If you’ve ever been to our offices, then you’ve certainly seen the two-monitors phenomenon in action.  All but one person in our office uses a two-monitor computer set up. 

I must admit, somewhat sheepishly, that I am that lone single-monitor user.   However, I do have a large wide-screen display that has greatly increased my on-screen “real estate.” 

A new study shows that two monitors do much more than just making you look cool… seems they help your productivity as well.  Sweet. In fact, they can help you complete tasks up to 52% faster than your one-monitor peers.  Actually, it’s not the adding of a second screen itself that increases productivity… but, rather, it is the increased size of your on-screen real estate.  So simply buying a bigger monitor would help. 

From the article:

“The study concluded that someone using a larger monitor could save 2.5 hours a day.”

Wow.  That’s a number that could easily justify the added cost of a new or bigger monitor.  Our employees find that the increased productivity comes from having multiple programs open and readily available at the same time.  Your Outlook inbox, for example, open on one screen… with Quickbooks or Internet Explorer open in the other.  Hopping back and forth between the two is beyond simple, and the time you save from not having to minimize and maximize program windows adds up quickly. 

Microsoft also has an excellent “how-to” article on setting up a dual-monitor work station. 

So the bottom line is this:  dual monitors–even just bigger monitors in general–are not just for power users anymore.  More and more companies are seeing employee productivity rise dramatically from the two monitor set up, and the trend is picking up serious steam. 

Obviously, if you are a Keystone customer, we would love to talk to you further about our own dual monitor set ups and help you place an order for the right monitor additions for you and your employees.  Let us know if we can help.