Few days ago I went to eye doctor to check my eyes. This was the first time for the last 10 years so I was a little nervous. I work with computers for about 20 years already and my vision was always good. I don’t wear any glasses or contacts. Doctor examined my eyes and hasn’t found any problems with my vision. There is some dry eye problem but it’s normal taking into account that I spend 10 hours a day with computer. So here are 3 things I believe saved my vision:

1. Blind Typing On Keyboard

As I wrote in my previous post everyone who works with computers should learn how to type right. By this I mean typing with all 10 fingers without looking at keyboard. This minimizes switching of eye focus between keyboard and computer screen which results in less load on your eyes

2. Extensive Use of Copy/Paste

When I feel like I have to type the same word or phrase for more than 2-3 times I just copy and paste it. This way I waste much less of my eye energy. Even if it’s just one word (more than 5 characters), when you type it you are unconsciously looking for typos. When I do copy/paste I need to make sure that the just the 1st instance of word or phrase is written right.

3. Extensive Use Of Keyboard Shortcuts

Most of the applications have keyboard shortcuts to majority of operations that you could do with mouse clicks. Many of these shortcuts became a standard across multiple applications. E.g. Ctrl +N for the new file, Ctrl + S to save file, etc. So, for example when you want to save file in Notepad you could go to File menu and select Save option. But this simple operation will require your eyes to control the movement of mouse cursor. And you can avoid it by using Ctrl + S shortcut.

It takes time to master blind typing. But copy/paste and keyboard shortcuts are simple things that you can get used to. So, don’t waste your vision!