I can only do one thing at a time.

When I was younger, I was obsessed with building out the best “battlestation” I could. At one point, my home office desk had five monitors and three computers on it. I even bought software (Synergy!) so I could use one keyboard and mouse between all of them seamlessly.

That must’ve been my best setup then, right? The one I lust over, think about, try and recreate all these years later?

Not even close.

The setup I think of most was the one I used when I was in Japan for a couple months in 2017: a Dell XPS 13 and a Logitech MX Master.

I worked from cafés, kitchen tables, couches, and shared spaces all over Osaka for two months with nothing but a laptop. Despite the excitement of being in another country, the endless distractions of a bustling city… I could focus so easily.

It was this experience that made me realize the obvious: I can only do one thing at a time.

This setup was forcing me to tame my ADHD by only giving me a single, small portal into my digital life. I had all my apps full-screen, and could only feasibly use one of them at a time. My terminal and editor were small enough that I couldn’t open more than one split pane before things got too cramped.

Since then, I’ve had a few relapses, buying new monitors or trying to add a second one… Every time it ends the same: I get distracted, or overwhelmed, and then get rid of it within a day.

Everything I “needed” to put on a second or third monitor fell into two categories:

1. Static content like documentation, references, etc. This is stuff I’m not looking at for the majority of the time I am working, but occasionally glance at.
2. Distractions. Websites, chat windows, calendar, news, videos, Star Trek TNG episodes… Anything but work.

None of these warrants parallel display on par with what I’m actually working on. At most, they can be easily “alt-tabbed” to when needed, and hidden when not.

All this lets me focus on a single task: the thing I’m actually doing–even if that thing is writing a chat message or watching a video. Because I am human, that thing will always be singular. Maybe I have a lot of things to do, but only one of them will get done at a time, no matter how many monitors I cram on my desk.

I’ve settled pretty comfortably into one 27" 1440p monitor. Large enough to give me a bit of breathing room, but not so large that a single app looks comical full-screen. Focus comes easily, and best of all it’s greatly simplified my desk and let me eliminate complexities like docking stations and USB hubs.

Unless I move careers into day trading or space shuttle launch control, I can’t see myself needing anything more than one monitor. Focus work requires focus, and having 17 windows strewn about as you try and get work done in just one of them is only hurting yourself.