No student should go without (at least) two monitors

Forget that I'm a journalist for a moment, because no matter how much I try, I'm a student first until I finish my doctorate. I have recently discovered the joy of having dual monitors and my life has never been as sweet as a result.

For the life of me, I cannot see how I survived before. As most of my lectures are recorded, I can download them from the university virtual learning environment, watch on one screen and write my notes live on the other; sitting with a cup of tea in my hand and without the need to change out of my pyjamas.

Just the fact of having an extra desktop gives me and any student, theoretically, the space to multitask and work effectively. Lifehacker reports research conducted by Jon Peddie shows the leap in productivity by 20-30%.

As I have added a TV tuner card to my main desktop, I can now have my main viewing channel, BBC News, running on one desktop to give me a constant stream of news and worldly-goings-on, and work happily on something separate on the other machine.

Speaking to a dear friend of mine, Bryant Zadegan of AeroXP, he got me thinking about Windows 7 and Aero Snap, the new feature which snaps windows to the sides of your screen. If you don't have a dual-monitor setup, having a widescreen display can allow you to pretty much have the same experience.

You'd be surprised as to how much more productive you can be with an extra bit of desktop space. Your thoughts? Do you need a dual-monitor setup? Is widescreen for you and nothing more? TalkBack and share your thoughts.