14 DAY TRIAL // Sitting for prolonged periods of time comes with various health risks, such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even cancer. Time Out is a break reminder application that facilitates periodically taking some time off away from the computer.
Unfortunately, increasing the level of physical activity in your spare time cannot completely counteract the side effects of long work hours spent in a sitting position. At the same time, your vision might be affected if you keep looking at the screen for too long without pausing.
In both cases, short but frequent breaks can make a considerable difference. Getting up from the computer and moving around once in a while can help reduce the risk of muscle atrophy, while eye exercises help you preserve your visual acuity.
Define custom break schedules that match your working habits using a suite of flexible settings
Time Out comes with two break timers that run concomitantly and cover different aspects, even if the setup process is very similar. The normal breaks refer to the instances when you should get up from your desk.
In this case, the break takes longer, and the working periods can go up to two hours. As a user, you have complete control over the settings, but keep in mind that it is recommended to take a 5-minute break once every 50 minutes.
On the other hand, micro breaks are mostly intended to address your eyesight's resting needs or to remind you to change your posture. These pauses can last up to one minute, but in order to be effective, you must take them quite frequently: a 20-second break once every 20 minutes should do the trick.
For your convenience, Time Out can start up the timers automatically when you log in to your computer and can reset them if your Mac goes idle for a specific time period, so you won’t be prompted for a break when you just started working.
Postpone breaks to finish what you are working on, or disable this option to make sure you stick to the program
When the break period starts, Time Out places a “screen” on top of your desktop to stop you from interacting with other apps. The screen can be transparent or opaque, and can fade in and out gradually. The break slider bar and associated buttons are affected by the screen’s transparency level, so it will be challenging to use them if you make them invisible.
In the event that you are working on something important that cannot be delayed, Time Out enables you to add buttons for either postponing or skipping a break altogether. The bad news is that you will feel inclined to press that skip button ever too often, so limiting yourself to the postpone buttons is preferable if you find yourself skipping your time off.
In case you want to keep your eyes closed during the breaks, Time Out offers you the possibility to assign audio alerts. You can use the built-in sound collection, or you can employ your own MP3 files, but take into consideration that you will not be able to stop them once they are set off.
Furthermore, Time Out automatically detects all the applications installed on your Mac and adds them to the utility’s exclusion list. If you check the box associated with a certain application in the Exclusion panel, Time Out will automatically skip breaks if that app is frontmost.
Run scripts when you start or finish your breaks to automate repetitive tasks
Time Out comes with a set of predefined scripts, which offer you the option to change your Adium status, to play or pause your iTunes, or to speak the current time. In addition, Time Out can also launch any application, or run custom AppleScripts or Automator workflows.
On the Time Out website, you can find some additional scripts, but keep in mind that some of them are outdated and might not run on the latest OS X release.
However, you can easily write your own scripts and place them in the Time Out scripts folder: the utility will recognize and add them to the scripts drop-down menu after an app restart.
Given all these options, during your breaks you can watch videos suggesting either eye or stretching exercises, you can listen to energetic or relaxing songs, or have your Mac pausing your music or performing any other task.
The Good
In addition, Time Out allows you to postpone or skip breaks if what you are doing is extremely significant, but integrates the capability to force you to take breaks. This can be annoying if you are not accustomed to stopping what you are doing once in a while, but it is ultimately better for your health, even if you don’t like it at first.
Moreover, Time Out can run applications, AppleScript-based and Automator workflows, and eliminate repetitive tasks that you might want to perform before and after your breaks.
The Bad
Nonetheless, a major redesign is in the works: the developer offers users who have donated for the app’s development the possibility to test the new builds, which are currently in Alpha state.
The Truth
Even then, periodically stretching your muscles and resting or exercising your eyes can reverse the atrophy process and improve your working experience. Time Out has all it needs to fit the breaks around your schedule, and can even force you to rest by locking you out of your Mac, if you wish so.
