monitor mounts help to facilitate multiple monitor workstations with easy alignment so that moving between monitors isn’t a disorienting jump through space.
Laptops can come to the party, too!
Another multi-monitor opportunity is the growing number of laptop users. While convenient and mobile, they can also be a pain when working for long periods of time. It’s best to elevate the screen and use a separate keyboard and mouse in this case. Add a second monitor to this set up and you are ready to rock those tasks right out of your inbox.
We all want to increase our productivity – and monitor mounts can help. If you haven’t graduated to a workstation optimized by monitor mounts, I recommend that you give it a shot. You, like me, may find that once you’ve tasted the benefits monitor mounts provide, you’re never going back.
