Cameron Yule

Taking regular breaks

I’ve always been on the lookout for a small application to remind me to take regular breaks from my computer, as it’s easy to get totally involved in what you’re doing and lose track of time.

The few I’ve found in the past have always had their problems, from terrible interfaces to being overly intrusive – think alarm calls and locking the computer. Thankfully I’ve found the perfect app for the task – AntiRSI.

As well as reminding you to take breaks, it’s small, unobtrusive and highly configurable. As an added bonus it even takes idle time into account so if you’ve told it you want to take 5 minute breaks each hour and leave the machine idle, the counter for your next break will adjust appropriately, clever!

Published on November 27, 2008 in Software
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Comments

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Tomek / Og2t
27/11/2008

Thanks for sharing Cam, I was looking for such tool for ages!

Andrew / dies-el
27/11/2008

Good find Cam. Aside from the health benefits, it’s really good for building / keeping focus throughout the day!

Cameron
27/11/2008

No problems guys, it’s good to share!

Andrew, totally agree. Preventing RSI is a useful side-effect but I use it mainly to force me to take breaks and re-focus!

Tomek / Og2t
03/12/2008

After 4 days of using that software it started to annoy me ;) I press “postpone” too often. Is that a workaholic syndrome?
How about you? Do you always take breaks?

Cameron
04/12/2008

Not always, I do sometimes postpone! Maybe try increasing the amount of time between your breaks and then making yourself take them when they come? I use 15 minutes for the mini-break and 90minutes for the longer break. :)