Nurse, the screens

ADDING A SECOND screen to your Mac can make a big difference to productivity. By arranging apps and windows on different displays (see support.apple.com/en-us/HT202351), you can avoid constant switching; keep a full–size preview of your work visible at the same time as your app’s tools and panels; or separate social media, Slack or Zoom from work you’re trying to focus on. Ergonomically, a MacBook is much better used as your second screen when you’re at your desk, with you sitting in front of a larger monitor and separate keyboard.

An alternative to buying a monitor is to use Sidecar, introduced in macOS

Catalina, to connect an iPad running iPadOS 13 or 14 as a wired or wireless second screen: see support.apple.com/ en-us/HT210380. Both devices will need to be signed in to iCloud on the same Apple ID, with two–factor authentication enabled. Once the connection is set up, you can quickly reconnect to the same device later by opening Control Center, clicking the monitor in Display, and selecting it under Connect To.

You can then hover over the Full Screen (green) button in any window to see an option to move it to the iPad. And you can use Split

View, Slide Over and Picture in Picture with the Sidecar screen (see support. apple.com/en-us/HT207582) to keep even more content in view at a glance. Note, however, that Sidecar only works with iPads that support a Pencil, and UI within the Mac window will only respond to the Pencil.