SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

• Episode focus: Importance of protecting eyesight for entrepreneurs and digital workers who spend long hours on screens.
• Personal context: Tom Antion is about to undergo his second cataract surgery; emphasizes the connection between eye health and business productivity.
• Eye health tips for screen users:
• Follow the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
• Screen positioning: about arm’s length away and slightly below eye level to reduce strain.
• Adjust brightness: match screen brightness to ambient light.
• Font size & contrast: increase readability to avoid squinting and fatigue.
• Reduce glare: use anti-glare protectors and avoid reflections from windows/overhead lights.
• High-resolution screens: sharper displays reduce strain compared to cheap monitors.
• Blue light protection: use glasses or clip-on filters.
• Blink more often to prevent dry eyes; artificial tears can also help.
• Move around/stretch: take breaks, walk, and change focus to improve circulation and reduce eye fatigue.
• Regular eye exams to detect issues early.
• Entrepreneurial angle: Healthy eyes = better focus, fewer headaches, more productivity, and ultimately more business success.
• Closing thought: Small habits like blinking, stretching, and using proper screens add up to less strain and more enjoyable, effective workdays.

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Episode 1032 – Exemplary Eyesight
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody! It's Tom here with episode 1032 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about eyesight. Now why am I talking about eyesight? Well, I happen to be thinking about it because tomorrow morning I have to go for my second cataract surgery. And it just made me think about all the many hours that digital marketers spend in front of computers. And I've been fairly lucky at this. The cataracts certainly weren't as come about because of the computer. You know, they're kind of running in my family, but lots of this screen time is creating headaches and eye strain and neck strain and all kinds of things that are bad for your eyes. And if it's bad for your eyes, it's bad for your business. So that's what we're going to talk about today. I hope you didn't miss episode 1031. That was another one of our phone tip episodes, so you can be lightning fast working on your cell phone and tablets. And of course, I want you to pick up a copy of my automation book. It's completely free. Make sure you pick up, let's see, it's version 3.0. screwthecommute.com/automatefree If you have 2.0. This has got a lot of new stuff. And of course, check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. And my school at IMTCVA.org. Certified to operate in Virginia by SCHEV. That's the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning.

[00:02:01] All right. Let's look at this. We got to protect that eyesight of yours because we spend a lot of time in front of screens. You know, like I said, I don't want to see headaches and eye strain and all kinds of problems that can arise from too much screen time. Now, there's things that you can do, which we're going to cover today on how to reduce those problems. Because if you have those problems, it's going to hurt your business because you won't want to be in front of the screen. You won't want to be developing products and services, you won't want to be answering customer queries and so forth. So that's how it hurts your business. All right. So a lot of people tout the 20 2020 rule when it comes to this and that you like set a timer on your phone every 20 minutes. You look at something 20ft away for about 20s. That's something you can do very easily. Doesn't take too much time. It gives your eyes a little bit of a break. Now, when you talk about the position of your screen, your screen should be about arm's length away. And slightly below, so that you have to look down a little bit at it. And what that does is it relieves neck and eye pressure so that you don't get as tired or strained so fast. So positioning your screen is one important thing. Another thing is to lower the brightness of your screen to somewhat match the the ambient light in wherever you happen to be working.

[00:03:43] And you also want to have good contrast between in font size. A lot of times you can adjust the size of the font on your cell phones, tablets, and desktops so that it's easy for you to read for whatever your eyesight is or your corrected eyesight is. The easier it is for you to read, the less strain and less tired you're going to get, and so forth. Now another thing is glare. Glare will give you a lot of problems. And there's actually anti-glare screen protectors you can put on, but you want to try to avoid reflections and window lights hitting your screen and the regular overhead lights that you have so they don't hit your screen and cause a lot of goofiness that makes your eyes have to work harder. In fact, one thing about eyes that I use it as a comical excuse for my messiness is that I actually saw an article one time, a serious article that said, if you have a perfectly pristine, clean desk, it makes your eye strain harder because there's too much stark contrast in between something laying on your desk and the desk surface. So that was my excuse to be as messy as I usually am. But you do want to have a contrast in your fonts, and so that they're easy for you to to recognize rather than straining to do it. All right. Another thing you can do, you know, when you set that timer, if you are working from your home, which screwing the commute is our thing around here.

[00:05:23] You don't have to go the 20/20 rule. You could get up and walk around and and look at something else in a distance and, and exercise a little bit, stretch, you know, get your blood flowing a little bit. Uh, blink a lot. That's another thing. If you force yourself to blink more often, it is good for your eyes. Some people use artificial tears if they get dry eyes and so forth. That's another thing you can do. And you should absolutely, absolutely get regular eye exams so that you see, is there any underlying problem of what you're having with your eyes, or catch it before it gets too bad? Another thing is a high resolution screen. If you get the el cheapo cheapest piece of junk screen that you can find, that's tough on your eyes. You want it high res, the highest resolution screen, so that it again makes things sharp and easier to read. You're not straining to read them. Now, you also may have heard about these blue light glasses. This this blue light that comes out of screens is supposed to be bad for you. And you can either get glasses for that particular problem, or there's clip on filters that you can put on your regular eyeglasses to help knock away that blue light. You know, entrepreneurship covers so many different facets. I said, I've been an entrepreneur working for myself since 1977. What does that make 48 years, 48.5 years now and going through a lot of stuff that you, you know, you think, oh, that's kind of juvenile to talk about screens and, you know, eyeglasses and things like that.

[00:07:12] Tom but I'm telling you, all these things add up to your bank account being much bigger because you're doing better at business, because you're not letting these kinds of things hurt you and hurt your business. So you may Pooh Pooh this, but, you know, like I said, I'm going under the laser tomorrow morning and it's opening up a whole new world for me, because I've really been straining lately with with seeing the screens and so forth. So. So there you go. That's a little bit on eyesight and how it will help your business. And like I said, 20 20 20 get up and take a break and look at a distance, change what you're doing and all these other tips. Go back and listen to them again and make sure you're doing a lot of them with the artificial tears and blinking a lot and stretching, walking around anti-glare, high resolution screen blue light blockers, those all these things add up to making your work time much more pleasurable, so that by the time you get done, you don't have a headache and have to lay down or take a bunch of aspirin or something, you know, to to knock out the headache. You can go do the things you love to do and feel really good when you're doing it. All right, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you all in the next episode. See you later.