In this question, Is it truly useful to work with more than one monitor?, people have said that a dual monitor setup is useful. Absolutely! For me, as a programmer; I cannot explain the joy of a second monitor referring to documentation while getting a mental picture of the solution from the code I’ve written so far.
My dual monitor is my best friend! As a programmer, what are a few other things that you hold near and dear, as a programmer?
Over the ear headphones, chill electronic music, and at least two monitors. I have 3 monitors at my new job including my laptop, and it is glorious. I keep email and chat on my laptop window, code or wireframing software on one monitor and browser on the other monitor.
10 minutes of peace. If someone interrupts me in between my brain storming, all my thinking so far goes out for toss. So I always make a point to make, "Do Not Disturb" in all chats/messenger! This I feel, is a must need.
A good set of noise cancelling headphones. While I don't use them all the time, I really appreciate having them around.
My cell phone for sure and Apple Watch with it. Allows my Mac to focus on the work I need to do an everything else (email, text messages, etc...) to be filtered and sent to my watch. Only important stuff comes through - everything else can wait till I take a break.
Marco Alka
Software Engineer, Technical Consultant & Mentor