I've been using Workrave for a few months and I find it very useful. But at times it creates stress.

The way it tells me to take a break is not very polite :) I'm doing some work, clicking and typing very fast, concentrated and suddenly... bang! The sound of "break time" shocks me, and half of my keystrokes and clicks get lost in the void. It's like being in the middle of a race and hitting a wall. Maybe I was doing some audio or video recording and I'm not even given a chance to click pause.

Something less abrupt would be nice, something that lets me slow down to a halt. I think this OS X commercial software does a great job on this topic: http://www.dejal.com/timeout/

What Timeout does is to fade the "take a rest" screen slowly on top of your other windows, maybe during 5 or 10 seconds. It feels like fog appearing. During this time you can still click and type. It's a very pleasant way to be notified. You can click pause, say BRB, or whatever you have to do before the pause. The same could happen with the sound. It would be nice to hear someone whispering 'take a break' instead of a gong-like sound :)

It hope it's not that much work to do a slow fade of the Workrave notification window, I don't know about letting clicks go through a window to windows behind it. Or is it somehow possible to apply some kind of effect directly on the whole display pixel data?

I also don't know if other users care about this. If it's so abrupt and I was in the middle of something, I often just click 'Skip', because I wasn't given the chance to properly stop what I was doing.

Thanks for reducing our health problems :)

(In reply to comment #0)

Hi,

I've been thinking about possible improvements lately, without much success. I too sometimes have the "hitting a wall" experience, but at the end of the day, I tend to blame myself for this, instead of workrave.

Point is that before showing the break window and blocking your input, there is in fact ample warning. A so-called "prelude window" appears for 30 seconds, and a sound is being played.

At this point, I have to admit that I have workrave sounds disabled. I don't want my entire office to know I'm having a break. But if I cared, I could use a headphone. Sometimes, I'm so focussed on my work that I don't see the prelude window appear. It is quite unobtrusive by design, such that the interference is minimized if I decide to continue to work. Because the "hitting a wall" experience is actually configurable. If, in your break configuration, you uncheck the "Maximum number of prompts" box, you'll never hit a wall again. After warning you to take a break for 30 seconds, the prelude window will disappear again and leave you alone. Drawback of this: You yourself have to stop working, Workrave won't force you. (then again, that's the whole idea in this configuration)

Lastly, if the gong sound disturbs you, you should check out the "sounds" tab in the "User interface" configuration. You can choose the "subtle" theme. Drawback is that it is, of course, more subtle, and hence you're more likely to miss it completely, resulting in an enhanced "hit the wall" experience. You could also configure your own sounds to be played, so if you feel like recording a "take a break" wav, you're very welcome to.

Ah I see! I had this "prelude window" switched off! That makes a big difference. I was being really kicked out without a warning, I guess I disabled it in my typical behavior of disabling everything I don't need :)

Then it's more matter of aesthetics than anything else. The free Mac program I linked in my report does it in a very beautiful way, but it's not as important as I thought. Thanks for your comment and tips!

So now I think I know why I deactivated the "prelude window" (PW).

I've had it activated for a week now.

Sometimes the PW turns from a :) face into a :( face, and so refuses to give me a break, even I stop typing and moving the mouse. After a few times (probably the "maximum number of prompts", the break actually starts, but the break window freezes at 4:58. The time does not go down. So I either click skip or postpone.

But this is a completely different issue. I will search for that bug.

(In reply to comment #1)
> (In reply to comment #0)
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've been thinking about possible improvements lately, without much success. I
> too sometimes have the "hitting a wall" experience, but at the end of the day,
> I tend to blame myself for this, instead of workrave.
> 
> Point is that before showing the break window and blocking your input, there is
> in fact ample warning. A so-called "prelude window" appears for 30 seconds, and
> a sound is being played.
> 
> At this point, I have to admit that I have workrave sounds disabled. I don't
> want my entire office to know I'm having a break. But if I cared, I could use a
> headphone. Sometimes, I'm so focussed on my work that I don't see the prelude
> window appear. It is quite unobtrusive by design, such that the interference is
> minimized if I decide to continue to work. Because the "hitting a wall"
> experience is actually configurable. If, in your break configuration, you
> uncheck the "Maximum number of prompts" box, you'll never hit a wall again.
> After warning you to take a break for 30 seconds, the prelude window will
> disappear again and leave you alone. Drawback of this: You yourself have to
> stop working, Workrave won't force you. (then again, that's the whole idea in
> this configuration)
> 
> Lastly, if the gong sound disturbs you, you should check out the "sounds" tab
> in the "User interface" configuration. You can choose the "subtle" theme.
> Drawback is that it is, of course, more subtle, and hence you're more likely to
> miss it completely, resulting in an enhanced "hit the wall" experience. You
> could also configure your own sounds to be played, so if you feel like
> recording a "take a break" wav, you're very welcome to.