Timer: a free, visual focus timer for ADHD

A focus timer that measures one thing: how long you can hold your attention before something breaks it. Here is what each part does, in about five minutes. The guide has the rest, with the reasons behind each choice.

Runs, not hours

Most timers count hours, which rewards being near a desk. This one counts runs: the unbroken stretch between pressing Start focus and your attention going somewhere else. Four honest 20-minute runs say more than an afternoon with a tab open. Your average run, shown on the chart each day, is the number to watch, because it is the one that grows with practice.

You use it in three moves. Pick a length under the clock: 15, 25, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, or Custom. Press Start focus. Then press one button the moment your focus breaks. Not sure where to start? 25 minutes is fine, and a short run you finish beats a long one you don’t.

The disc

Beside the clock, a disc shows the time left as a wedge that shrinks towards zero at the top. It is grey while you choose a length, blue while you focus and orange on a break. Digits say how long; the wedge shows how much, at a glance, which helps when time feels slippery. The face is fixed at 60 minutes, so 25 minutes is always the same size of wedge; longer runs use a 120-minute face, and over two hours the disc stays full until two hours are left. With Stopwatch it fills instead, clockwise, once an hour. The idea comes from the Time Timer, made in 1994 by Jan Rogers for her daughter, who has ADHD.

While a run is going, the timer takes the whole screen and everything else waits one scroll away. Switching to your notes or another tab is fine: the clock keeps counting. Closing the page does not stop a run either. Open the timer again and it picks up where it is. If the page stays closed, a stopwatch stops when it would next have asked if you are still there.

When your mind wanders

The moment your attention goes, to a message, a coffee or a rabbit hole, press I got distracted, or the Space or D key. The clock stops and that stretch is logged. Nothing counts again until you press Start focus, so the minutes spent making a coffee are never counted as focus.

A distraction is a measurement, not a failure. It is what the timer is here to measure: how long your focus lasts before something breaks it. That is why its sound is a soft tick, never a buzzer. After three short stretches in a row, the timer offers a shorter length, because the target is wrong, not you.

How the clock runs

At zero the run ends with a short chime: a full run, added to your record. If it is going well near the end, press +5 minutes to add five more to this run, so a good stretch is not cut short. Or choose Overflow in Settings → Timer → How the clock runs: the clock keeps going past zero as one run, so you are not pulled out when you are deep in something, and it asks every 15 minutes if you are still there. Or choose Stopwatch there: no length at all, the clock counts up from zero until you stop it, and asks every 30 minutes if you are still there. End session stops the clock early and keeps what you did. Stretches under five seconds are not recorded, so a press by mistake leaves no trace.

Your record

In the full layout, the record under the timer shows one bar for each day. Its height is that day’s average run, and its colour is how even your runs were: darker is more even. An orange tick marks your longest run, and a dotted line shows the total you focused. A smaller week shows in grey, never red. To see the timer alone, choose Settings → What’s on screen → Layout → Simple.

Breaks

With the clock stopped, press 5m, 10m or 15m beside Break. The disc turns orange and counts the break down, and nothing counts as focus. When it ends, an alarm plays in four short bursts, loud enough to hear from the next room, so you can leave the desk. Any key stops it. Back sooner? Press I’m back. Breaks are kept apart from focus and never added to it.

The to-do list

In the full layout, a to-do list sits under the timer. Type a task and press Enter: a name is all it needs. Put two or three things in My Day, which starts empty each day, tap one above Start focus, and the time you spend adds up on it. While a run is going you see only that task and its next step. Nothing turns red and nothing is ever overdue, and Let it go closes a task you have decided not to do.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Space starts a run, or logs a distraction while one is going.
• D logs a distraction.
• N adds a task, or parks a thought for later while a run is going.
• Ctrl+S exports your data.
• Any key silences the break alarm.

Shortcuts do nothing while you are typing in a box. If one gets pressed by mistake, turn them off under Settings → Timer → Keyboard shortcuts; every button still works.

Your data

No sign-up needed: without an account your runs stay in this browser, and a free account keeps them on every device. The privacy page lists everything kept, and for how long. An account follows the Terms of use: plain rules, with a short version at the top.

Read the full guide, or the essays on focus and study.