I saw a cool picture of an office that uses a Mac program called Timeout (the picture showed all the office computers with a ‘timeout’ at the same moment) and decided to give the program a try. I had used similar programs before and I said this about them:

There is a pro­gram for the Mac called RSI­Dock that forces these breaks, but I find the best method is just to remember to look away every once in a while.

Now Timeout is similar to RSIDock in that it forces you to take MicroBreaks and Timeouts at given intervals (you can set these). I though that it would be good to try this out, as I have a bad habit of staring at the screen for too long during the day.

Within the first day I used the program I realized that it was the most unproductive piece of software I had ever installed on my computer. Timeout interrupts you, breaking your concentration and more importantly breaking your flow. So stopping me every 15 minutes for 15 seconds means that I essentially can never achieve flow (you need about 25 minutes to achieve it).

Even turning off the micro breaks and just taking the Timeouts (default is 15minutes every hour) is a horrendous waste of time. If like me all your work is done on the computer, then you can’t do anything else for 15 minutes each hour. What a waste.

In short: don’t use these programs, just stand up and stretch every so often.

Related posts:

• Productive Breaks
• Quick Tip: Take Screen Breaks
• 90% of Meetings Waste Your Time
• 12 Reasons Why Meetings Waste Time
• ∞ See Just How Much Time You Waste With the Productivity Meter