Voice to Text for Eye Strain

Hours of screen time take a toll. Your eyes get tired, dry, irritated. The sensible advice is to take breaks — but deadlines don't pause for your corneas. You push through, squinting at the screen, knowing each hour makes tomorrow worse. Blurt offers a middle path: keep working without staring at the screen. Hold a button, close your eyes or look away, speak what you need to type, release. Text appears at your cursor. Your eyes get rest while your work gets done. Voice typing that turns screen breaks into productive time.

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The Typing Problem

Your eyes hurt but the work isn't done

It's 3 PM and your eyes are already burning. You've been staring at the screen since morning — emails, documents, Slack messages, spreadsheets. The responsible thing would be to step away, but you're mid-project with a deadline. So you rub your eyes, blink hard, and keep typing. Tomorrow they'll feel worse, and you'll do it all again.

Screen breaks mean work stops

The 20-20-20 rule sounds great: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. But in practice, looking away from the screen means stopping whatever you're typing. You lose your train of thought, your momentum breaks, and that urgent message doesn't get sent. Eye health becomes a trade-off against productivity.

The cumulative toll compounds daily

One long screen day is uncomfortable. A week of them leaves you with headaches, blurred vision, and sensitivity to light. Months or years of chronic eye strain can lead to serious problems. You know this, you feel it building, but the nature of computer-based work seems to leave no alternative. Screens are where the work happens.

Blue light glasses and eye drops only go so far

You've tried the interventions. Special glasses, screen filters, artificial tears, monitor adjustments. They help at the margins. But the fundamental problem remains: your eyes are focused at the same close distance, on the same bright rectangle, for most of your waking hours. No accessory solves the core issue of too much screen time.

Dry, irritated eyes make everything harder

Strained eyes don't just hurt — they slow you down. Reading becomes harder. Focus deteriorates. You re-read the same paragraph because your tired eyes skipped a line. The discomfort seeps into your concentration until the work itself suffers. You're less productive precisely when you're pushing hardest.

How It Works

Blurt lets you produce text without looking at your screen. Your eyes can rest while your voice handles the typing.

Hold your hotkey

Press your chosen keyboard shortcut. A subtle sound confirms Blurt is listening. You can close your eyes or look away now.

Speak with eyes closed or averted

Say what you need to type. Look out the window, close your eyes, stretch. Your eyes get a real break while your voice works.

Release and see the result

When you're done speaking, release the hotkey. Open your eyes to find your text waiting at the cursor. A quick glance to review, then back to resting your eyes.

Real Scenarios

Writing emails with your eyes closed

You know what you want to say. You don't need to watch yourself type it. Close your eyes, lean back, and speak the email. The act of composing happens in your head, not on the screen. Open your eyes only for a final review. That email that would have cost you 5 minutes of screen staring now costs you 30 seconds of reading.

Slack responses while looking away

Someone asks a question. You know the answer. Instead of typing while staring at the chat, look out the window while you speak your response. Your eyes get a 20-second break. The message gets sent. Stack up these micro-breaks throughout the day and your eyes feel noticeably different by evening.

Meeting notes without screen focus

During virtual meetings, you're already staring at faces on screen. Adding note-taking means even more visual focus. With Blurt, you can capture key points by speaking quietly while glancing away from the screen. Your notes write themselves while your eyes get intermittent relief from the constant monitor gaze.

First drafts with eyes resting

Drafting is thinking out loud, and thinking doesn't require seeing. When you need to get ideas down, close your eyes and speak your thoughts. Let the first draft emerge from your mind to your voice to the screen. Save the visual editing for after the ideas exist. Separate the creation from the screen work.

End-of-day wrap-up when eyes are exhausted

It's late afternoon. Your eyes are done. But you still need to send that status update, reply to those last emails, jot down tomorrow's tasks. Each one would mean more painful screen staring. Instead, close your eyes and voice each task. Get the work done while giving your exhausted eyes the break they're begging for.

Documentation during extended coding sessions

You've been debugging for hours. Your eyes are strained from reading code. But the fix needs documenting while it's fresh. Don't compound the eye strain with more typing. Close your eyes, speak the documentation, let your corneas recover while you capture the solution. The docs get written without adding to the visual fatigue.

Journaling and personal writing as eye relief

Personal writing often happens after work hours — when your eyes have already given their all. Journaling, creative writing, or personal emails become one more screen task competing with your need for visual rest. Voice them instead. Personal writing can become a restorative break rather than another demand on your tired eyes.

Why Blurt works better for eye strain than built-in dictation

	Blurt	macOS Dictation
Eyes-free operation	Audio cues let you know when recording starts and stops	Visual feedback requires looking at the screen
Speed	Text appears in under 500ms	2-3 second delay makes you watch and wait
Reliability	Consistent performance every time	Frequent failures require visual troubleshooting
Punctuation	Automatic punctuation — just talk naturally	Must dictate 'period' and 'comma' explicitly
Integration	Works in any text field across all apps	Inconsistent behavior requires screen checking
Confidence in output	High accuracy means less need to verify visually	Errors require constant visual monitoring

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I really type without looking at the screen?

Yes. Blurt provides audio cues when recording starts and stops, so you know what's happening without looking. For most messages and first drafts, you can speak with your eyes closed or averted, then do a quick review at the end. You'll likely find you only need to look at the screen for 10-20% of the time you used to spend typing.

How accurate is the transcription?

Very accurate for normal speech. Most users find they need to make fewer corrections than they expected. This matters for eye strain because high accuracy means less time reviewing and fixing — less time staring at the screen to clean up mistakes.

Does this actually help with eye strain?

If your eye strain comes from hours of focusing on a screen at close range, then yes — every minute you spend speaking instead of typing is a minute your eyes can rest. It's not a medical treatment, but it's a practical way to reduce screen time while maintaining productivity.

What about tasks that require reading the screen?

Some work genuinely requires visual attention — reading documents, reviewing designs, analyzing data. Blurt helps with the output side: writing emails, composing messages, drafting documents. By reducing the screen time for typing, you preserve your visual capacity for tasks that truly need it.

Can I use Blurt in dark mode to reduce strain further?

Blurt is a menu bar app with minimal visual presence. It works in any app, so if you're using dark mode in your email client or writing app, Blurt fits right in. The less you need to look at the screen, the less the display mode matters.

What does Blurt cost?

The free tier includes first 1,000 words free — enough to test if voice typing helps your eyes. If it does, Pro is $10/month or $99/year for unlimited words. Many users find that the relief from eye strain easily justifies the cost.

Does Blurt work with Windows or just Mac?

Blurt is macOS only. We focused on creating the best possible Mac experience with native menu bar integration and system-level keyboard shortcuts. Windows and Linux versions are not currently available.

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