When I was putting together my ideal home office space, I considered using three of the best monitors to maximize space and productivity. I even picked out a triple-arm mount, with the thought of having two monitors stacked with a large drawing pen display on the third arm for editing photographs.

I started putting everything together and wasn't happy with the results—so much so that I took off the third arm and settled on a two-monitor setup with them side-by-side. It's made a huge difference to my productivity, and going with my original triple-screen idea would have made things more confusing. If you're considering a multi-monitor setup, here are four reasons that you might want to stop at two.

4 Less losing track of what I'm working on

Three screens is a lot of multitasking to deal with

A growing body of evidence suggests that our brains are not best at multitasking and that switching between tasks reduces efficiency. The studies suggest that up to 40% of a person's productive time could be lost from the mental gymnastics used to switch between tasks. That might sound contrary to guides saying that multiple monitors help with productivity, but it's how you use the space on those monitors that counts. That's a big part of why I don't want more than two monitors, because having to switch focus between more screens absolutely destroys my personal productivity.

However, I've found that two monitors can be beneficial. My desk has two 34-inch ultrawide monitors arranged side-by-side on monitor arms, so their mounts don't take up desk space. When I'm working, I use one monitor with two browser windows open, one for writing and one for checking facts or research. The second monitor has chat apps open, as well as any browser tabs that I might need later but aren't actively working on, as a sort of cold storage. If I had a third monitor in the mix, I'd be constantly juggling apps, browsers, and other tasks, and wondering where any of the things I'm working on are. It's too much mental load for me, but I like having the second monitor to store things that I don't need immediately, as if I close those browser tabs I'll forget all about them.

3 Far less neck strain

It's so much easier to swivel my chair or pan my head

Ergonomics is an important part of any desk setup. After all, you'll be spending a large amount of your waking hours working or playing at it. That's why it's important to have your monitors at the correct height for your eye level, which is supposed to be where the top of the monitor is. For me, the perfect height is either 34-inch Ultrawide monitors or 27-inch monitors with 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratios. That makes it easy for me to swivel to see what's to the sides of me, and I don't have to move my neck to see the top or bottom of my screen.

With two ultrawide monitors, my desk, which is 70 inches wide, no longer has any horizontal space. For a third monitor, I'd have to move back to 16:9 aspect ratio displays, which I can't arrange as many browser windows comfortably on or stack them vertically. Both options are a problem, but by far, the worst one is having to look up to see the top monitor's content. It might not seem like much of a strain, but when done day in and day out, it will cause future problems.

2 My GPU only has two DP ports

I prefer using it over HDMI for gaming monitors

Another reason I prefer to stick with two monitors has nothing to do with ergonomics, and everything to do with manufacturer whims. I prefer to use DisplayPort for my gaming monitors, even if HDMI has gotten better in recent years. That's a problem on my main PC because while many of the best GPUs have three full-sized DisplayPorts, my AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has two full-sized DisplayPort 2.1 ports and one DP supplied by USB-C. While I could use a USB-C to DisplayPort cable for a third monitor, I've had weird issues with every display cable adapter I've used. That means, until I change the GPU in my rig, I'm limiting myself to two monitors at most.

1 Takes up less space on my desk

Mounts or monitor arm clamps take up plenty of real estate

Effective use of desktop space is always an issue, whether that desk is at work or at home. Three monitors using their factory-supplied stands will take up a significant amount of the real estate. Take the beautiful Asus ROG PG32UCDP, for example. The tripod design of the stand protrudes from the monitor in all directions, as does every other Asus gaming monitor. I had one of the early 4K 144Hz IPS Asus ROG monitors, and it was tricky to fit a deskmat for my keyboard and mouse in front of it on the thinner desk I had at the time.

Not that the problem goes away when you decide to use VESA-compatible monitor arms. For them to be sturdy enough, the clamp has to be fairly substantial, and only the premium models can support more than two large monitors without wobbling or risking damage to the monitors. Again, you could stack the monitors to reduce the horizontal space they take up, but then you're fighting against ergonomics and neck strain again. It's just easier for me to organize two monitors with the space I have to work with.

• Alienware AW3423DWF Gaming Monitor

  My current gaming monitor is this beautiful QD-OLED model from Alienware, which has a high refresh rate with AMD FreeSync, superb color accuracy, and a 3440x1440 resolution for plenty of pixels while playing my favorite games.

  $900 at Best Buy $900 at Dell

• Dell P3421W

  My second ultrawide is a model that's no longer being made, so when I do look for a replacement, it will be something like the Dell P3421W, which has an IPS panel and a built-in KVM so I could switch easily between two computers while using the same keyboard and mouse.

  $660 at Amazon

For me, two monitors are the perfect number for peak productivity

Productivity studies aside, there is no magic number of monitors that enables peak performance for everybody. Bankers and traders often have six displays or more, and some might find more comfort with one monitor, with everything they need right in front of them. Personally, I've tried one, two, three, and four monitors on my desk, and I found that two is the best arrangement for my workflow.