Introduction.The assessment of individuals’ near work by survey methods is challenging. The feasibility of the Experience Sampling Method to quantify daily visual tasks was evaluated.Methods.Twenty-one subjects were randomly paged five times per day for 6 days. When paged, the subjects dialed into a telephone survey to report the nature, duration, and working distance of their visual activity at the time of the page.Results.The overall response rate was 81.3% (512/630 pages). The individual response rates varied from 6.7% to 100% (median, 86.7%). Responses were grouped into 11 categories/activities for ease of analysis. Of 506 responses, the most common activity category was “distance tasks,” which included driving and walking (N = 92). Other common responses included computer use (N = 68), reading (N = 66), household tasks, e.g., cleaning, cooking, and showering (N = 64), and watching television (N = 61). Activities with a mean distance ≤26 inches (arm length) were combined as near-work responses and accounted for 54.3% (258/475) of all responses.Conclusion.A modification of the Experience Sampling Method can be used to obtain a “real-time” sampling of visual activities.