Improving Productivity (With Science) 208
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the start-by-blinding-yourself-with-it dept.
from the start-by-blinding-yourself-with-it dept.
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."
Uhhh (Score:4, Funny)
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Duuuude, not THAT kind of plant. Even though high temperature lights would be splendid for them.
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Duuuude, not THAT kind of temperature.
TFA discusses "color temperature," saying blue is productive and yellow not so much.
Re:Uhhh (Score:5, Informative)
You seem to have been fooled by the fictional "heat lamps" mentioned in police bust reports. This is a blatant lie aimed at tricking people into ineffective grows. Cannabis grows fine at room temperature and overheating is a much bigger problem than cold for indoor grows. The less heat, but more light, the better.
The real lights used are high pressure sodium, with a low color temperature for best vegetative growth, and metal halide, with a higher color temperature for best flowering. If somebody is using only one type of light it will be the low color temperature high pressure sodium. Fluorescent lighting is also usable for small scale grows but is less efficient.
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I am kinda torn what I should find a witty comment for now...
That someone here knows that?
That he feels compelled to point it out?
Or that it's being modded insightful?
Oh look, I'm outta cheetos...
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Quit, and run an office in your grow house.
Office plant (Score:4, Funny)
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"It's true! I don't even have a cow!"
On the contrary (Score:5, Funny)
Multiple monitors make it easier to appear productive with less effort.
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This, plus dual screens are good for doing OTHER stuff than working, when you're into programming enough, you won't focus on much else anyway. But hey, there is a facebook update* on my other screen!
* Disclamer: I don't have facebook.
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Apart from that it's really obvious to the boss anyway when he walks in and instead of looking up and saying hello you go wide eyed and stab at your keyboard. Many bosses seem to pretend not to notice - until they need ammunition...
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You must not do many long debugging sessions. Debuggers deserve their own screen.
Just to provide a contrary anecdote, I had two monitors here at work at one point and ended up giving one away. Using the second one to keep an eye on email was too distracting, and using the second to extend my desktop just didn't help me. And it's not because I don't keep enough open: I usually have eight virtual desktops, and right now I'm using ten with exactly 40 windows open -- mostly terminals and gvim windows, plus a couple acroreads, one ddd (I know I'm lame, I'm not as productive with straight g
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If you use unit tests, you won't need a debugger anymore.
Until something happens that you didn't plan for--some detail that you completely overlooked, or some quirk of the language that doesn't completely match your mental model. Then a debugger may be useful to determine just what it is that you forgot to add to your unit tests.
Not that I'm a fan of debuggers. I considered them to be a tedious, slow, and generally inefficient way to find bugs even before I discovered TDD. Since I started using unit tests, my use of the debugger for my own code has gone from o
Re:On the contrary (Score:4, Informative)
I think the issue with the assertion is that it only applies to certain types of work. It's amazingly handy for somebody working on photo manipulation or graphic design to have one monitor showing the whole image and perhaps the toolbars and the other showing just the region that is being worked on.
Likewise it can be really helpful for a receptionist to have an email program going on one monitor and a word processing program going in the other.
With the advent of large monitors, a better solution for the latter would probably be to have a decent utility to split up the main screen, but I've yet to see one that really did a very good job of splitting one monitor into multiple logical monitors. X seems to do the best job, but there's complications there and that doesn't apply to Windows anyways.
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With the advent of large monitors, a better solution for the latter would probably be to have a decent utility to split up the main screen, but I've yet to see one that really did a very good job of splitting one monitor into multiple logical monitors.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Have you tried one of those new fangled desktop environments with their fancy window managers? They seem to do what you call for.
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Some programs like to maximize, and scale their layouts (crappily) based on the maximum physical size of the screen. This makes resizing the window to something other than effectively-maximized both annoying and visually unappealing, in some cases. Having a way to enforce a "maximize" that only maximized height, or within certain bounds (say, a full-screen presentation), perhaps via virtual monitors, would be handy in some situations.
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You mean say, that (+) button that's existed on Mac OS since the very beginning that doesn't maximise the window, but instead makes it big enough to show the content and no bigger?
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Really? Which apps do you know of in which it maximises things? I'd be impressed if you can name one, given that Mac OS has no maximised state what so ever.
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Just offhand, some apps I use that fill the whole screen when I press the green plus button are Photoshop, Firefox, Chrome, and Blender
Notice that all of these are cross platform apps that have sacrificed OS X like UIs for consistancy across all platforms. Try pushing the green button in Safari or SubEthaEdit.
