Your fingers travel a mile when you type on a keyboard every day. But that does nothing for your health when you barely leave your desk. A desk job can be deadly for your long-term health.
If you're someone (like me) whose job involves sitting in front of a computer all day, you need a solution. Fortunately, there are some extensions for Google Chrome that can help you be more mindful of your health while you work. Here are eleven of them..
Fresh Air is a Chrome extension that simply reminds you to breathe every time you open a new tab. Replaces your existing New Tab page with just an empty circle. The circle begins to fill as soon as you open a new tab and guides you to gradually inhale, hold for a few seconds, and gently release.
Fresh Air also allows you to customize these individual periods, but I've personally found the default settings quite relaxing. You can even change the background to a different color if you don't like the minimalistic white it comes preloaded with.
Download: Fresh air (free)
In a way, calmness is similar to fresh air in that it is designed around the science of taking long breaths to distract and relax. Top 10 Relaxing Apps to Relax, Clear and Clear the Mind Clear Your Mind Life can sometimes overwhelm you with stress and anxiety. That's when these calming apps can help you de-stress and clear your mind. Read more . Except, in this case, you're doing it before heading to addictive websites like YouTube or Facebook.
Here's how it works:You add the services you think will make you procrastinate the most, like Instagram, to Calm's blacklist. Once that's done, when you're about to cast any of them, Calm will present you with a little breathing exercise that will make you reconsider your decision and get back to work.
Additionally, Calm also offers options to play nature or meditative sounds instead of pounding. “Continue” and you will be on your way to the blacklist website.
Download: Calm down (Free)
Sitting in a chair for long periods of time can lead to stiff tension points and muscle pain. The easy way out is to do quick exercises at your desk from time to time. How? Install an extension called DeskAthelete.
DeskAthelete lets you learn 30-second exercises for various body parts like your neck, many of which you can do without even getting up.
When you feel like stretching, just click the extension icon on the omnibar and it will show you instructions along with a video tutorial of an exercise you can do.
Download: DeskAthelete (Free)
PostureMinder is another free extension that will help you get a little healthier while sitting in a chair. As its name implies, PostureMinder will periodically push you to fix your posture. This 3 minute exercise will really fix your posture. This 3 minute exercise will really fix your posture. Exercise will change your mind. Read More
Additionally, you can also enable reminders that will ask you to get up and walk around for a few minutes. If you are someone who suffers from back pain constantly, this is definitely a must have.
Download: PostureMinder (Free)
Water Reminder is a small Chrome extension that can have a significant impact on your well-being. As you might expect, it's essentially a basic water reminder tool. You can set the time interval between notifications and choose whether it should have a sound in addition to a normal alert.
Download: Water reminder (free)
Stretch Reminder, as you'd probably guess, reminds you to get up and stretch every few minutes. The extension displays a notification based on the defined duration. Like other extensions on this list, you can also customize the time periods, including what hours it should be active between.
Download: Stretch Reminder (Free)
This extension is for users who want reminders for all the activities mentioned and some more. Healthy Browsing can send you notifications for four things:Water, Flicker, Posture, and Stretch. Of course, you can change the deadlines for each of these and set them according to your preferences.
Download: Healthy browsing (free)
It's no secret that your eyesight is one of the most affected parts of your body when you stare at a screen for hours on end. A Chrome extension called Screen Shader makes the impact slightly less severe.
Screen Shader changes your browser's color tones to more comfortable gradients to reduce the impact of blue light, which in turn reduces eye strain and allows you to sleep better at night.
The science of blue light filters is the same as in the popular F.lux and Night Shift apps. While the extension can automatically set the temperatures based on your whereabouts, you can go ahead and modify them manually as well. You can even select the primary color if you find the default color a bit harsh.
Download: Screen Shader (Free)
While Screen Shader will certainly lessen the impact of blue light, it still won't be as effective as a dark theme at night. Dark Reader, a free Chrome extension brings a dark theme to all websites without cluttering the graphics.
Dark Reader also allows you to edit various individual settings like brightness, contrast, and even whitelist websites where the extension should not be activated.
Download: Dark Reader (Free)
Tabtics, unlike others, won't notify you or push you to be more active while you work. Instead, it displays various health tips and new tab suggestions in a modern, minimal interface. Plus, the extension shows the time and weather and can even sync with your Fitbit if you have one.
Download: Tabtics (Free)
Marinara is a simple Pomodoro extension that you can customize to your liking. Pomodoro, for the uninitiated, is an approach to time management in which work is broken down into short sessions separated by mini and long breaks.
It's a smart time management technique that has proven successful for many, including me. Marinara, in addition to serving as a timer, also produces your stats so you can see how you've performed in the past.
Download: Marinara (Free)
While these extensions may seem trivial, they can easily help you live a healthier desk job with simple pushes to stretch, drink water, and more throughout the day. All of them are also free, so you should definitely give them a whirl if you haven't already.
Good health starts with awareness and you can always turn to the web and focus on your own health and fitness 5 Remarkable Websites To Help You Understand Your Health And Fitness 5 Remarkable Websites To Help You Understand Your Health And Fitness And how do exercise and nutrition affect it? These five quality websites will help you reach your fitness goals with education. Read more.
