Friday, February 6, 2009

Eye Experiments

I have a tendency to get caught up in what I'm doing on the computer and not take a break until either my bladder forces me or I run out of steam. This, I've found, is not so good on the eyes. Especially since I have a tendency not to blink often when surfing the Internet, and to stare, wide-eyed when pondering new plot ideas. They eye strain has taken its toll.

Cody was sweet enough to find me a program that keeps track of when I should take eye breaks. While I'm lost in thought, lost in writing, lost in editing, lost in blogging, lost in...well, you get the idea, all that time, my computer is keeping track of the minutes for me. I've set it to turn the screen black every 25 minutes and leave it black for 2 minutes.

Today was the first real trial run of the eye-break program. I've got to admit, each time the screen faded out to black, I felt a surge of annoyance as my train of thought was interrupted. However, after two minutes of sitting with my eyes closed, contemplating whatever I was doing or nothing at all, I've found that I was able to turn to my work with renewed focus. They were minimeditations, I guess, and I think my work day went smoother because of them.

For all you out there with desk jobs that keep you staring at your screen for hours on end (Argg, it did it to me again! Okay, I'm back, and my eyes actually have moisture on them again.), I highly suggest this program. Like I said, it's temporarily frustrating when it first darkens your screen unexpectedly (you can set it to warn you, but I found that distracting), but it's helpful in the long run.

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