This made a world of difference when we were researching and writing our book. With both displays at their default resolution, the 4K external monitor (left) can hold 3.5 times more content than the 15-inch MacBook Pro retina screen (right). The extra pixels allow you to comfortably work with two or three windows alongside one another.

High-resolution monitors make it easier to have several windows open at once.

At some screen size-8K, maybe-we’ll see diminishing returns, but we haven’t reached that point yet. Would you find it restrictive? We get that same feeling whenever we have to switch back from a large, high-resolution monitor to a smaller, lower resolution one. Imagine how it would feel if your computer screen were half of its current size.

Upgrading to a 4K monitor made a big difference to our productivity.

(When your job is to write a page that beats the control, you need all the help you can get.) Here’s what we have learned… High-resolution monitors make life easier Over the years, we have trialed a lot of monitors. When we wrote our article about The 12 best resources for improving your writing, we missed out a resource that’s vital: having a great monitor. Your short-term memory has to work overtime to remember what’s in the nearby paragraphs. You can’t “zoom out” and see the big picture. When you write on a screen that’s too small, it’s like you’re looking at your work through a letterbox. Long-form writing requires organization, and organization takes space. In our book, Making Websites Win, we explain why long copy often beats short copy, and why your copy should contain at least as many words as you’d use when selling face to face.

Bad monitors are like uncomfortable shoes: you don’t feel the restrictions until they are removed.

Having the right computer monitor can significantly improve your writing.

Computer monitors that rotate