Whether you’re into research, gaming, or online social networks, or you’re just an avid internet surfer it seems that all of us are increasing our ’screen time’ – spending more and more time behind the computer monitor. And you may agree that online interaction, virtual worlds and the great big www can be so captivating that its easy to lose track of the time and suddenly realise that its 1am and you haven’t moved your body for hours!

Even if your office job requires you to spend most of your time at your desk behind your computer, it can certainly take its toll on your fingers / neck / social life / marriage!!

The problem is you could end up way too tired everyday, or you could be experiencing RSI – Repetitive Strain Injury,  carpal tunnel syndrome, or myopia.

Time to keep it in balance (or bring it back into balance!) Enter: Workrave!

This ingenious little program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and also restricts you to your daily limit.

Workrave reminds you to take a break in an unobtrusive manner. When it is time for your break, a friendly small popup window appears asking you to take a break. This window automatically moves out of the way if you keep on working. If you ignore these hints too often, however, the program acts less friendly and pops up the break window for your own good.

The program is designed quite intuitively. It continuously monitors your keyboard and mouse activity. If you leave your computer running while you are at a meeting, Workrave will notice that you are taking a natural break from the computer.

Workrave is fully configurable, in many ways, and here are just a few of the functions you can control.

• the duration between micro breaks, and between micro breaks
• the duration of your breaks
• the duration of the postpone, or ’snooze’ functions
• the maximum amount of times you can postpone
• you daily limit of computer time
• display of status window
• signal sounds or silent mode
• the ability to block you form working further or not

You can read get all the finer details and download the program on the Workrave website.

Don’t panic though – you can override any of the features, and continue to work or play if you absolutely have to! Here is what the configuration window looks like…

And this is what one of the timing windows looks like…

…and when it’s time for your exercises, you will be guided through a routine with the aid of this window…

Workrave is free software. Not only does it come free of charge, but you are also free to make modifications to the program.

You can read more about Workrave here and you can download it free here.

Have fun…and remember: keep the balance!

Let’s say you’re in Sydney, Australia you wanted to set up a telephone or Skype meeting with me in say Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, you would have to pick a time, say 10am, and then mention whether it is 10am “your time” or 10am “my time”. If you decide it is 10am your time, you would have to calculate what the time will be for me in Atlanta and then communicate this to me. In order to do so, you’ll have to figure out what American time zone Atlanta falls under – U.S. Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific Standard times. Then you’d have to make sure that we’re not in daylight-saving part of the year, and what the correct time will be.

Nightmare, I know!

Now imagine you were setting up a conference call with 5 people from 5 different cities across the globe.

Mega-nightmare, I know.

Isn’t it high ‘time’ we started to use a new system of time? Something more universal perhaps.

Well, as I said, it exists, and I’m surprised more of the world isn’t using it yet. I’m talking about Swatch internet time. With this system, there in no need for time zone conversions – because Internet Time is the same everywhere!

Instead of dividing the day into 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, the Internet Time system divides the day into 1000 “beats”. And the distinctive aspect of Swatch Internet Time is its notation -  @248 would indicate a time 248 beats after midnight.

And off course the absolute genius and beauty of this time is: when it is @681 in Sydney Australia, it is exactly @681 in Atlanta, Georgia, and in fact @681 on every place on earth.

So if you’re setting up a virtual meeting with a friend in Rome,  Helsinki or Chennai, you can simply agree to meet at an “@ time”.

Problem solved!

Now there are certain logistic considerations when moving from our old system of time to this new system, and it will be best for a while to have both time systems displayed side by side. You will find a time converter on the swatch website here, or if you use a RSS reader like iGoogle, you can get a ‘gadget’ for it here,

I’m still on the lookout for software that can display swatch time on the task bar or in its own floating window, and for different ways to use and share this system. If you want to collaborate on how we can encourage more people to use this system, just leave a comment below, and I’ll get in touch.

If I take a while to reply, it’s because I generally check mail only between @375 and @750.

Whether you’re looking to experience powerful self-confidence, or get rid of your fear of public speaking, or lose a few inches from your waist, or maybe even if you want to be the next president of the United States! – here’s a technology that can aid you to get there.

Subliminal Power flashes unobtrusive messages (which you program yourself or choose from a pre-written list) onto your computer screen as you work — and literally starts to reprogram your mind so you can achieve whatever you want in life. You can even control for how many ‘milliseconds’ each message should flash. So while it is running, you probably won’t even notice the messages, or they are too quick for the conscious mind to comprehend…but your subconscious mind will still pick it up.

So the messages are sent directly to the impressionable subconscious mind, where they’re rapidly absorbed and used to create positive, lasting change. They bypass the critical conscious mind, which may filter out positive affirmations and thereby reduce the chances of success.

To provide a literal definition: Subliminal means “below the threshold of consciousness” – and sending subliminal messages means to send messages in a way that cannot be perceived consciously, only subconsciously. (Here’s an article with proof that it works)

Today, subliminal messaging is a popular method of self-development. Individuals have realized its ability to program their minds directly – and gurus such as Anthony Robbins, Tiger Woods and Darren Brown have done much to promote its effectiveness.

If you’re serious about your goals, you’re probably already using affirmations, motivational audios, journalling and visualization sequences. Now you can use one more powerful tool to bring your closer to achieving them – your own subconscious mind.

Click here to read more about Subliminal Power.