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I don't know if there's a Windows equivalent, but I recently discovered a phenomenal tool for the Mac called Divvy [mizage.com].
You can define screen regions and have applications conform to those regions with a hotkey.
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There's a link to the Windows version of Divvy [mizage.com] on the Mac Divvy page.
I use WinSplit Revolution [winsplit-revolution.com], though. It's a free Window app that is similar to Divvy.
What I really wish I had, when I must use Windows, is a Windows version of xmonad [xmonad.org]. It has excellent support for arranging windows within large screens and on multiple monitors, once you get used to it.
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Duh. Didn't think I would need bifocus so early in my life. ;) Thanks for the info! I'll have to point this out to my windows using friends.
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Have you tried Winsplit Revolution [winsplit-revolution.com]? Been using it for a while now, and it's awesome in conjunction with AllSnap [ivanheckman.com].
Of course, this is with two laptops and two monitors on my desk at most times (although one of the laptops is a convertible tablet, so it doesn't really count as an additional screen.
And another few examples of where I've found that multiple monitors come in handy:
-Separate Media monitor: Dedicated to Winamp, VLC and any other programs you may use for your music and/or video needs
-Separate PIM
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Having two monitors I feel a lot less claustrophobic. It may not increase my productivity but I'm far less agitated when doing my job. I don't like hunting for tabs to switch between views. When debugging .Net sites it's nice to have to site remain in view when the breakpoint is hit.
Wearing comfortable clothes probably doesn't increase productivity either.
The article lies. (Score:5, Insightful)
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/vibe.aspx [microsoft.com]
The article is utter garbage.
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The article (second link in summary) about ways to increase productivity doesn't mention multiple monitors, and appears to have relevant research backing up all of its suggestions.
The Advice column (first link) does appear to be something a lazy writer pulled our of his or her... uh... ear.
Overall, the summary is exactly the quality I expect to find on Slashdot.
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And we can even go back to 2003, and this article on slashdot [slashdot.org]
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Plus, when the fuck did it become the responsibility of employees to engage in the never-ending pursuit of increasing productivity when all the gains their employers make from that increase don't make it back to the employees? Productivity has nearly tripled over the last 40 years but median wages for men (to cancel out the effect of women's wages increasing to match men's) have DECLINED. Fuck everything about that.
I'm sorry, but my wages have NOT increased to the point where they match a man's pay for the same job. Sexism is alive and well in the I.T. industry. And no, your pay didn't go down to pay for an increase in wages - as you point out, the employers kept it - in your own words - all the gains their employers make from that increase don't make it back to the employees".
Re:The article lies. (Score:4, Funny)
You probably made more before the sex change I bet, Tom...I mean Barbara.
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try showing some titty.
if that doesn't work, try losing weight and then showing some titty.
really though ... not your fault that most other women just want to be manipulative, catty, immature, backstabbing, gossiping, petty, fickle bitches who always have a million excuses for why they didn't do what they said they would do when they said they would do it whose entire lives are always about some fleeting emotional dramatic problem and entire philosophies can be summed up as "me, me, me". thing about women, it's only 90% who make all the rest look bad.
women? really easy to find anywhere. women who are physically attractive? not so hard to find. women who have real integrity, maturity, intelligence, wisdom, common sense, are not manipulative, and keep their word? almost fucking impossible to ever find those. is it so hard to understand why they don't do as well in business?
Not too sexist, are we?
s/women/men/gi;
men? really easy to find anywhere. men who are physically attractive? not so hard to find. men who have real integrity, maturity, intelligence, wisdom, common sense, are not manipulative, and keep their word? almost [redacted] impossible to ever find those.
Of course, the reality is not even that great. Guys stand in front of a mirror with that 50 extra pounds hanging out, bed-head hair thing going, 3 days stubble, and think "yeah, I've still got it". Trust me, honey, you don't.
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Even if the productivity gain is small, so is the cost of a second monitor.
High temp light sources? (Score:3)
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Depends where the office is, if you're located in an office building you likely don't have just areas next to the windows, and I think that's what they're talking about there. Plus you don't get even light all day anyways. Around here the sun doesn't come up until fairly late in the morning and goes down early in the afternoon. So even if you do have a window during those periods its not terribly useful anyways.
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"Windows are reserved for ... managers" (Score:2)
The rest of us get to use Linux...
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Underground Lab0ratory... (Score:2)
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.
