I'm using workrave 1.8.4 from portage on Gentoo Linux running in 64 bit mode. I've set the micro-break to 5:00 minutes. Whenever I stop moving my mouse or typing for a few seconds. The timer stops like it should. But when move the mouse or type again, the timer resets itself to the full 5:00 minutes. The effect is I only get a micro-break if I've been active for 5 consecutive minutes. If I'm reading webpages or doing anything else that doesn't require much input, I almost never get a micro-break. The Rest Break and daily limit don't have the same problem.

That sounds like a bug or something to do with the break duration. Did you change any other settings? If you have the timer set to 5 min and your break duration is like 5 seconds that won't work, because then the timer will reset after 5 seconds of inactivity.

You can also try disabling "Suspend timer when inactive"

Would you mind taking a screenshot of your Micro-Break preferences? Please attach it in your reply. 

(In reply to comment #1)
> That sounds like a bug or something to do with the break duration. Did you
> change any other settings? If you have the timer set to 5 min and your break
> duration is like 5 seconds that won't work, because then the timer will reset
> after 5 seconds of inactivity.
> 
> You can also try disabling "Suspend timer when inactive"
> 
> Would you mind taking a screenshot of your Micro-Break preferences? Please
> attach it in your reply. 
> 

I do have my micro break duration at 10 seconds, so maybe that's why the timer resets itself, because workrave thinks the 10 seconds of inactivity is equivalent to a micro break. However, this is the wrong behavior. Even though my keyboard and mouse are inactive, I am still staring at the screen for the ten seconds. That's not much of a break if vision is considered in addition to RSI.

Created attachment 89
My preferences window

As requested.

> However, this is the wrong behavior. Even though my keyboard and mouse 
> are inactive, I am still staring at the screen for the ten seconds.

Hi, thank you for your screenshot. "Suspend timer when inactive" is meant to be disabled in situations like the one you describe. Please disable "Suspend timer when inactive" (Micro-break).

Also, please make sure that "Show 'Postpone' and 'Skip' button" is enabled.
If you're using a recent nightly (1.8.5rc1) it is no longer necessary to keep Post/Skip enabled.