Reader's Tip: Workrave helps to avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Our reader Peter Shevtsov sent a story about a program that helps to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome — a fairly common disease among computer scientists. 

I have been reading LifeHacker for a long time and with pleasure.Ru, and now I decided to also make a small contribution and share one interesting find.

The find is called Workrave. This is a program that helps to avoid the appearance of diseases caused by prolonged repetitive strain injury, for example carpal tunnel syndrome. The application from time to time reminds you to take breaks from work on the computer and is able to block the input means and the screen.

Workrave is a free program, distributed under the GNU/GPL license and runs on Linux and Windows.

Fedora distribution users can install Workrave with the command:

yum install workrave

Program features:

• Micro-pauses: short breaks of 30 seconds every few minutes.
• Five-minute breaks for exercise (usually once an hour).
• The maximum limit of work at the computer.
• Physical exercises: tests with pictures.
• Statistics: A calendar with statistics on mouse and keyboard usage, as well as the number of breaks taken.
• GNOME applet
• Network capabilities: simultaneous work on several computers, for example, on a laptop and on a desktop computer.
• The program has been translated into several languages (including Russian).

All the best, be healthy!

Workrave