We have all been in the situation where we’ve been working for odd hours without a break. Suddenly you realize is that your throat is parched or your back hurts. The worst thing about such habitual patterns is that they can be difficult to break. Time and again it has been proven that taking short breaks in between work refuels the performance bar. So, if you are someone like me who often forgets to take breaks, here are five Chrome extensions that will remind you to do that.
1. Take a Break Reminder
Take a Break Reminder is a nifty little Chrome extension that does a pretty good job of reminding you to take a break. Also, there’s a slight twist to it. It also ‘reminds’ you when your break is over. It has a simple UI that is easy to set up. All you have to do is enable the extension and tap on Settings. Enter the work duration (in minutes) followed by the break time (in minutes) and hit save. Then you can continue with your work. The extension follows the system clock and rings the bell along with a notification at the bottom of the screen. The silly part about this extension is that you will have to start the timer again. That might be good if you have a low tolerance towards pop-up messages. Also, if the work at hand is important, you can either snooze the reminder or start the timer over. Download Take a Break Reminder
2. Water Reminder
Do you often forget to drink water during office hours? Water Reminder is a simple extension which does a pretty good job of prompting you to take a sip of water at a regular interval. Just enter the time in minutes, and the countdown will start automatically. The extension will only remind you from time to time with a little notification. No need to set timer manually in this one. It’s a reminder system in the strictest sense. On the bright side, there are a few customization settings like choosing the alarm tone, notification type, and more. Download Water Reminder
3. Stay Hydrated
Unlike Water Reminder, Stay Hydrated isn’t bare-bones. It has a rather cool UI and displays the time left until the next reminder. All you have to do is set the timer, choose the notification tone, and enter a custom notification message. It automatically starts when Chrome restarts so you don’t have to fiddle with it all over again. Download Stay Hydrated
4. Healthy Browsing
Healthy Browsing is the perfect combination of the above three extensions. It beautifully includes elements such as blinking and posture. And needless to say, you can set individual timings for all the four types of activities. There isn’t much in the settings window apart from the option to turn audio notifications on. The thing that I loved about Healthy Browsing is that it gives little messages along with the reminders, that bring a sense of personalization. Download Healthy Browsing
5. Calm
If you are someone, who utilizes their break time in mindlessly browsing through social media sites, Calm is the perfect extension for you. First of all, you shouldn’t be staring at the screen during your break time. But if you must, let Calm take over. The list of blocked websites is fully customizable, so is the exercise time. So when you accidentally open one of the blocked sites from the list, a giant bubble will take over the screen reminding you to breathe deeply. The extension also lets you continue to the Calm website for more mindfulness sessions, once you are done with the exercises. Download Calm
Old Habits Die Hard
Staring at screens all day long or staying hunched over your desk without utilizing breaks takes a toll both physically and mentally. That said, breaks do not necessarily mean that you’ll fall behind on your deadlines. In fact, it increases productivity and breaks the monotony among many other things. Besides, you should drink water in small amounts often to keep your body hydrated. That’s much better than chugging half a gallon whenever you get off your desk. On a lighter note, what do you do during your break time? I prefer to do a bunch of stretching exercises. Okay, you caught me!
