Taking breaks from your computer

By Hamish Taylor
Thursday, 12 June 2008 19:00

Opinion and Analysis

I usually set the work interval to 55 minutes, the break interval to 5 minutes and check the box to allow for postponing of breaks. That's it. Very simple and easy. When a break happens, the screen is locked out, so it forces me to get up and move around.

However, if I am in the middle of a sentence or thought pattern that I really want to get down, then I can postpone the break.

If I work for another 5 minutes and then “take a break” then the next work period will be 40 minutes (55 minutes minus 5 for the break, minus 5 for the overtime). I can also elect to “take a break” at any time by right-clicking on the icon in the taskbar.

This resets the work interval timer, so that at the end of the break, I have 55 another minutes. This can be useful if I get a phone call or have to get the mail or something like that.

I do have to configure it each time the laptop starts, but that takes exactly 5 mouse clicks, so this is not really an imposition.

Also as I don't always use my laptop for uni work (that's why I have TORCS – The Open Car Racing Simulator), I don't always want it on, so I actually prefer that I have to set it rather than it happening automajically.

So, there you go. First post and I hope that I have highlighted a little known feature of Linux (probably more accurately: Ubuntu 8.04 Linux). Let me know what you'd like to see more of and know about, and I'll try to get to those suggestions in a later post. Thanks for reading all the way down here!