Tag Archive for 'rsi'

Getting things done with MacBreakZ

Published by dekay on October 4, 2006 in gtd. 0 Comments

You may have read my previous review of MacBreakZ, maybe you have heard about RSI or any computer related damages (such as the mouse arm). Today I would like to present you a cool and quite different use of this nifty application.

Use it to become more effective and more concentrated!

MacBreakZ has the ability to force you to make breaks in your work, and it is very flexible and customizable this way. You could do a procrastination dash and do work until the next break hits, then go away from your machine, do some stretches and get some coffee… and after that you may procrastinate or… even get back to work.

I have set my timer to 21 minutes with a 4 minute break. And I find I can keep on working for quite longer than if I would not do any breaks, or irregular ones. The timing is enough to actually get things done, the break is short enough to not get distracted but get some distance and relaxation.

For me MacBreakZ is much more than just a tool to prevent any RSI-like injury… it does help to make me more productive, more concentrated and thus rich and famous and happy. (I guess mostly the latter, but you get the idea…)

RSI prevention

Published by dekay on May 20, 2006 in links and mac. 0 Comments

RSI is not a specific disease but a loose group of other, more specific conditions. It is generally associated with work related injury due to repetetive movements, tasks and poor posture or ergonomics. It is very known amongst computer users who need to work on the keyboard or a mouse all day long.

Some early signs of RSI are: recurring pain or soreness in neck, shoulders, back, wrists or hands. Often associated with feelings of numbness, tingling, coldness or general loss of sensation; in hands it is usally associated with a decrease in strength and muscle mass, a lack of endurance or general symproms of fatigue and weakness.

Later stages of RSI can be very discomforting, ranging from inflammation related symptoms to far worse states of pain during work and other tasks. A story I once heard was of a waoman who would have to chose in the morning between opening the door or brushing her teeth — as she would not be able to do both because of pain in her hands.

There are no one-shot remedies for these problems. Most include a slow change of working habits, postures — accompanied by medication and anti-inflammatory treatment. Thus it is very advisable to prevent these syndromes from ever appearing or, ususally more applicable, from worsening.

There are two major approaches to this, both which should be used in cooperation:

  1. Tools
  2. Changes in behaviour.

Tools include a mutitude of input devices (such as a pen tablet, a trackball or ergonimc keyboards) as well as an ergonimic desktop setup (see your computer’s manual for example). Changes in behaviour is usually focussed on taking breaks, doing excercises and in general providing more change and less repetition of tasks.

Also interesting and useful are applications that run on the computer which remind the user to take breaks, usually a mixture of “microbreaks” (which reduce the continuous work by introducing short, 15 second breaks every 5 to 7 minutes) and general breaks (about 5 to 7 minutes every hour of continuous break time, usefuly for taking a coffee break, doing some strtching excercises…)

Software for Mac OSX:

Some Tools: