SoundBreak

SoundBreak is a tiny program designed to remind you to take a microbreak once every few minutes in order to rest your hands, fingers and eyes.

Even though the interface is quite dull and outdated, let us not forget that the program runs in the background and consumes very little resources. The UI consists of main window where you see the list of the sounds the app plays at random at the specified interval.

It is important to note that the collection of random sounds included is limited to 15 files and, if you do not select a sound, the program beeps you at the specified time.

Although you can add your own favorite sounds as reminders, keep in mind that the app supports WAV files only. It would be useful if it could support more audio file formats.

Installing and configuring the program is as simple as it gets and it implies specifying the intervals you want to be reminded to get up and move around a bit.

The recommended time interval is between 5 to 15 minutes and unfortunately, it is not always possible to take a break so often in the office environment. Nonetheless, the app enables you to set up pause reminders as often or as rare as you wish.

In spite of its simplicity and lack of options, SoundBreak only has one role, namely sleep in the background and remind you to get up from the desk at the time you specified.

While it may not sound like much, this can prove to be very useful if you suffered a recent finger strain or have the Carpal tunnel syndrome. Not only is typing painful in these cases, but you need to keep finger movement to a minimum to recover properly.

Even though touch typing is part of many professionals' responsibilities, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. In case you are at risk of developing the Carpal tunnel syndrome or suffer from repetitive strain injury, then SoundBreak can help you recover properly.