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The article actually says high color temperature light sources, not high temperature light sources, the latter of which makes no sense at all, of course.
Oh, and yes. Who still uses the sun for light? This is the 21st century. The sun is so passé.
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They missed one (Score:5, Insightful)
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Apparently part of it is using a less intrusive operating system as well:
the study came to the conclusion that it was pixels, not monitors that increased productivity
And people bicker at me about my desire to regain as many pixels as I can. (I'm looking at you Office, Windows 7 Aero, Organize and Address Bars...)
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#1 improvement to productivity) Closing Slashdot!
Yes because employees would never think to browse other web sites, read the newspaper, daydream or just zone out. If you've got an unproductive employee you need to work out why they're not motivated and find a way to motivate them. Nothing else will work.
No research against it (Score:2, Insightful)
Not everything can or has to be proven with research. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, claiming a second monitor helps is hardly extraordinary.
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Not everything can or has to be proven with research.
*citation needed*
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Citation needed that a citation is needed
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A citation is needed for every comment [citation: see this comment].
Geez, don't any of you know how to use google any more?
Two Screens Are Better Than One [microsoft.com].
Of course, once everyone goes dual/triple/quad, Microsoft will then charge extra for "Window MultiMonitor Edition", and FUD-packer Florian Mueller will claim that Microsoft has various patents that prevent linux from using multiple monitors, but that's another story.
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One wonders if alternative OSes had better support for multiple monitors (sometimes it' can be a pain) if that study would have a different conclusion.
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Citation needed for whoosh.
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How's that hook taste?
Although, to be fair, the GP seemed to be more of a joke than a troll.
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Not everything can or has to be proven with research.
Yes, metaphysics is usually the realm where this applies.
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Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence was used to deny Aristarchus's 3rd century BC heliocentric theory. "Where's the parallax motion of the stars, if the earth is rotating? Any why isn't the wind stronger if the planet is spinning?" But there is parallax motion, their instruments just weren't sensitive enough; and the wind objection seems to be the real extraordinary claim. In conclusion, instead of following homilies like "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", the Greeks shou
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Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
No they don't. All they require is consistent and valid evidence, just like any other claim. The moment you start dividing things into ordinary and extraordinary you introduce personal subjectivity, and that is a mistake.
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Quite the opposite. Look up Bayesian inference.
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From the wikipedia article [wikipedia.org]:
and
So GP's point is supported; subjectivity is involved in any claims of what i
single monitor here. (Score:2)
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.
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It might be a matter of personal preference. I like having two monitors, however, my setup at home instead involves one big honker monitor, which works just about as well. The main thing is to have enough screen real-estate to support what I'm doing.
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Alt-tab is faster than turning my neck and re-focusing my eyes.
How far apart were your monitors? Mine are right next to each other; there's minimal if any turning of ones head involved. You're refocusing your eyes regardless since your entire screen changes when you alt tab.
I find that you don't really notice the increase until you have 2 monitors and have to go back to just 1. When I remote into my work machine I'
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Honestly, it depends a lot on what tasks you're doing. For many jobs it's little or no benefit, but for some jobs it does help a lot. When I'm working on art having a second monitor is a god send. Accountants often times like having a second monitor so that they can see all the columns and for those doing scheduling it's great.
I think at this point though it's getting to be more grey area as monitors are really wide and have higher resolution, splitting the monitor into smaller work spaces would at this poi
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splitting the monitor into smaller work spaces would at this point probably be more useful for most people.
My computer does that, it calls them "windows". I hear there's even an operating system named after them!
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When you're developing software two monitors allows you to have your application open, as it would be used by the end user, and also have desktop space for working on it.
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I actually have gotten into the habit of using my desktop and laptop both at times... I didn't really see a need for a second screen before I had my laptop, but I think at times having two complete systems has been key. At least for me. I can have research or email open on my laptop (often media apps like music as well) and my desktop is used as my main workspace for whatever I happen to be working on.
It actually takes some work to set up as my desk was never meant to have two monitors let alone a monitor a
Aeron chair didn't work for me (Score:4, Interesting)
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 [ikea.com] 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.
Re:Aeron chair didn't work for me (Score:4, Insightful)
My back hurt until I started hitting the gym and doing muscle strength exercises.
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Ding ding ding.
If you sit in a chair for eight hours a day, you are KILLING YOUR MUSCLES! This is not natural for humans at all.
