For years, I’ve wanted to buy an external monitor for my laptop. I’ve worked with a dual monitor setup pretty much up till 2018. Working from a laptop screen was suboptimal. I’ve been meaning to buy one this whole time, and I didn’t until last Friday. Here’s what happened:

As I started my search, I found out my family had a couple of LCD monitors lying around, so I figured I’d save money and start there. It took a couple of weeks for us to meet up. As it turns out, neither of these monitors came with the cables I needed. Not a problem—I figured I’d make some calls, and spent a couple of weeks trying to find these cables (a particularly tedious form of Yak Shaving). I failed.

I then spent a couple of more weeks grazing around information, trying to find a good monitor. I ordered a new monitor, only to find I disliked it; the display wasn’t matte enough, and the text didn’t look crisp enough.

So then I resolved to be more careful with the next one I bought, except I was moving in a couple of months, so maybe I should just buy one after I moved.

Well, I moved, and it took a couple of months to get settled in. Then I found out that portable monitors were a thing, except they were pricey! And even if I bought one, would it fit into my backpack? How heavy would it be to move, how portable was it really? There were a slew of new considerations.

(Looking back I should’ve just bought a new non-portable monitor after I moved, and either moved it or sold it and bought a new one after I moved again.)

So the whole trip, I didn’t buy one, and the need all but faded from memory. I got used to the new status quo. Decisiveness had officially expired. Perhaps another way to say it: the window of decisiveness closed.

I recently got to try a second monitor again at a friend’s house. The experience reminded me of how awesome a second monitor was; I totally forgot. It literally felt like my brain expanded. Tasks that would take high stress or coordination happened faster and with greater ease.

When I returned home, I really felt like buying the monitor, so I started googling down a rabbit hole again. I didn’t want a 24″ one with 1920×1080, so I should look for a 22″ one, but wait, there aren’t any or I couldn’t get them today, okay wait this one’s on sale and it’s at half the price…

Forget about all of that.

I just bought the monitor. I went to the store, selected it, confirmed the 2-week return policy, paid for it, took it home, set it up that same day, and was using a second monitor again. I was very satisfied and still am.

All this time, I could’ve just bought the monitor. Sometimes, thinking about the lost productivity hurts me (though there’s also a separate lesson to be learned there—the past is the past). 

The best time to do it was yesterday, the next best time to do it is today. So do it today, and don’t let anything get in the way.

Inspired by inspiration is perishable. When this thought came to me, I decided to write it down. These 534 words came pouring out of me in 10 minutes. Another 10 minutes to rewrite.