A quick look on Workrave

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). It will alert the user to take a micro-pause, a rest break and prevent him from using the PC more than the daily limit set. During the micro-pauses, the user will be able to take a snack, walk a little bit … and rest eventually!
During the rest break which is takes normally around 10 minutes, the user will have a physical exercise session. In this session, the user will have exercices for the eyes, shoulders, arms …etc.
This program is free and available for Microsoft Windows and for Linux. It provides also a status information in the taskbar,  sound alerts, along with statistics. Workrave will freeze your window when the time for a micro-pause or a rest break come. You won’t be able to shut it down, not even lauching any other application, the only way to bring it down is to close the process in Microsoft Windows (Ctrl + Alt + Del  > End Process). Yep, you might get angry about this new work process, but think twice, you’ll find you’re productivity raising up again. You can also postpone a micro-pause or a rest break according to the number of attemps set, giving you some time to finish up your work or save any document.
There’s an alternative software called Workpace. It supports the same functions except the applet that provide you the alerts in the taskbar. Well, it’s a commercial software (39$) and I haven’t personaly used this product but I still recommend Workrave as a free/open-source software.
Download Link :
Workrave : http://www.workrave.org/

Workpace : http://www.workpace.com/