My favourite computer ergonomics hack

My solution for sitting too long: every time I get up, I drink a glass of water. That ensures I have to get up again! It’s a self-reinforcing loop too.

My company has forced RSIGuard software on us, with unchangeable break timing and annoying pop-ups that you cannot disable for presentations, etc.

It’s detestable and only done so The Company has a plausible defense against lawsuits while continuing to only supply only the crappiest Fischer-Price grade Dell peripherals that get thrown in the box for free.

https://www.cority.com/home-ergo/

This is one of the better applications of an Apple Watch, which will detect when you haven’t stood for a while and pester you to do so.

Of course, the watch comes with a giant bundle of other features that may or may not be desired. And building it yourself is so much cooler.

Long ago i wrote a thing that gives you a textbox to explain what you were doing and a countdown enforcing a break.

It is funny to read later what you did.(as oppose to what you wanted to get done and what you should have)

Jacob is the best! So glad to see him on HN <3 My favorite line: "[I want to] thank my wife for pointing out to me that I sit still too much and for putting up with the horrible screeching noises from the Beeper for the past 8 years and counting.

Back in the day, when smokers were not hiding their habit, and I worked in an office, I would adopt a smoker

Every time they went to have a cigarette I would go out with them

I do not think that would work these days, in my culture.

I pretty much got out of programming because sitting for too long resulted in me having serious spine problems culminating in surgery. Not sitting long enough means I rarely get into the ‚zone’. I’m glad others have figured it out better

I use a custom pomodoro timer. Instead of taking a break every 25 minutes, I do it hourly. During my break, I take off my glasses, walk around, stretch, handle small chores and tasks, etc.

Another random hack-habit with a very minor effect: standing up without using your arms, and your core instead. It's not a substitute for exercise, but it does loosen my core afterwards.

Am I the only one who does not understand how the script on the Mac side works? I don't use a Mac and I don't know how "macOS LaunchAgent" operates, so I may be missing some details. But the code presented in the post seems to only check about the state at the 20-minute mark after execution. If the script is fired at 00:00, I take a break at 00:15, return at 00:19, it will still buzz at 00:20.

I assume LaunchAgent restarts the script after it exits, so it is essentially a check that a person has locked the laptop at 20, 40, 60, 80, ... minutes after the initial start of the script, regardless of what other breaks take place.

I've a similar hack with an ultrasonic distance sensor sitting on top of my monitor that I use as a presence sensor to tell the computer when I’m in front of it or not. [1]

Apart from pausing and resuming my music player, a shell script displays the number of minutes I've been in front of the computer in calm green text in the corner of the screen. After 45 minutes this turns to large red text and a sound-clip telling me to "move it, move it"[2] plays every five minutes.

It's worked well for me. I'll step away and do a couple of stretches and step back. Timer resets automatically with no other intervention.

I suppose I could augment this with a remote alarm+button similar to Jacob's to force the issue.

[1] https://www.michevan.id.au/posts/are-you-there/

[2] https://youtu.be/hdcTmpvDO0I

My solution is a bottle with something pleasing to drink.

Modern vacuum containers make cold and hot beverages almost constantly available which makes me get up quite frequently.

This sounds like the kind of thing I would put a cheap z-wave plug on so I could turn it off remotely with Home Assistant, completely defeating its purpose.

I have a dog. It requires period attention (petting), getting up from your chair and taking for walk feeding it.

At an open seating hanger type office, I never able focus deep enough that sitting too long become a problem. Not that great for productivity but.

This is an inspiring article for the DIY enthusiast in me.

I’ve found a simplified approach that works for me. For anything that I do, I use a timer (on the Watch, Kitchen Timer, etc.), as I don't want to use my brain to track time.

While I'm at my desk, I have a physical hourglass, and I like it. The hourglass helps me with a Pomodoro-ish technique without that hard and loud stop alarms. It reminds me of the passage of the sands of time but gives me the freedom to break or push a tad more to finish the task at hand. I love having a few types of mechanical Kitchen Timers lying around.

https://brajeshwar.com/2023/timer/

I decided to buy a HARA-chair instead. It's certainly more expensive than the glasses with water but I believe this chair is also better for my butt than just the water and still sitting in a regular chair between the get-ups.

Nice, I was already considering to get a pull-up bar, now I will think about adding a smart beeper to it... (with a camera detecting a face in the up position ??)

This is neat. Simple but smart.

I have been thinking of something similar: I'd like a wearable that haptic taps me once every 10 or 15 minutes. Then I would check with myself if I am doing something that's actually interesting to me or just idling away.

