For the last 8 weeks or so, I've been out of the habit of getting up from my office chair regularly. I
made a comment about it on twitter and
@jwo, thought it was important enough to take a break too.
Sitting a lot is bad for your health (even if you exercise), and as a programmer, I sit a lot. I haven't ever really felt a problem from it until recently, when I got out of the habit of taking regular breaks. In my case that was leading to back pain, mental frustration, and not getting enough water. So yesterday I started using
Dejal Timeout as a way to force myself to get up, stretch, and walk around a bit. (It fades in, dims your screen, and makes it hard to work when it's time for a break).
The results? 5000 more steps for the day (~50% increase), much more water, no back pain this morning, and yesterday I got done WAY more than I have in the past two months. I am not thinking those outstanding results will continue forever (and I realize my story doesn't suffice for proving causality), but I expect I'll remain better off than before. I set it to take a 5 minute break after every 55 minutes.
Final note: You can configure that software to not show the "skip this break" button. I recommend this. If you make it easy to skip, I think you'll end up skipping. I did keep the postpone buttons though, and used them a couple of times.
What tips do you have to help manage and maintain your health?
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