I personally struggle with a few things while I work at home. I am unsure how much time I spend, which makes me underestimate the time and I feel guilty not working long enough, I fixate on the screen for too long which hurts my eyes and creates strains across my body, and I don’t drink enough, which is overall unhealthy. But in this brief post, I’ll go into a couple of applications which have helped improve my wellbeing, as well as some small asides.

toggl

For verification that I am indeed spending enough time working, I use toggl on its free plan to simply clock in and clock out when a work session begins and ends. I find it very validating to see what I have achieved at the end of the day as the counter increases on the menu bar, and don’t feel pressured to work longer than I need to - also knowing how much of the work “day” is left when I am starting to get tired and have an aim to get to!

I would prefer a local alternative, but struggled to find something free with the ease and tracking features of toggl.

Hyperfocus 2

I saw Hyperfocus 2 recommended on Reddit, with users saving the free version is enough for encouraging breaks to help with eye strain and moving around more, which were the two issues I was struggling with the most when I came to fixating on the work.

It’s quite a simple piece of software on its free tier. Every twenty minutes, the screen blocks out (with a skip button for emergencies), and instructs you to look somewhere twenty feet away for twenty seconds. Then, the screen returns to normal and the countdown in the menu bar is reset. After an hour, instead of being promoted to look away, you’re encouraged to take a five minute break, suggesting to stretch, get a drink or eat a healthy snack. Afterwards, the screen returns again with the countdown cycle reset for two more twenty second eye breaks and then another extended five minute break.

Hydration

It’s during the five minute break that I get up, pop the kettle on, put a herbal tea bag in a cup, and then let it all stew, ready to drink at around the first eye break in twenty or twenty-five minutes time.

I’ve not historically been much of a tea drinker, but after attempts, year after year, to drink more water have spectacularly failed as I simply cannot stand its bland taste, though worried about alternatives with the impact natural sugars in fruit juices might do to my teeth, I decided to give cheap herbal teas a go.

To my surprise, I took to it quite quickly, with the current selection in my rotation being:

• Peppermint
• Rooibos
• Chamomile

I would love to try more, though the only others my local supermarket sell are fruit based, and I’m not particularly fond of that idea. Regardless, I find that I am drinking much more than I used to - a cup an hour while working!

Movement

After I have the tea settled, I begin using my tablet to do a quick session of chair yoga, already preconfigured before I started working. I use DownDog for just £20 a year due to signing up years ago on a good sale, which also includes exercise and meditation. I like using it as I can fine tune and tweak the practice to suit my needs, and able to easily stop if I run out of time. By using its chair yoga setting, I don’t need to get to a mat, so have no excuses to not do a few stretches!

Conclusion

Overall, with these small changes, I’ve found myself more hydrated, more validated in my work, and that I move around more with less strain on my eyes and body after a day’s work sitting at the computer.