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Improving Productivity (With Science)
An anonymous reader writes "It's common knowledge that multiple monitors increase productivity, but there isn't actually any research to support that assertion. However, studies have shown that there are a few simple tweaks to the work environment that do increase productivity. Among them: use high temperature light sources and keep office plants."
I'm pretty sure I would get fired for running a grow house in my office.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Make sure the office plant has a comfortable chair in his cubicle.
Multiple monitors make it easier to appear productive with less effort.
Two dozen chicks in tight shorts!
Gas lighting would really be better, or a mix. Definitely a little warmer artificial lighting than "relax" or "soft white," but going full daylight on everyone is stress-inducing. Think about working in a hospital clean room (they have enough sources of stress, but they really need the high-temp lights for focus).
Non-critical work is a balance of focus and relaxation. Of course this is pretty much directly cited in the article, given they recommend high temp lights (focus) and office plants (more "natural" setting for reduced stress).
Did they just give up on the idea of a window for actual sun-light?
#1 improvement to productivity) Closing Slashdot!
Not everything can or has to be proven with research. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, claiming a second monitor helps is hardly extraordinary.
I never got this two monitor thing.
When I started working here, they gave me a machine with two monitors, and after some months I asked to stay with just one.
Alt-tab is faster than turning my neck and re-focusing my eyes.
factor 966971: 966971
I actually bought that exact chair as mentioned in the article, with the additional $200 chrome upgrade, about 4 years ago, it was awesome for the first few years, and then I had a huge problem with lower back pain. I went to the doc, tried stretching, muscle relaxers, massages, sleeping differently, it turns out it was the chair, after switching to a $39 Ikea chair http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70133761 my back pain finally went away after a few weeks and has been awesome since. I tried switching back to the Aeron a year ago for a month, but my back started hurting again soon after. The point of my story is just because a chair is expensive or has many adjustments does not mean its the best for you, and you may very well find a very comfortable chair for a lot less.
Some googling turned up a description of 3 studies (the fourth actually doesn't look at dual monitors) http://www.kevinkane.com/2010/12/4-studies-which-show-that-using-a-second-monitor-can-boost-productivity/ Maybe not high quality research, but they all show an increase in productivity due to a second monitor
The single biggest line item on my (and probably many people's) productivity costs is interruptions of the form, "hey, I need to answer a question that takes more than a goldfish brain's worth of thought. I'd like you to do that thinking for me."
The second would be, "As my work product, I took a big dump into our codebase. Given that I don't care about anything but going home at 5, and none of our leadership understands what I did anyway, especially since I have two monitors and therefore look smart, why don't you clean it up for me if you are interested in finishing your own work?"
I'd settle for just dumping some dead weight instead of any new technology. Really.
Has anyone heard of the Hawthorn effect?
dirty socks, diapers & nukes; famine relief dr (Score:-1)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 23, @04:42AM (#35583598)
best bets; everyone (on our planet) voluntarily disarm yourselves. carry on as it was originally intended for all of us. we instinctively know what that is.
highly wagered longshots; eugenatics, weapons peddlers, kings/minions, genetically altered mutants/hired goons. media decepticons, adrians, religiously infactdead groanups, fake weather/induced seismicity 'scientists' etc... hold on to your equatorial equilibrium.
so, we'll also then expect to see you at any one of the million babys+ /us, beginning with disarmament?
play-dates, conscience arisings, georgia stone editing(s), & a host of
other life promoting/loving events. guaranteed to activate all of our
sense(s) at once. perhaps you have seen our list of pure intentions for
you
in the end...in the middle... & from the beginning, babys rule. fore each of the innocents harmed in any way...
Reply to This
they lay down their arms, stand hand in hand &.. (Score:?)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 23, @06:49AM
gaze into the sky. it's in several of the manuals, just like that. this happened before?
might be fun to get the jump on that hand in hand gazing, before the 'events' occur? that way, we could get time to help some of the (uninfactdead) bips survive should evile get the very best of us, again? the recent issues have some unbelievable dna advances (meeting the need) to share, if we let them.
babys, how; liz taylor, liza minelli, & the qu (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 23, @05:55AM (#35583918)
we still miss you freddie. this one's for you as well. thanks for the heads up. there can be only one.
rock, payper,,,,,, photons?
Reply to This
don't the queens & queers learn to hate muslin (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 23, @06:22AM (#35584044)
?????
hate appears to be the fatal spawn of fear.
for each of ours harmed in any way.....
