For years I relied on a single laptop for everything. A Dell Inspiron moved between my office desk, the coffee table, and wherever I happened to be working that day – including lunch outings where I often did some of my most focused work.

At my desk, the system lived in a USB-C dock driving multiple monitors, wired networking, webcam, and microphone. On paper, it was a flexible setup. In practice, it introduced a surprising amount of friction.

One recurring issue was window management. When undocking, any browser windows that had been on external displays effectively disappeared. They were still open, just inaccessible without remembering obscure keyboard shortcuts. That alone made quick transitions frustrating.

Connectivity was another problem. The wired network connection ran through the dock, and heavy display usage could occasionally overwhelm it. When displays started behaving erratically, the usual fix was to unplug and reconnect the USB-C cable – which also meant dropping the network connection. If this happened during a video call, the result was predictable: frozen screens, lost audio, or a complete disconnect from the meeting.

Peripheral instability compounded the issue. Devices connected through the dock – webcam, microphone, storage – could momentarily disappear during resets. Losing your microphone or camera mid-presentation is not an experience you want to repeat.

There was also a subtler productivity cost: friction. Packing up the laptop to move locations meant disrupting the entire workspace. Sometimes that was enough to discourage moving at all, even when a different environment would have been more productive.

An unexpected opportunity changed the equation. I acquired a nonfunctional Dell Precision at scrap pricing and diagnosed a faulty memory module. With spare parts on hand and a replacement keyboard, I had a working second system for minimal cost.

Workstation-class laptops like the Precision are heavier, but they offer practical advantages: built-in Ethernet, more USB ports, and hardware designed for sustained load. Those features allowed critical peripherals and network connectivity to remain stable even if the dock needed to be reset.

The result was a surprisingly effective division of labor. One laptop remained permanently docked as a workstation, while the other became the portable system for the house, meetings, and travel. Dock resets no longer meant dropped calls. Windows updates on one machine didn’t block urgent work. Moving locations became effortless.

Perhaps the most valuable benefit was resilience. What had previously been a single point of failure was now a redundant system. If one device was unavailable – updating, troubleshooting, or simply in another room – work could continue uninterrupted.

An additional side effect was improved discipline around data storage. With two machines in regular use, relying on local files quickly becomes impractical, encouraging the use of shared storage and backups.

This experience reinforced a broader principle: productivity isn’t just about speed or tools. It’s about reducing friction and eliminating fragile dependencies. Sometimes the simplest reliability improvement isn’t upgrading a device – it’s adding redundancy.