Desk break timer

This desk break timer is a stretch reminder that runs in a browser tab. You choose how long to work and how long to break. When the work time is up, the tab switches to a short break and shows one exercise you can do on your chair, with the steps exactly as they appear in our app, then counts down the next round. There is nothing to install and no account.

How the desk break timer works

1. Choose a rhythm. The default is 30 minutes of work and a 2-minute break. The work interval can be 20 to 60 minutes and the break 1 to 10 minutes.
2. Press start. You can pause, take a break early, or push a break back by 5 minutes if you are on a call.
3. Take the break. The tab shows one seated exercise from the app: its steps, how long it runs in the app, and a link to its page where there is one. You can ask for another or skip the break.
4. Carry on. The next work interval starts by itself, or waits if you are still following the exercise.

With the exercises switched off, the break simply asks you to get up and move around, or at least stretch and change position, which is how the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) describes a useful break (HSE).

Where the default times come from

No trial has found the perfect break schedule, so the defaults follow the guidance and the few studies there are.

• Every 30 minutes. In a trial included in a Cochrane review, breaks of one to two minutes every half hour cut sitting at work by about 40 minutes a day compared with two 15-minute breaks, though it was one study with low-quality evidence (Shrestha et al., 2018). Cornell University’s ergonomics group says ergonomists have long recommended breaking up sitting with standing and moving, preferably for 1 to 2 minutes every 20 to 30 minutes (Cornell).
• 2 minutes. The top of that range, and long enough for every exercise the timer shows: in the app they run from 1 min 10 s to 1 min 58 s.
• No longer than an hour. HSE says there is no legal guidance on how long or how often breaks should be, but that short breaks often beat longer ones less often: “5 to 10 minutes every hour is better than 20 minutes every 2 hours” (HSE). The 60-and-5 preset follows that. Field trials by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) tested the same pattern: adding a 5-minute break to each hour that had none lowered discomfort and eye strain in 42 data-entry workers, without lowering their output (Galinsky et al., 2000).
• No shorter than 20 minutes. In a trial of keyboard workers, microbreaks reduced discomfort in all the body areas studied, particularly when they were taken every 20 minutes (McLean et al., 2001).

The limits also match the reminder software that has been tested: in a 2025 review of 18 trials, studies of computer prompts alone set breaks of 1 to 10 minutes, every 30 minutes up to every hour (Leppe-Zamora et al., 2025).

HSE also says that, ideally, you choose when to take breaks (HSE), and that you change activity before you get tired, rather than to recover (HSE INDG36). Hence the buttons to take a break early or push one back. The guide to microbreaks covers the evidence in more depth.

Which exercises the stretch reminder shows

The timer takes turns through ten exercises from the app that are all done sitting on a chair, with no equipment. The order moves around the body, so two neck exercises never come one after another:

• Neck Half Circles, from stretches for a stiff neck
• Seated Twist Using the Chair Back, from upper back stretches
• Forearm Stretch, from wrist stretches
• Trapezius Stretch, from neck stretches
• Cat - Cow on a chair, from desk stretches
• Humble Warrior, from shoulder stretches
• Levator Scapulae Stretch, from the levator scapulae stretch page
• Chair Pigeon, from hip stretches
• Rib Release
• Side Bends

It remembers where it got to, so tomorrow’s first break carries on from today’s last. You can narrow it to the neck and shoulders or the back, and switch off any exercise that doesn’t suit you.

Each exercise page has a “Who should be careful” section. If you have had a recent injury or operation, have osteoporosis or a hip replacement, or have pain that spreads into an arm or a leg, read it first and switch off any exercise it advises against. Move slowly, and stop if it hurts or you feel tingling or numbness.

Why one exercise and not a routine? In the 2007 NIOSH follow-up, workers asked to stretch during breaks did so in only 25% of their usual breaks and 39% of the extra ones (Galinsky et al., 2007). One exercise with its steps on screen is a smaller ask than a routine you have to remember, though no study has tested whether it gets done more often.

What happens when you switch to another tab

You will spend most of each interval in other tabs and apps, so the timer has three ways to reach you:

• The tab title changes, switching between “Break time” and “Stand up and stretch”.
• A soft chime, if the sound is on. Browsers only let a page play sound after you have interacted with it, so it is set up when you press start.
• A notification, only if you ask for one. The timer never asks for permission by itself; there is a button for it, and you can say no.

Browsers slow down timers in background tabs, so a break may start a second or so late. Closing or reloading the tab stops the timer, and so does your computer going to sleep. After a long gap, it starts a fresh interval rather than showing a break you have, in effect, already had. Your settings are saved in your browser, and the timer sends nothing anywhere.

Do stretch reminders and breaks help?

• Sitting less. Modestly. In the 2025 review, computer prompts cut sitting by about 12 minutes per workday and added about 1,000 steps. Effects on aches and pains leaned the right way but were not statistically significant (Leppe-Zamora et al., 2025).
• Comfort during the day. In the NIOSH trials, extra breaks meant less discomfort and eye strain, and in the follow-up with 51 workers, output held up despite 20 fewer minutes of work time (Galinsky et al., 2007).
• Preventing pain. Not shown. A Cochrane review of six small trials with 373 symptom-free workers, all at high risk of bias, found low-quality evidence that extra breaks may make no considerable difference to pain, discomfort or fatigue, and no clear difference between active and passive breaks (Luger et al., 2019).
• The stretching itself. The 2007 trial couldn’t judge it, because too few people stretched. For the wider evidence, see do stretches help neck pain from desk work? and is two minutes of exercise enough?

What the timer can’t do

It only counts minutes. It doesn’t know if you are in a meeting or already up and about.

It can’t make you take the break. HSE points out that break-monitoring software can remind people, but employers are still responsible for planning work so that breaks happen (HSE). If you organise this for a team, see our page for teams.

It isn’t a treatment. If your neck or back already hurts, neck pain from desk work and lower back pain from sitting explain when to see a doctor.

What to pair it with

Breaks work best at a desk that fits you: the workstation checklist lists what to change first. With a sit-stand desk, the standing desk schedule plans the sitting and standing, and this timer can cover the moving. To see how many hours of sitting a week adds up to, try the sitting time calculator.

For days when one exercise isn’t enough, Bavelu has desk routines of two to four minutes, designed and filmed by physiotherapists, with your AirPods’ motion sensor guiding each move.