It's easy to sit down at 9am and not stand up again until lunch, especially during focused work. Nothing forces a break — no natural stopping point arrives on its own — so hours pass, your back stiffens, your eyes dry out from staring at a screen, and you only notice once the discomfort is already there. A recurring reminder to simply stand up and look away from the screen for a minute heads that off before it accumulates.
Health guidance around screen time consistently recommends short breaks every 20 to 60 minutes, but almost nobody keeps a manual eye on the clock closely enough to actually follow that on their own.
Why this needs a timer, not willpower
Relying on remembering to take breaks doesn't work once you're absorbed in a task — that's precisely the state where you're least aware of time passing. What's needed is an external, low-effort trigger that interrupts you at a set interval without requiring you to remember anything yourself.
The fix: Tickpull
Tickpull makes it fast enough to restart a break timer every single time you sit back down. Drag to 45 minutes, release, and get back to work. When it ends, a haptic tap and notification cue you to stand, and restarting for the next stretch is one more drag.
The 20-20-20 rule for eye strain
Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Set a short repeating cycle and let the ring cue you without needing to remember on your own.
Standing and stretching breaks
A 45- or 60-minute work-block timer followed by a brief stand-and-stretch break keeps stiffness from building up across a full workday at a desk.
Posture check-ins
A gentle every-30-minutes nudge to check your posture and reset how you're sitting is enough to catch the slouch that creeps in during deep focus.