Discussion on:

Five free apps to help remind you to take a break

Maybe it is because I have 30 years of experience, but taking breaks is not a problem with me - I get up and walk around about once every hour. But that may not be normal behavior for everyone - do you need a reminder when it comes to taking a break?

Me neither but then again I was toilet trained when I was very young and don't need reminders to go to the Lo I go when I need to.

Not too sure about some that I see at work these days though so maybe this is a great idea though it needs to be drastically expanded to cover lots more things than just taking the occasional break.

Col

No, I don't need a reminder. And trust me, I wouldn't allow any of those pop-up, cartoon-y things on my system. It's a disruption and a distraction.

Why is it that there seems to be an app for everything? Do we need one to remind us to breathe? And set it to some sort of dancing little objects that run as a metronome - maybe with sound? Blink? A lot of people stare at the monitor - ah, hah! Chronic dry eye!

Better yet, when is the app coming out that blanks the user's Facebook page and blasts across the screen: GET BACK TO WORK

And if you don't? Then it starts the 'Countdown' app that shows by how much your paycheck is being docked for the wasted time!!

I don't have problems remembering to take a break, but sometimes it seems
my employees need something to remind them to take a break from taking a
break, hehe!

I wrote a Windows PowerShell script to do the same type of thing as these programs. I scheduled a task which runs all day. The quotes.txt file was written in Notepad, with a text on each line.

#PowerShell Script: StretchAlarm.ps1
### Configure a Scheduled Task to Run at Logon.
### Scheduled Task Actions: Powershell.exe -WindowStyle "Hidden" -noprofile -file c:\scripts\StretchAlarm.ps1

$QuoteFile = "c:\scripts\quotes.txt"

# If no time set, set default of 30 minutes
If (!$args)
{
$DelayInMin = 30
}
Else
{
$DelayInMin = $args[0]
}

#If Quote file exists load it else set to default quote.
$FileExists = Test-Path $QuoteFile
If ($FileExists -eq $true)
{
#Read in quotes file
$quotes = Get-Content $QuoteFile
}
Else
{
$quotes = "Have a great day!"
}

# Function: Displays the attention message box & checks to see if the user clicks the ok button.
function Show-MessageBox ($title, $msg) {
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") | Out-Null
[Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show($msg, $title, [Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons]::OK, [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon]::Information, [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxDefaultButton]::Button1, [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxOptions]::DefaultDesktopOnly) | Out-Null
}

# Wait X minutes then show message and play sound, repeat every X minutes once OK pressed - Loop until end of day.
Do
{
$waitMinutes = $DelayInMin
$startTime = get-date
$endTime = $startTime.addMinutes($waitMinutes)
$timeSpan = new-timespan $startTime $endTime
Start-Sleep $timeSpan.TotalSeconds

# Play System Sound
[system.media.systemsounds]::Exclamation.play()
#Display a random quote from Quote file.
$quote = get-random -inputobject $quotes -SetSeed ((Get-Date).millisecond)
Show-MessageBox Reminder "Time to Stretch`n(Body, Mind & Spirit)`n`n $quote"

}
# Loop until 6pm
Until ($startTime.hour -eq 18)

it proved too annoying, or too easy to ignore because it would invariably pop up in the middle of doing something important and I could easily dismiss it "for a few minutes" until I was done.

It's a nice idea, and thanks, Jack, for sharing it. Something like this will work for some people. I learned to listen to my body and let it tell me when I needed a break.