Many of you know that I started out as a Physical Therapist, but switched careers almost twelve years ago. I notice that many computer users (including myself) can get absorbed in reading online news, working with pictures, researching, learning a new computer program, or just playing a game. Unfortunately, when we get absorbed, we also lose track of time and thirty minutes can quickly become two hours! We have all been there.
I like to use a computer timer (but an egg timer or watch alarm will do also) to remind me to stand up and walk away from the computer when I'm working on a long project. Our bodies don't like to sit stationary for too long and our eyes really don't like staring at a fixed distance for long periods of time either.
Take a break from your computer at least every 45 minutes by getting up and getting a drink of water, walk around for a few minutes, do some push-ups or jumping jacks and stare out your window for a while as well. Frequent breaks can drastically reduce or even prevent computer related injuries like back problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and neck and eye strain.
One computer timer that I like is the Scirocco Take a Break program . It is fast to download, runs on any version of Windows and will start automatically when you turn on your computer. The default timer is 1 hour, but you can change that to what ever time you like by clicking Edit and Preferences from its menus.