How about eliminating tedium? How about making work an enjoyable thing? A much more noble endeavor. Otherwise just build the 'droids and STFU
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/vibe.aspx
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/02/18/234899/Multiple-monitors-boost-productivity-by-35.5.htm
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MultipleMonitorsAndProductivity.aspx
Admittedly if you follow the money its all Microsoft and monitor companies that are producing these studies, but then, who else would?
I don't buy the lifehacker rant, personally.
I can't seem to find it now but there was another study talking about the sharp uptick in error rate as the amount of code you were working on exceeded the height of your screen.
I've taken things to a bit of an extreme. I run one 30" 2560x1600 display as my main monitor, then fill my peripheral vision with 2 42" 1920x1080 TVs that I drag supplemental information onto (or game on) and as often as not I put my laptop (1680x1050) below the main screen.
I agree there is a point of diminishing returns. The second TV was probably overkill, and both TVs are a bit too large to sit close to comfortably, so I wind up having to put them pretty far back on the desk, but having more than one monitor definitely helps.
So this is the new area of "science" Bertrand Serlet will be working in!
I read the article and bought a new plasma furnace for the desk but it really gives my monitor a warped and melted look.
You sure about that?
Just Use KDE or Gnome, Both have a window manager that will allow screen switching.
I would hazard a guess this article was written without the consultation of someone with facility management experience. Medium socket bulbs aren't often used for primary lighting in a work environment. HVAC has many ramifications and complications besides possible productivity effects. Nice views and indoor green spaces have all sorts of costs and considerations that may or may not work out.
ok. there are a large # of employees. 'harder' is a tangentile term used to mean never enough.
as far as we've been told, the fake weather does not exist, therefore cannot effect us overworking. that solves it?
I find that arguments for increased productivity are usually used to rationalize the purchase of some new expensive hi tech toy. And then subsequently used to raise expectations from the workers without increasing costs to the company (do more work in less time without a raise).
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
I've seen rooms lit with high color temperature fluorescent light (6000-7000K), and at least to me it looks very blue. It would definitely be distraction to me and not make me more productive. Real sunlight is fine, but those lights are far less bright. I suspect our eyes aren't linear in perceiving color temperature. I'm happiest with indoor lighting that doesn't appear yellow or blue, but white. For me, those are the 3500K (D35) fluorescent lights.
Multiple monitors may increase productivity, but I'd be willing to bet it would be easier to prove that they reduce paper and toner expense. How many people stop printing wedges of dead tree if they can have more than one document readable at a time?
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/vibe.aspx
The article is utter garbage.
possibly, the most productive workers are rewarded with an extra monitor.
Yes, and your point is?
If you're running your own show, increased productivity means you can spend more of your time doing fun stuff, and less doing grunt work.
If someone else is paying you, increased productivity means that for a small expenditure, they can make more money.
What's not to like?
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
Rather than the ultra-megawide screen setup that 2 monitors provide, I own a large 26" monitor (and am planning to get a 30" in the future when I can afford it). You get great height (good for coding), decent width, a unified desktop so that you don't have a big black bar down the middle (the space between the monitors!), and a bigger screen for watching movies from a more comfy chair.
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
I wish they had done some studies about the effects of music on productivity. I have some of those very nice Bose headphones and by far my most productive hours are spent wearing them.
Any music that I am able to "zone out" to will do, classical, jazz, techno - usually long tracks with many subtle transitions.
Granted I am a programmer, and listening to music while working is perfectly reasonable while it may be totally unacceptable for others.
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
I think they got it backwards, keeping a plant alive is only possible by people who are productive (hence my plant died, and I am posting to slashdot...)
What brand are you using?
/offtopic
Ahh.. this is clearly a BS article with content gleaned from around the net, designed to get hits and affiliate sales through amazon for the products mentioned in the article. Slashdot is being used here to increase visibility and hits.. this should be removed immediately.
Isn't our vastly improved productivity over the past few years one of the reasons so many people our unemployed?
I wouldn't object if the increased efficiency and productivity were actually leading to improved living standards but I don't see any evidence that that's happening.
you know management has been circumventing science and productivity for centuries. the old saying goes "nothing can be idiotproofed, because nature has an uncanny way of improving the idiot". You could add stealth teleporters to airports, management and congress would find a way to make it useless.
