Stretchly is a cross-platform Electron app that reminds you to take breaks when working on your computer.

When you run Stretchly for the first time, you are presented with a Welcome window that allows you to change the language, review the settings, view the online tutorial or simply continue with the default settings.

Stretchly itself lives in your tray, only displaying a reminder window from time to time, which contains an idea for a break.

Stretchy definition: 1. Stretchy material stretches or can be stretched: 2. Stretchy material stretches or can be. Stretchly is a simple application that can help you manage your break schedule and provides the necessary motivation to get up and stretch your legs from time to time. Lightweight and unobtrusive.

By default, there is a 20 second Mini Break every 10 minutes and a 5 minute Long Break every 30 minutes (after 2 Mini Breaks).

You'll be notified 10 seconds before a Mini Break (and 30 seconds before a Long Break) so that you can prepare to pause your work.

When a break starts, you can postpone it once for 2 minutes (Mini Breaks) or 5 minutes (Long Breaks). Then, after a specific time interval passes, you can skip the break. Both actions are available by clicking on the link at the bottom of window or by using the Ctrl/Cmd + X keyboard shortcut.

Clicking the Stretchly icon in your tray area will display the current status of breaks, provide menu items with extra functionality, and link to the Preferences.

Stretchly is monitoring your idle time, so when you are idle for 5 minutes, breaks will be paused until you return.

Stretchly is also monitoring Do Not Disturb mode, so breaks are paused when DnD mode is On.

Stretchly follows the theme of your system and is also available in dark mode.

Stretchly Download

Stretchly is an open-source tool which reminds you to take regular breaks from your computer (Windows, Linux, Mac).

Like all Electron-based programs, Stretchly is huge (134MB). But you've probably got enough space for it somewhere, and at least it doesn't require installation: you can unzip it and go.

Stretchly is designed to be easy to use, so doesn't open with a bulky scheduling dialog. Instead it adds an icon to your system tray and leaves you to work as normal.

After 10 minutes (by default) the program displays a message 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, or you might get a thoughtful comment on the value of mindfulness.

After a couple of microbreaks you're 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 - grabbed a coffee, walked to the printer - you can tell the program to skip to the next microbreak. It'll restart its timer and you won't get an annoying alert 10 seconds after you've sat back down.

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).

If the program is still annoying, you can pause the break reminders for a period, or close the program and work as usual. (It's just a regular Windows application, there's no background Windows service or anything else to get in your way.)

What's new in 0.21.1 (see changelog for more)?

- Italian translations updated
- break window is shown on all Workspaces in macOS
- Improved readability of English text
- user can set volume for break sounds (set via Settings file or Contributor's settings)
- user can set time after which breaks are paused in Natural Break (set via Settings file or Contributor's settings)
- texts appearing on top of each other in Settings for Chinese

Stretch Reminder For Windows 10

Verdict:

We've seen plenty of similar applications, but Stretchly stands out in several ways. The idea of taking frequent, very short 'microbreaks' makes a lot of sense; it's good to see the program offer different suggestions for each one (not the same old alert screen); and stretchly manages to be very configurable without also being complex. Take a look.