I’m normally on a computer by 7 AM every day, and generally, I’m computing until at least 11 PM. Part of that time, about 4 hours or so, is set aside for managing this blog – developing and writing new articles; responding to comments, and so on. Somewhere in those hours, I take time for lunch and dinner.

But, in April of this year, I finally paid the price for all the mistakes I’ve made, over the years, while sitting at a computer keyboard. Mistakes, that taken one at a time, don’t seem that serious. But, an accumulation of these mistakes can be physically costly.

The personal price I paid for these accumulated errors was back pain so severe, that even morphine did little to reduce the agony, and I do mean agony. I fact, even though it’s been months now, I’m still in constant pain – though it’s manageable without medication.

My doctor’s advice?  Accept the pain and reduced ability as an ongoing fact of life, or consider surgery. Back surgery is the only real alternative I think, and I’ve scheduled it for early in the Fall.

You might wonder why I’m relating this story to you, and you might even be thinking – that will never happen to me. Oh no?

The type of mistakes that I made are the type of mistakes that virtually all computer users make, including:

Slouching, rather than sitting upright (This used to be my favorite position).

Barely moving.

Incorrect screen height, or positioning.

Poor keyboard placement.

NOT taking breaks away from the keyboard. (I was totally guilty of this one).

So, I’ve had to learn to implement certain strategies to manage this back pain while I’m on a computer. The most important one being – getting up out of my chair (a very good chair, by the way), and walking away from the computer at regular intervals.

To prompt me to do this I use Workrave, an open source (free), application that assists in the recovery and prevention of RSI – Repetitive Strain Injury. The program frequently alerts me to take micro-pauses, longer rest breaks, and restricts me to my daily computing limit – still a high limit mind you.

One of the more impressive features of this application is a set of onscreen exercises that you can use to help you heal injuries, or as in my case, prevent future injuries – I hope!

The following screen shots illustrate just two of the exercises.

Application setup goes relatively smoothly since the user interface is “follow the bouncing ball” simple.

While taking this screen capture, as you can see, I was prompted to take a micro- break as per my schedule. I postponed this break, by the way.

By using Workrave’s networking feature you give everyone on the network an opportunity to relax, or exercise on a scheduled basis. A neat feature, I thought.

If you want to prevent injury, or other unpleasant consequences from too much time on the computer, or you need a reminder to take a break for any reason, Workrave could be just the right tool to help you do this.

If you’re a Geek, then you REALLY need this tool. 🙂

System requirements: Windows or GNU/Linux.

Download at: Workrave

Additional resources:

Computer terminal work and the benefits of microbreaks

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