I happen to have 2 big ass monitors at work. Running Windows... At home I have a not so big ass single monitor that displays an Ubuntu desktop. I am vastly more productive at home. And that's thanks to the proper multiple desktop implementation that's simply not possible on Windows. It allows me to swap between virtual desktops much faster than I ever could move my eye/head to the second monitor in a dual monitor setup. And it gives me much more virtual desktops (I prefer 4) and much more overview thanks to transparent windows and the transparent Compiz cube. Add to that that a desktop spread over multiple monitors is simply too wide to be ergonomical.
So if a dual monitor setup increases productivity I'm pretty sure that's only on Windows and it's only as a compensation for Windows' braindead desktop implementation. Thank you very much.
0x or or snor perron?!
The rest of us get to use Linux...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
My office is down in the basement, in a room full of routers and firewalls and other random gear we're testing. We finally scrounged up some spare sound-baffle stuff so it's a bit quieter.
Occasionally we get surveys from the Corporate Real Estate Droids about how well they're supporting us. They do ask what floor we're on, and for our building the choices are "1-6". Ummm, no, we're on floor 0 here.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Single big CRT at work, two big Sony Trinatrons at home, X windows on both. The single screen and multiple desktops get the jobs done with the ability to only have related task on each desktop. The two screens let me run WoW on one and web browser etc on the other with multiple independent desktops on each monitor (Enlightenment E17) - so I can switch desktops on the right screen while the WoW window stays put on the left. :)
That makes it one screen better for work and two better for play. I'm still getting my head around the desktop switching being independent on each monitor on the home computer but it is useful.
I'm using CRTs because there's a big difference between the best CRTs you can find and a cheap LCD. I'll be on CRT until there are decent 1600x1200 or better LCD screens at sane prices. It also gets completely around the "you IT guys save the best stuff for yourself" argument that can come out every time somebody wants an upgrade
I was subjected to monitors and plants in a NASA computer controlled operating system. The building was remote from the machinery it controlled. One problem made itself evident soon after the building was finished, there was no fresh air intake for the building. This led to high levels of CO2 that put people in a very drowsy state. NASA's recommendation required plants that scavenged excess CO2, plants were potted in a hydroponic system, activated clay with water and nutrients. After about six months the plants died and they were removed. Nothing more was said about the experiment. The conclusion recommended an air intake be cut into the building wall to allow a complete air exchange.
As for the monitors, the central control building monitored four separate systems;
an electrical system distribution and
a lab-wide piping system that controlled and monitored the status of valves for compressed air at various pressures and valves for altitude exhaust used by test cells requiring specific psfa and flow rates. These two watch stations utilized four monitors each. The other two stations monitored and controlled two separate air service equipment buildings, also having four monitors each. The first two stations were manned by one person each and the two equipment service building stations were manned by two people each due to the complexity of services offered.
The electrical distribution and valve control stations were most active prior to service operations and then became static (only monitored conditions, unless more services were added, then became static again). On the other hand, the two air services stations were dynamic, conditions changed as flows and temperatures changed. The issue then became one of data real estate. each operator had two monitors watching up to four, five or six different systems (compressors, exhausters, cooling water, refrigeration, hydraulics, lubrication, turbo-expanders), requiring a constant flipping between data pages on two monitors for each operator. This does become tedious.
So, where am I going with this?
One side of the control building had four monitors per person watching a basically static system whereas, the other side had two monitors per person watching several dynamically active systems, two data pages at a time, with constant flipping through the other data pages. A better system would have more monitors (six or eight monitors per operator) for the dynamic systems and fewer monitors for the static systems. Personally, I wouldn't change the number of monitors for the static systems, but would increase substantially, the number of monitors for the dynamic systems. Contrary to popular belief, the eye is quicker than the hand. The hand is only quicker when misdirection is involved.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
The bluest blue sky is about 15000K, so 17000K, is more blue than anything naturally occurring, and this is more productive?
Weird....
They talk about improving concentration yet they recommend flickery distracting fluorescent lights? Not a source I'd go to for reliable advice on productivity.
I do like plants in the office though.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
Several of my colleagues use two monitors. What I notice every time I help one of them, is time wasted waiting for some program to start, before noticing that it did already start, it's just on the other monitor.
Of course this is on Windows, where every program has its own idea about which monitor it's supposed to start on. More consistently behaving systems might be different.
Myself? I tend to lose the mouse pointer when I use two monitors, so I stick with one.
Since no one (above a score of 3 at least, which is what I'm reading at right now) has mentioned this, I will.
It's high COLOR temperature lights - completely different from high temperature. It means bluer lights, more like sunlight, instead of more yellow/orange lights like tungsten lamps. It does not mean hotter lights.
For reference, if you're not familiar with color temperature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature