Expert's Rating
Pros
- Uses a cute feline mascot
- Short break reminders are unobtrusive
Cons
- Long break alerts can be frustrating
Our Verdict
Small utility EyeLeo reminds you to rest your eyes and take a break now and then.
Spending hours in front of a computer monitor can take its toll on your eyes and your posture. EyeLeo is a free utility that tries to help by providing gentle periodic reminders to exercise your eyes, or get up and move around.
Long breaks are five minutes long by default, and EyeLeo wants you to have one every hour. You can configure both the interval between breaks and their duration in the EyeLeo Settings dialog. During a long break, EyeLeo dims your entire screen, so there’s no way you could miss it. If you find yourself dismissing the long break reminder, you can switch on EyeLeo’s strict mode. In this mode, there is no way to dismiss the long break reminders: Your screen dims and you simply must get up and walk around (or sit and stare at your monitor counting down the minutes).
EyeLeo is a fun and simple way to remind yourself to rest your eyes every now and then. And if you don’t constantly dismiss the long break reminders, you may even find yourself getting up from the computer every now and then.
–Erez Zukerman