I keep considering smart watches but if the goal is to prevent me from wasting time those could be counter-productive. Also I am sick of having products that require their specific charging dock.

Also - keep your feet on the ground, or, if needed, on top of a box. Do not sit on your foot. Your back will appreciate your efforts.

Sounds a bit like that alarm clock on wheels.

https://clocky.com/

The only thing that was effective for my RSI — and was really effective — is an app that forces me to stop typing for 15 seconds every 4 minutes. Super irritating but it works. AntiRSI on a Mac, Workrave on Windows and Linux, are examples of ones I’ve used. Been doing this for 20-odd years at this point.

Stretching when I wake up, doing yoga and/or swimming and/or lifting has done a lot for me.

Time spent on it varies between 2h (very lazy week) and 10h (very active week).

I feel like this helped me prevent a lot of the symptoms described both in the writeup and comments.

> When I get focused on my work then I sit still for too long and my body starts hurting.

I wish I had this problem. Lately it is the opposite. I break focus every 20-30 minutes to go get a beverage, take a pee, tend to the dog, etc.

I bought a treadmill + standup desk 2.5 years ago, and to this day, it remains the best investment I've made to avoid sitting for most of the day.

Before I started using the treadmill desk, I averaged around 2.5-3k steps per day. On days when I exercised, it could go up to 8-10k steps, although I wasn't exercising regularly at that time. Now, 2.5 years later, I consistently reach 10k-12k steps on a bad day (about 2 hours of walking) and can go up to 18-24k steps on a good day (3-4 hours). Occasionally, I hit 30k steps, but that's quite rare, to be honest.

I was hesitant about the idea, but a friend who got one himself and shared his experience encouraged me to give it a try.

Pros:

- Feels more natural than just standing on the desk (after 20 min I get tired of standing still, whereas I can walk 2h without even realizing)

- I can work comfortably with the computer when typing, using the mouse (programming, writing... and even playing games), at speeds up to ~4.5km/h (~2.8 miles per hour). Beyond that the thoughts don't flow in the same way. Below this threshold I don't notice much difference in my work. I initially found 3 km/h (~1.8 mph) fast enough, but over time, 4 km/h (~2.5 mph) has become my sweet spot.

- You can enter a flow state just as easily as when seated (or at least that's my feeling)

Cons:

- Space: The treadmill takes up room, so I keep it next to my desk when not in use for convenience. Setting up the treadmill desk takes around 1 minute.

- Meetings: It felt awkward at first. Initially, I avoided attending meetings while walking, but I gradually started participating in 1:1s and eventually team meetings. Nowadays, I’m comfortable walking during most meetings, although I avoid it during large group or company-wide calls. My webcam is positioned to show only my shoulders and face, minimizing visible movement and reducing distractions for others during calls (probably the others won't care anyway).

- Limited Upper Body Movement: The upper body remains relatively still since my hands are usually on the keyboard or mouse. This limits overall activity compared to walking outside. However, when reading, my arms and hands move off the desk, mimicking the motion of walking, so it really depends.

- Noise: I live in a flat, and while the treadmill isn't very noisy, it could be bothersome if people are sleeping (whether in the next room or in the floor below). I avoid using it early in the morning or late in the evening.

My treadmill automatically beeps after 2 hours and shuts off for 30 minutes. It does force me to take a break (or even take a shower depending on the speed I was walking). After the break, I switch to a seated position. I typically have one walking session in the morning, and on some days, another in the afternoon. When it beeps and I'm in the zone I just move it aside and continue seated (sometimes I just continue standing still for some minutes), so it does not get in the way if you are focused.

Overall I think it is an improvement over staying still for most of the day (seated or standing), and also an improvement over forcing regular/spaced interruptions (I honestly tried several times, but it breaks my concentration and prevents me from going into the zone). Standing desk + treadmill: Totally worth the investment.

Neat! I’ve thought of trying something similar, but fear I might just unplug it for those sessions where I feel really locked in and don’t want to get up.

Brilliant! Now you just need to hook up a Switchbot or something to it so you can deactivate it remotely. Say, from your desktop.

with a Mac and iPhone, you can probably achieve the same thing without any additional hardware

Three words: pomo fucking doro

>... because it is situated away from my desk I must get up to silence it.

Yeah, that's probably what I need too. An elegant self-hack.

I think I'll try it with a kitchen timer instead, but I can certainly appreciate the ability to fine-tune it for self-annoyance only at the correct times.