One of the things that you seldom hear being discussed is the importance of taking breaks from typing and staring at your monitor to prevent overuse injuries (RSI) in your hands, arms and eyes. As a novice programmer I remember thinking it would never happen to me but eventually it did, and although it took a lot longer to happen than it took for most other people I know with RSI it did still happen. Possibly my use of natural/ergonomic keyboards for most of my professional life slowed down the process to some extent. In the end working eight or more hours a day typing and then going home and playing a game like World of Warcraft for hours which also involved lots of repetitive typing was my downfall as it gave my arms/hands no rest apart from when I was asleep.
To prevent me going home in the evening with sore hands I have a two part strategy: the first part is to use high quality ergonomic peripherals like my ergonomic keyboard, with footpedals (at home and work) and a trackball (at work) and graphics tablet (at home). The second part of my strategy is to use programs to monitor my time spent using my keyboard and mouse and to tell me when to take short micro breaks and longer rest breaks from typing or mousing to help give my muscles and tendons a rest.
The two programs I use for this are WorkRave (above screen shot) on my PC at work and Anti-RSI (right screen shot) on my iMac at home. I’d recommend these programs to anyone who is interested in preventing or recovering from RSI like symptoms. The programs are free and of a high quality with the rest periods and intervals fully customisable by the user: I tend to rest for 30 seconds every 3-5 minutes and break for 3 minutes every 30-45 minutes depending on how my hands are that day. Getting used to the micro breaks is the hardest challenge for me, as initially they feel like interruptions to my flow which was quite frustrating but now I try to think of them as a chance to pause and think about what I’m doing which is more constructive.
My eyesight has been spared by my habit of staring off into space when thinking: according to my optometrist the best way to give your eyes a break when working at a monitor for long periods is to stare off into the distance. So my eyesight is still perfect even if it has mostly been by a lucky habit, as I only found out about eye breaks when I got my eyes tested about two years ago. I also tend to avoid white as a background colour in my code editors as I find it is hard to focus on black text on white after a while so I tend to use light grey instead, I also find black on grey easier in low light environments.
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