Routine: breaks and screen time

Routine looks after you on long days at the computer: short breaks for your eyes and back, water, meals, bedtime and a nudge to stop work, and your screen time for the day and the week.

Nothing about what you do is recorded. Sajilo only asks your computer how long ago the keyboard or mouse was used. It never sees which apps you use or what you type.

How it works#

Three rules explain every number on the Routine screen:

• Timers only run while you’re using the computer. “Every 20 min” means 20 minutes at the computer, not 20 minutes on the clock.
• Stepping away counts. Be away for a break’s length (20 seconds for your eyes, 2 minutes to stand up) and it counts as a break taken, card or no card. Away for 5 minutes or more and the timers start over.
• Breaks don’t interrupt. During a call, a fullscreen video or slides, or with Do Not Disturb on, breaks wait and come as soon as it’s over.

The Routine screen shows these rules once under How Routine works; click Got it to put them away.

Turn it on#

Open the Routine tab and click Turn on. You’ll get:

• Look away: every 20 minutes at the computer, look at something far away for 20 seconds;
• Stand up: every hour at the computer, walk for a couple of minutes;
• Water: a reminder if you haven’t logged any water in an hour.

Sajilo then asks When do you usually eat and sleep?: set times for breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime, or click Not now.

Click Show me an example to see a break card before turning anything on.

The Routine screen#

From the top:

• What’s next: the next break and how long until it, and the one after. When nothing is counting down it says why: paused, holding for a call, a day off. Pause stops reminders for 30 min, 1 hour or the rest of the day; Resume brings them back early.
• Water: tap the glass each time you drink; it adds 250 ml. The bar shows today’s litres against your goal. Undo takes back the last tap.
• While you work: look away, stand up, water and your own reminder (name anything, like Stretch your wrists). Each row says how often it comes. Click a row to change how often, how long the break lasts, your daily water goal in litres, or to see its card.
• At set times: breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime and Stop work, a single card at your stop time on your work days (shown on the row). Click a row to change its time.
• Today / This week: your screen time, breaks taken out of those you were reminded of, and your longest time without a break. Switch to This week for a bar per day, your daily average and the days you reached your water goal.

The break card#

A small card appears at the top of your screen (at the bottom on Windows), with a chime and, if you like, a funny line. It never takes over your keyboard.

• Done when you’ve taken the break. For eyes and standing a ring counts down, and the break counts as taken when it runs out.
• +250 ml on the water card logs water.
• Remind in 5 min puts it off for five more minutes at the computer.
• Skip dismisses it.

Drag the card anywhere; it opens there next time. If eyes and standing are both due, you get just the stand-up card, since standing rests your eyes too.

Routine settings#

Click Routine settings at the bottom of the Routine screen:

• Don’t interrupt me when: you’re in a call, an app is fullscreen, or Do Not Disturb is on. Each can be switched off.
• Days off: your work days, and what happens on days off and public holidays: Lighter (eye breaks, water and your own reminder, but no stand-up and no stop-work nudge), Same as work days, or No breaks (meals and bedtime still come).
• How reminders appear: a card or a system notification. This applies to all of Sajilo’s reminders, not only breaks.
• Funny lines and Play a soft chime.
• Turn off break reminders switches everything off, keeping your settings for next time.

Everything stays on your computer. Switching Routine off in Settings › Modules stops it measuring entirely.