Ask HN: What's a good system to remember to wear my reading glasses at my desk? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's a good system to remember to wear my reading glasses at my desk?

7 pointsdottjt29 comments

One thing that's been recommended by my optometrist is to start wearing reading glasses at my desk for computer work. I work from home and spend a solid 8+ hours in front of the computer.

The only issue I have is that I struggle to remember to wear them. Actually, I'm not sure if it's even a memory thing. It's like they're right there on my desk, but I just don't put them on most of the time.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to overcome this?

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You need two things:

1. Eyeglass chain

2. Command hook

Put the eyeglass chain on your glasses. Hang the command hook upside down on the back of the monitor. Hang your glasses so that they hang in front of the monitor (that's why the command hook is upside down!) Then when you go to work your glasses are hanging in front of your monitor.

Alternatively block the mouse/keyboard with the object you have to attend to ;)

My suggestion is to think of the habit as a seed that you grow.

Intentionally practice sitting down at your desk and putting on the glasses. Aim to intentionally practice doing it once a day. Start now: sit down at your desk, put on your glasses, and then go back to whatever you were doing. Then set an alarm to practice the same thing once tomorrow.

After you've successfully practiced intentionally sitting down at your desk and consciously putting on your glasses once per day, several days in a row, then start doing the same thing twice a day (again by setting an alarm to practice). After several days of that, do it three times per day.

My guess is that, after doing this, you'll start doing it automatically whenever you're at your desk.

The one key is consciously practicing the habit on a schedule instead of trying to remember when you happen to sit at the desk randomly. The other key is starting small and building up.

Good luck!

If you don't notice the difference maybe you don't need them.

With low glasses correction you won't notice a big difference, but you will get more fatigued

You can do what I do and just wear them around the house 95% of the time. I actually tend to prefer wearing them to my distance glasses, as long as I'm in my house (and I work from home, so I'm mostly in my house).

Some things in the distance are a little fuzzy but I just got used to not trying to focus on everything in the house.

But also if I'm not wearing them at my computer I really notice and it's a little difficult to work without them. I sometimes forget to bring them to a Starbucks and I can still work while wearing my normal glasses, but it's not as easy.

That being said, your Optometrist might not recommend this behavior. I haven't noticed any downsides to doing this though, and I've been doing it this way for like 6+ years now.

> That being said, your Optometrist might not recommend this behavior.

Indeed, my ophthalmologist recommended against it explicitly as, according to him, that would contribute to making the situation worse and I'd need new glasses sooner. So I try not to wear them as much as I can. It does feel weird to get that advice from an ophthalmologist.

I think this might be the answer.

I think the issue is that I just do so much at my desk. I work. I eat etc. So it's like, when I'm eating it doesn't occur to me to wear them. but I just need to remember that when I'm at my desk, I wear them. Though wearing them all the time in the house might be the answer.

If you go this route, I've found it easier to walk around the house if I look at my upraised hand and navigate peripherally- hand is in focus, and the rest is expectedly not, rather than everything in front of me being blurry.

Somewhat facetious technological solution suggestions:

1) Old laptop (because it has separate volume control and loudspeakers) that once an hour plays an audio file of a voice saying "are you wearing your glasses?". Perhaps even "Time to stand up, stretch, drink some water, check the CO2 level, check you are wearing your glasses and sit with good posture" if you want to take automated nannying to the next level.

2) From a brief google it looks like computer vision can be used to detect if a person is wearing glasses. A software development project with openCV running on a raspberry pi using a webcam to detect if you are wearing your glasses. Perhaps programmed to only activate during working hours. Perhaps it could flash some red LEDs.

When you take them off, put them on your keyboard.

I've tried this, it didn't seem to work. I think half the challenge is remembering to even put them on your keyboard in the first place - because if you miss it once, then it's completely out of mind.

For context, I guess part of the issue is that I'm moving from my desk a lot and coming back.

Do you feel like overengineering?

Look up some python computer vision tutorials and train a model to detect you wearing glasses vs. not wearing glasses. Run that on a Pi and hook up a smart plug or displayport switch between your monitor and pc so that it only turns the monitor on once it detects you're wearing the glasses :)

This is the best. I was going to suggest configuring a lock screen image with a prominent depiction of glasses on it.

Buy a glasses chain and hang them around your neck so you never lose them. I've been trying to get my wife (who is a nurse) to do that as she keeps losing her glasses.

Put a small sticker of your glasses or or on the edge of your dispolay on your laptop. It works for me everytime but YMMV

I solve this by purchasing multiple pairs of prescription bifocals from Zenni for $11 each

You didn't read the question!

You’re right! I mean, I read it but completely missed the message. Thanks for the correction.

Use software / hard screen cover to polarize view screen. Have slip-ons for glasses to be able to read/view 'depolarized' screen.

Leave your glasses on the chair in front of your desk. You will remember or crush them.

P.S. unless you have a dog. Some love chewing on glasses

your optometrist is like Windows...they offered a solution to a non-existent problem by giving you a problem

Only if said optometrist is rummaging in their mailbox, just to gather some general stats.

Start an AI startup that uses your camera to check if you have them on and raise $20 million.

Put it on your keyboard or over your laptop in the laptop bag!

Time is how habits are acquired.

If your body doesn’t tell you you need them, it is not medically critical. And you have plenty of time to acquire the habit.

You can also change monitor scaling.

When it comes to reading glasses, an abundaence of cheap glasses is probably easier than tracking one special pair.

They are $1.25 at DollarTree. Four bucks and up at Wallmart. Keep a pair in your shirt pocket, a pair in your hoodie pocket, and two pairs pushed back on top of your head.

Good luck.

Proximity. Put the glass next to the mouse or on the keyboard.

Put a post it note on your monitor. Hard to ignore :) Reading software solutions for this is just facepalm...

Set the fonts so small that you need "coke bottle" glasses to read anything at all.

/s?

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