For a real break from your workstation there’s nothing like a good walk. Mini stretch breaks and microbreaks are great but you really need to get away from your desk completely a few times a day.

You have to get out of that static position your body has been in all day. Repetitive strain is a whole-body injury, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just your fingers that need a rest.

Make sure to get away from your desk for your whole lunch. If you bring in lunch then leave at least one item (crisps, banana, drink, whatever) and walk to the shops that are furthest away to buy it. Unless you’ve got somewhere really nice to walk, you have to give yourself a reason to walk. Without looking like an insane off-duty marching soldier, try to swing your arms as much as possible. If you always go for lunch with friends, they’ll probably be happy to join in, or just walk a little further every day.

Whatever you do, don’t lunch at your desk clicking through web sites. And don’t even think about playing computer games through lunch ever again.

Extra tip: Use the rest breaks on Workrave so that every time they come on, go and get a glass of water, obviously as far from your desk as possible.

Windows Accessibility is an option in control panel you never go near because you’re not disabled. Then one day you realise you are. If you’re on a PC, open the control panel and click on Accessibility Options. The option I find most useful is called Mousekeys.

Go to the mouse tab and turn on Mousekeys. What it does is turn your keypad into a mouse controller. So you can move your mouse with the arrows - but the main thing I really use it for is clicking the mouse with the number 5. Now and then you find yourself in a situation where you want to keep clicking the mouse without moving it, like a next button on a series of web pages. I’m sure you know that repetitive mouse clicking is really bad and key pressing is a lot easier, so this is where Mousekeys can be really useful.

Tip: Used in conjunction with a foot pedal you can click with your foot. More on that in another post.