Stretchly is an open-source tool which displays regular “take a break” reminders when you’re working on your PC, Linux system or Mac.

There are plenty of similar tools around, but stretchly has some unusual touches which help it stand out from the crowd.

Application size isn’t a strong point: 134MB, really?! But that’s what you get with Electron apps, and at least there’s no need to install anything: just unzip and go.

The program immediately minimises to your system tray and leaves you to work as usual. No bulky scheduling or setup dialog here.

After 10 minutes (by default) an overlay appears in the centre of your screen, with an idea for a 20-second “microbreak”. This might be a suggestion to focus your eyes on something distant, stand up and stretch your arms, any brief activity that takes your eyes off the screen.

stretchly encourages you to take “microbreaks” which take your eyes off the screen for a few seconds

This is a smart idea because it’s not only good health advice, but is for such a short period time that you’ll be able to do it, almost no matter how busy you are. And if you can’t, well, there’s a “skip” button on the default screen which allows you to carry on as normal.

After a couple of microbreaks you’re similarly prompted to take a longer break, maybe 5 or 10 minutes.

Stretchly does its best to be flexible. If you’ve just taken a “microbreak” of your own – gone to check the printer, or fetch a coffee – you don’t want the program displaying an alert 10 seconds after you’ve sat down. Fortunately, there’s an option to “skip to the next microbreak” (or break), which resets the program’s timer and keeps it in sync with what you’re really doing.

These timings can be reconfigured from a Settings dialog. You’re able to set the length of breaks and microbreaks, how frequently they should happen, whether you’re forced to have them or they can be skipped, and whether they’re enabled at all (you could have breaks only and ignore microbreaks, for instance).

Like every similar program, stretchly will be annoying occasionally. It’s inevitable: you’re busy and want to do something, the program is telling you to wait. Ideally you should accept that, but if you really can’t, stretchly can be paused for a period, or you can close it entirely and carry on as usual.

Stretchly is an open-source tool for Windows 7 and later, Linux and Mac.