You need exercise. I would argue that all office workers need mandatory exercise at least twice a day for five minutes absolute minimum. I keep a 30 pound weight in a nearby electrical/IDF closet and go in there once or twice a day to move my muscles around.
Most neck and back pain that I've ever had was completely resolved by having an exercise routine. Your muscles are not tel
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And you wonder why you and most other Americans are fat...
You're so awesome. Do you have a blog I can subscribe to?
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Well, it really depends on the source of your back pain. If it is muscular, sure.
If it is caused by compressed discs like mine, not so much. Strengthening exercises have some value in preventing recurrence, but do very little for me when it comes to reducing a flare-up. Only two things have really helped when it starts. Being very conscious of posture and learning that I have a problem with auto-immune inflammatory issues and getting the appropriate treatment for that.
But then, one of the other major so
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There is something wrong with the chair if you need good muscle tone in order to sit in it. :-)
This makes me want to market a chair designed to build muscle. Maybe it would randomly recline without warning, forcing you to suddenly do a sit-up. Improves reflexes too!
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Yeah I knew that wasn't the problem as I work out and exercise quite a bit (altogether probably 10 hours/week). Out of all the things to fix my back I found that massages and stretching helped the most, but ultimately changing chairs fixed it, and I no longer need to stretch solely for my back. I also rotate sitting on a ball in every once and while. I would agree though, for most people the source of most of their pain is probably from not exercising enough.
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I've been using a ball chair for a few years, cost me $80 or so, but it's been a really great improvement for my back. I do have to get up from time to time, but the strength of my abs has gotten so that I'm sitting upright with a natural curve to my spine.
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I believe he means sitting on an inflatable exercise ball. They're supposed to be very good for you.
e.g. http://www.amazon.com/Cando-exercise-chair-locking-casters/dp/B003QSVL5G [amazon.com]
(one of the first links from Google for "inflatable ball chair" - if there's an affiliate link in there, it's not mine.)
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a fair amount of the crap sold as being "Ergonomic" is complete and utter crap.
My last office had an obsession with people not using their laptop keyboards for extended periods of time... so they shelled out a lot of money for a set of "ergonomic" keyboards for the meeting rooms which could be plugged into the laptops... they were laptop keyboards, exact same size and layout and raised about the same distance off the desk.
Everyone would have been better off bringing their normal, full size keyboards from th
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Same here. My butt/arse doesn't like it either.
Interesting chairs. No arm rests? I have to have arm rests due to my multiple disabilities especially with my arm and hands. :(
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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 [ikea.com] 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.
If it will help, I'll give you the $39 for the Aeron so you won't be tempted any more.
There actually seem to be some studies (Score:3, Informative)
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Yeah. This is only a myth if you're willing to discount multiple studies that show that multiple monitors do increase productivity.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=do+multiple+monitors+increase+productivity [lmgtfy.com]
Way to go, editors.
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University of Utah conducted a study funded by NEC in 2003 and a follow up in 2008.
According to their test subjects higher resolution, more pixels, was the sweet spot.
I think this is where the "Multiple monitors make drones work better!" mantra came from. Most monitors were in the 17" to 19" - to get the pixel sweet spot you needed more of them. This was great selling point for monitor makers.
In the 2008 follow-up, they found productivity benefits begin to taper if you get above 26"-30" and resolutions high
Fire useless teammates. (Score:2)
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 do
Increased productivity. Why? (Score:2)
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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?
Increased productivity? (Score:2)
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?
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correlation is yada yada yada (Score:2)
possibly, the most productive workers are rewarded with an extra monitor.
Dual? Neah, gimme, big any day. (Score:2)
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.
Music (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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That's great, but how are you supposed to hear your boss coming?
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But Einstein and Bose do go together.
Single monitor please (Score:2)
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
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I used to have a co-worker who kept (in his cubicle) three puppies in tight sweaters.
Never heard of keeping chickens in the office before. Sounds messy. Oh, that must be what the tight shorts are for...
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It was an ag school, so it made a little bit of sense. I think the RA just pretended not to notice that we were hiding them whenever he came by.
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Do they also support looking at one screen while typing on the other?
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however the last item about temperature is ignored in a remarkable number of offices.
you'd think it wouldn't be hard to keep an office at a reasonable temperature yet in many places it's as if the dial is being controlled by someone in their 90's or who has a sexual fetish for office workers with sweat dripping off them.
protip: if your keyboard has droplets of sweat falling on it you're not going to be getting much useful work done.