Sitting for an extended length of time can result in serious health problems. We tend to sit for long periods in our office chair or in front of the TV without giving it a second thought. Research has shown that this can contribute to:
- Obesity;
- Increased blood pressure;
- High blood sugar;
- Excess body fat around the waist;
- Increasing the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Further to this, if you are sitting AND looking at a computer screen for extended periods (and many of us do!) then you are also risking eye strain. See more on that here.
For both situations, the 20-20 Rule is the recommended approach. After 20 minutes of sitting / looking at a screen: get up; move around; and, look at something at least 20 feet away.
To help you to implement the 20-20 strategy, I have developed a reminder program that you can run on a Windows computer (probably anything that runs on Windows XP to Windows 8):
- It's free;
- It's portable (does not require/ change the Windows registry).
- It runs in the background. The program can be accessed from the system tray.
- It's a 32 bit program meaning that it will run on both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows systems.
- You can choose the strength of the reminder from "Force" down to "Optional".
- It has an audible reminder (chimes) that can optionally be disabled.
- You can view the time left until the next reminder and you can reset it.
You can download the program below.
Once it is downloaded, execute the downloaded module and it will place the program into a folder on your system drive called "Programs" (you have the option to change this during the install). It will create an icon on your desktop that you can use to start the program.
Download it from here.