For multiscreen multitaskers, a single monitor can seem as outdated as dial-up Internet. “You go back to one, and you feel slow,” said Jackie Cohen, a 42-year old blog editor who uses three 17-inch monitors in her home office in San Francisco. Her center screen shows what she is writing or editing, along with e-mail and instant messages; the left and right monitors display news sites, blogs and Twitter feeds, and she keeps 3 to 10 tabs open on each

To follow this hack, simply add a second monitor to your workstation. This doubles your space for reference documents, second drafts and any other material, so you don’t have to switch between multiple windows every time you need to look something up.

To further strengthen the argument, Microsoft researchers found that adding multiple monitors can increase your productivity by 9 to 50 percent and make your work day easier. They conducted user studies that proved the effectiveness of adding a second or even third monitor to your workstation, creating a wide-screen effect.

Have you ever tried doubling up your monitors? Let us know how it worked for you in the comments below.

This hack is part of a series of weekly workplace hacks that teaches you about collaboration, productivity and time saving tips. Published every Wednesday.

photo credit: Rob ‘n’ Rae via photopin cc