FEATURED APP
Give Yourself a Break
Time Out - Break Reminders
You deserve a break
Sometimes you get so focused on work (or play) that before you know it, you’ve been sitting in front of your Mac in the same position for hours. Time Out helps guard against that by reminding you to take regular breaks—whether to get up and move or just clear your head.
Running discreetly in the background, Time Out keeps an eye on how long you’ve been working and prompts you to take periodic breathers. By default, it suggests taking “Micro” breaks every 15 minutes. These last only 15 seconds (just enough time to stand up, look away from the screen, and reorient yourself).
Once per hour, Time Out also nudges you to take a longer, 10-minute break—which gives you an opportunity to walk around, refill your drink, maybe stretch a bit. You can customize both the frequency and length (maybe you want only a five-minute hourly break), and if you decide to leave your desk on your own, Time Out is smart enough to recognize that and reset its break timer accordingly.
Because a suggestion to stop working is so easily ignored, Time Out gives you the option of having it obscure your screen temporarily—with a theme of your choice. And although there are buttons for postponing or skipping a break if you’re right in the middle of recording a brilliant idea, Time Out can also optionally lock you out of your Mac until your break is over. Call it tough love.
To add other types of reminders—like one to eat lunch before 2 p.m. each day—click the plus sign in Time Out’s settings menu. Here you’ll also find the app’s activity tracker, which shows a graphical summary of your app use and the breaks you’ve taken. Time Out can even run AppleScripts and Automator workflows at the beginning or end of any break; use this to play relaxing music during your rests and energizing music once you sit back down.
When you first start using Time Out, you may find it intrusive, even a little annoying. But you’ll soon appreciate the forced respites.