Never Forget Your Reading Glasses at Your Desk Again: Clever Reminder Tricks

Forgetting to wear reading glasses, especially when they're recommended for long hours of computer work, is a common frustration. This discussion delved into a variety of ingenious and practical methods to combat this, ranging from simple environmental tweaks to deliberate habit formation and even some tech-inspired ideas.

Make Them Unmissable: Physical & Environmental Cues

Many suggestions centered on making the glasses a physical impediment or an unavoidable part of starting work:

• The Monitor Dangle: A popular and clever tip involves using an eyeglass chain and an upside-down command hook on the back of your monitor. This allows the glasses to hang directly in front of the screen, forcing you to address them before you can see your display.
• The Keyboard/Chair Block: Simpler, yet effective, is placing glasses directly on your keyboard or (more riskily) on your chair. You'll have to move them to use your computer or sit down.
• Strategic Proximity: Keeping glasses right next to your mouse or in your direct line of sight on the desk.
• Visual Nudges: A low-tech but often effective solution is placing a Post-it note on your monitor or a small sticker on the display edge as a constant reminder.

Cultivate the Habit: Behavioral Strategies

Beyond physical cues, forming the actual habit of putting on the glasses was a key theme:

• The "Seed" Method: One commenter suggested treating the habit like a seed. This involves intentionally practicing sitting down and putting on the glasses at scheduled times (e.g., once a day with an alarm), then gradually increasing the frequency. The emphasis is on conscious, scheduled practice rather than relying on random recall.
• Consistency is Key: The underlying principle is that repeated, intentional action will eventually lead to the behavior becoming automatic.

Always Within Reach: Accessibility Solutions

Making glasses easy to find and hard to lose can also help:

• The Eyeglass Chain: A classic solution – wearing glasses around your neck ensures they are always with you.
• The "Everywhere" Approach: Purchasing multiple inexpensive pairs of reading glasses and stashing them in various locations (desk, bag, different rooms) means a pair is always nearby.
• Constant Wear (If Applicable): Some users find it easier to wear their reading glasses most of the time while indoors, especially if they primarily work from home.

Tech to the Rescue (and a Touch of Humor)

While some found tech solutions over-the-top, others proposed or jested about them:

• Automated Reminders: Suggestions included using an old laptop to play hourly audio reminders or even a more advanced computer vision setup (e.g., Raspberry Pi with OpenCV) to detect if glasses are being worn and trigger an alert.
• Forced Necessity: One tongue-in-cheek idea was to set screen fonts so small that glasses become absolutely essential.

Questioning the Premise & Alternative Adjustments

Not all comments focused solely on remembering. Some offered alternative perspectives:

• Do You Truly Notice a Difference? A recurring point was that if not wearing the glasses doesn't cause noticeable discomfort or difficulty, perhaps they aren't as critical as perceived, or the user might not be motivated enough. This was sometimes contrasted with the optometrist's advice.
• Monitor Settings: Adjusting monitor scaling or font sizes was suggested as an alternative or complementary measure.
• Skepticism: A few comments expressed mild skepticism towards the optometrist's recommendation, likening it to an unnecessary solution.

Ultimately, the discussion highlights that overcoming this common hurdle often requires a personalized approach, potentially combining environmental cues with deliberate habit-building. Experimenting with different strategies is likely the best way to find what sticks.