I might have written about Workrave before but typing breaks are important to everyone so this tip is something you must have. You could set your keyboard typing breaks in Gnome by going to the Preferences menu and selecting Keyboard. One of the tabs under the Keyboard preferences is dedicated to typing breaks. There will be no fancy pop-ups for microbreaks but you will have this bar on your panel to help you see when you need a break. When it’s time, you should see the screen getting an overlay of gray and the number of minutes of your break. You could also postpone breaks as needed. Not everyone really checks on these preferences because during the time of installation, users already pick their preferred keyboard layout. I only found out about this because I’ve been looking at options with regards to changing my keyboard layout from QWERTY to Dvorak.

Simple? Yes. If you already know the hand, shoulder and neck exercises you need, you could opt to use this instead of Workrave.

For someone like me who has been experiencing RSI-like symptoms, I am worried that I might have difficulty working if I don’t do things that would help me. Aside from taking frequent breaks, doing some stretches during those breaks and getting a check up, I am also planning to learn how to type on a Dvorak keyboard layout.

On Ubuntu it is quite easy to switch keyboard layouts:
1. go to System > Preferences > Keyboard
2. select “Layouts”
3. select US-Dvorak

Well, that’s basically it unless you want to use something else.

As for things to help you learn the keyboard layout, there’s dvorak7min — but I honestly am not checking that out yet because I am still learning the layout using this online Dvorak tutorial. I would probably write about that a bit later.

Ubuntu tutorials actually has a post about the Dvorak keyboard layout and you might want to read some other comments so you have a better idea about things.

At the office, we are encouraged to install Workrave, an application that help us have typing breaks every so often. Microbreaks are important for us so that we won’t have RSI. Fortunately you could download the app for Linux. (Hooray!)

What I love about Workrave is that you could schedule your ten-minute breaks every hour or something. It depends on you. And during those ten-minute breaks, you are guided by the app as to what simple exercises you could do in order to rest your eyes or your muscles. I’ve been using Workrave but I guess my posture is still bad so my RSI-like symptoms are still present.

So, there you go. Have microbreaks, have ten-minute breaks and do some exercises every once in a while.