Dual Monitors and Productivity

When we first started Red Clay Interactive in 2000, we instantly embraced all of our employees having dual monitors. We knew from personal experience the cost to productivity ratio was definitely in our favor by embracing this setup. So why aren’t dual monitors more popular?

The first issue is productivity. Do dual monitors make you more productive? Study after study confirms that workers are definitely more productive, often to the order of 20-30 percent. From a 2008 NEC release, Dr. James A. Anderson, Ph.D. said “dual-monitor configurations are recommended for use in any situation where multiple documents of information are an ordinary part of work”. The study found that widescreen and dual monitors took an 8 hour task down to 5.5 hours. Over the course of a year, the study found a net savings of 76 days in production. So yes, dual monitors can easily make you more productive.

The second issue is cost. A lot of companies consider dual monitors to be an extravagance that isn’t necessary. A second monitor with a dual-monitor video card can add 20 percent or a few hundred dollars to the cost of the computer. Over the lifetime of that computer that’s not a big increase, especially given how much more productive you will be.

The next time you buy a new office computer, consider dual monitors. Nearly everyone who sees dual monitors will “ooh” and “ahh”. You’ll appear ahead of the curve and very techno-savvy. That extra productivity can be our little secret.