ReStIe reminds users with Repetitive Stress Injury to take periodic breaks from typing and mousing. You specify the amount of time you want to work, and the amount of time you want Restie to make you rest. The program is initially set for 10 minutes of work, followed by 1 minute of rest.
Restie keeps track of how much time you are actively typing or using the mouse. After a total of 10 minutes of active work time have accumulated, Restie will put up Alerts which prevent you from working for the next minute. If, at any time, you do not do any typing or mousing for 1 minute, Restie will automatically reset its timer, allowing you to continue to work for another 10 minutes.
Restie is an improvement over programs like Coffee Break that simply set a timer. With Restie, if you only use the mouse or keyboard for a total of 4 minutes in a 10-minute interval, you will only accumulate 4 minutes of work time, and you will not be forced to take a break. This is ideal, for instance, when you are reading your email. You can change the values of MaxWORKMinutes and BREAKMinutes (using the "Open Restie" command in Frontier's Restie suite menu) to suit your needs.
Restie also keeps track of your total daily work time, in case you want to limit the amount of time you work each day. It keeps a workLog, which records the total work time for each day. It automatically updates this table at 4am every morning, but if you don't keep your computer running, you can use the "Update Log" command in the Restie suite menu.
To turn Restie On or Off, use the "Turn Restie On" and "Turn Restie Off" commands in the Restie menu. (To get the Restie menu, you must first select Restie from the Suites menu in Frontier.) Alternatively, double-click on the desktop scripts provided. I use QuicKeys to turn Restie on and off.
Restie is a Macintosh program that requires Frontier and the IdleTime extension that comes with Frontier.
Your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at cypher@pobox.com
Restie© Copyright 1997 by Allen Cypher
| Typing Injury FAQ | A good reference site with lots of relevant product information. | |
| MacBreakZ | MacBreakz is a commercial program for the Mac. It is similar to Restie in that it monitors how much time you actually spend typing or using the mouse. The biggest plus is that it doesn't require Frontier. As a slight minus, it has limitations on the timing of the work and break intervals. For instance, I prefer 30-second breaks every 5 minutes, and MacBreakZ doesn't allow this setting. |
back to ... Allen Cypher