and hold it straight ahead of you... for 8 hours. Not a chance, right?

That's the strain you're subjecting your eyes to every workday. Locking your focus on a computer screen for an entire day fatigues your eye muscles, resulting in pain, blurred vision, focus problems, and sensitivity to light. It could also result in a stalled career. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's school of optometry found that visual discomfort can reduce workplace productivity by up to 28 per cent. Here's how to keep your orbs in fighting fit condition.

Give it a rest: Get in the habit of looking away from your primary focus - whether it's the computer or a file. Every 45mins to one hour, avert your gaze, focus on something out the window or across the office, and then focus on a close-up object, such as one of your fingernails or your watch.

Try some 3-D effects: Japanese researchers had people either stares at stereoscopic, a.k.a. 3-D; computer images for a few minutes every hour or simply look away from their computers. They found that the eyes that saw things in 3-D were Eyes Fatigue

22 per cent more rested. One explanation: In order to view 3-D images properly, you need to relax your eye muscles to the point where they actually go a bit out of focus, thereby giving them more of a rest than usual.

Sit back: Move about 26 to 28 inches away from the monitor. As the space between your eyes and the computer screen increases, the amount of fatigue on your focusing muscles decreases. And while you're focusing on the monitor, consider picking up an antiglare filter, such as the HF 250 from 3M. It's tinted to heighten the contrast of letters and images and will block 99 percent of glare.