Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor • Hacker News Board

Re: Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor

#181

Post by rendaw » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 3:49 AM UTC

miguno wrote: post #178

FrojoS wrote: post #149

Guys, this is a well known and under utilized effect of human psycho physiology. Visually focusing on a single point, small object, or just small visual field (aka tunnel vision) increases mental focus. AFAIK it’s also one of the reasons we all get “glued” to smartphone screens. In this paper, more than 20 deg visual field for a screen and subject performance went down: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/a…

So that's why Counter-Strike pros are nose-to-the-monitor close to their screens. Example of player Yekindar: https://preview.redd.it/yekindar-xd-v0-zsm7fzd5jd5e1.jpeg?wi... "I need you to be focused!"

Moving closer to the screen would increase the FOV.

Re: Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor

#182

Post by microtonal » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 6:12 AM UTC

piperswe wrote: post #172

microtonal wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always use DisplayPort over USB-C DP-Alt (or Thunderbolt on some displays) and I literally never have a problem across various LG, Dell and Apple Studio Displays. MacBook Pro M1 Pro or MacBook Pro M5 Sounds like something is really broken in your setup? On the other hand, sleeping/waking Thunderbolt displays on my ThinkPad with Linux regularly leads to kernel panics, across several kernel versions.

DisplayPort over DP Alt Mode != DisplayLink. DisplayLink is a way to send compressed video streams over a normal USB connection.

Yes, I never said so. I was suggesting to use DP-Alt mode instead (if they have a MacBook without HDMI, even if they had, I'd still prefer DP-Alt).

Re: Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor

#183

Post by devld » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 12:11 PM UTC

JSR_FDED wrote: post #89

I spent decades completely happy with Cmd+Tab. Now I’m helping someone develop a trading system and I need to see several log files simultaneously, a broker GUI, and neovim. Once I realized that in order to answer a single question I needed to Cmd+Tab at least four times, often more, I added two monitors and it’s dramatically lowered my stress level. FYI, on older MacBooks you can’t add more than one extra screen, bu…

Workspaces solve this problem better. Cmd + 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 It's like having 10 monitors in a single one. Though if I remember right, the switch is inefficient on Mac OS, but there's some workaround to that.

Re: Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor

#184

Post by ActorNightly » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 2:08 AM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #110

ActorNightly wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but if you get a DisplayLink dongle it works perfectly. LOL Im currently typing this on a work issued Macbook thats about 2 years old at this point, and 40% of the time, when I plug in a cable, it decides it wants to turn on and turn off hdmi output in rapid succession.

I always use DisplayPort over USB-C DP-Alt (or Thunderbolt on some displays) and I literally never have a problem across various LG, Dell and Apple Studio Displays. MacBook Pro M1 Pro or MacBook Pro M5 Sounds like something is really broken in your setup? On the other hand, sleeping/waking Thunderbolt displays on my ThinkPad with Linux regularly leads to kernel panics, across several kernel versions.

Display over USB-C is very janky (as in very much depends on hardware in the display or the docking station that you use).

The only saving grace was that the Macbook has external HDMI which works flawlessly, just like it has been for the past decade on any laptop. But not all models of Macs have had external HDMI. My last one did not, and it was a piece of crap, that ended up also swelling the battery somehow.

Re: Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor

#185

Post by smusamashah » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 6:25 PM UTC

Thank you very much for sharing this article. I have been having issues with my second monitor which is connected to my my laptop making it 3 screens. It was very annoying having to replug it to dock everytime it decided to turn off. I have also been feeling less productive for quite a while now.

After reading this, I have let the second one stay off and then unplugged and I can already notice the difference a lot. I didn't switch between apps much or procrastinated as much. It's only been a day or two and I have yet to see how I fare in long term. For now, I am happy.