I love my toys. I love my toys. I love my toys. Anyone else sensing a theme? I also like it when I can make it so that I have the feeling like I’m in the Batcave in my own office. Having one screen to put everything that I work with on a regular basis would make things too cramped. I like having as much digital real estate as possible so that I can spread out what I need to do, and any programs I want to be able to see are all there for me.

1) A place for everything….

Growing up, I had one (of many) rule banged into my brain. I kept losing stuff no matter what I did and it was because I would put something down somewhere and then I wouldn’t remember where I put it down. My mom told me “a place for everything, everything in its place” which meant that if I stopped playing with a toy I should put it away so I would know when to find it later. I still use this rule to this day with my stuff. In the digital world I also apply this rule. I have my digital life set up so that there are certain areas of my screens which are dedicated to communication (e-mail and messaging), some areas that are dedicated to media (when I play music or videos). I put these things in their own spots so that when I need to do or change something related to that thing, I know exactly where it is.

2) Important things get their own space

There are 2 things that I would qualify as “important” in this regard. Firstly there is the stuff that I am actively working on. If I’m writing a blog post or figuring out something with AI or organizing my files, that thing is front and centre. I can’t spend too much time craning my neck one way or the other. If I do, I know I’m going to hurt something down the line and I desperately would like to avoid that. The second level of “important” for me is something that I’m not working on, but I need to monitor. This could be my e-mail or a messaging system. If I’m waiting for something specific to come in and I want to keep an eye on it, I will put it on my main screen, but off to one side. That way I will be able to keep it in my periphery, without it being in the way of what I’m actively doing.

3) It’s actually not distracting

At first glance, you would think that all of this stuff going all at once would be super distracting. To a degree that makes sense, but you also have to remember that if something is in your sight line for a certain period of time, you will not strictly notice it as much the more it’s there (at least this has been my experience). This means that while an outsider may see chaos, it is perfectly laid out and allows me to work more efficiently.

Before the summer started I had three screens in my office. I had an ultra wide screen and a couple smaller ones. I put out the blog post about my love of the large screen (IHyperlink) and my Dad contacted me and said that the blog post inspired him to get a bigger screen. When that happened, some part of my reptilian brain got super jealous. So now I have TECHNICALLY downscaled to two screens from three. The second one is also an ultra wide screen so I actually have even more screen space than I did before. I fully recognize that it’s ridiculous….It is also kinda cool though….

How is your screen situation?

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