tl; dr; A single application does not represent a single mental task/context. Yup! I work on web applications and run a three monitor setup roughly like this:

tl; dr; A single application does not represent a single mental task/context. Yup! I work on web applications and run a three monitor setup roughly like this: * Web Ui with what I'm currently working and the occasional api doc * Editor with code and probably a few shell tabs * Third for incidentals (hipchat, chrome dev tools, Jira Ticket, etc.) On top of that I'll use Virtual desktops to switch between task sets or email etc.. Desktop 1 - Email/Jira Overview/HipChat/Toggl Desktop 2-7 - What I'm working on right now or "quick bug" type stuff Desktop 8 - pianobar, loose gmail/inbox window The middle desktop set is usually pretty sparse, but it helps. One monitor doesn't have enough "logical" real estate to to maintain the context of a single problem for me. I wind up using multiple desktops and bouncing back and forth between them all the time, sometimes several times over a single edit because I loose context in the desktop switch.