This Free Desktop App Reminds You to Take Breaks During the Day
We all know that sitting for long periods of time is bad for our health, but remembering to get up and take breaks is not an easy solution.
Some fitness trackers and smartwatches can be programmed to sound an alarm when you’ve been sedentary for too long, asking you to get up and move. However, even these are easy to ignore.
Stretchy is a desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux that reminds you to take a 20 second break every 10 minutes and a 5 minute break every 30. These are the default times, but you can tweak them according to what works best. … for your workflow and skip them entirely if they show up at the wrong time.
For example, I know that if I took a 20 second break, I would never do anything. Writing requires some concentration from me, and if I break that concentration every 10 minutes, no matter how good it is for my body, it smells strongly of my productivity.
It’s more practical for me to take a 20 second break every 30 minutes and then walk around the office for 5 minutes every hour. This allows me to do some work and also be aware of the fact that I am parked at my desk all day and should probably stretch my legs from time to time.
I love Stretchly for the job because it’s free and open source, but there are several other options (including those smart devices I mentioned earlier) that can get the job done as well. The point is to just get up and move regularly throughout the day. This seat can kill you.