When I do work for our client downtown, I hook up my laptop to a monitor so that I can have two screens. If you haven't tried yet, I encourage you to do so! The only thing that bothered me was the wallpaper on my monitor screen; it didn't match the resolution on my laptop, or it was ugly whenever nothing was on it. Fortunately, I was able to Google a way to resolve it; and I feel much better.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/dual-monitors-use-a-different-wallpaper-on-each-desktop/