10 Minute Timer

The page loads with 10 in the Minutes box and 0 everywhere else, which is 600 seconds. If that is the length you need, there is nothing to set up.

1. Check that Hours shows 0, Minutes shows 10 and Seconds shows 0. Change them if your task is a little shorter or longer, for example 9 minutes 30 seconds.
2. Type a Label (optional) such as Kitchen or Draft. It appears above the digits and again in the message at zero.
3. Leave Play a sound when time is up ticked for the alarm, or untick it for a silent countdown in a library or an open office.
4. Press Start. The digits count down from 10:00, and the same figure appears in the tab title, so you can work in another window and still see it.
5. Use Pause and Resume if you are interrupted, Reset to go back to the full time, and Full screen to show a large clock.

Space starts and pauses, and R resets while the timer is stopped, provided the cursor is not inside a text box.

Ten minutes is long enough to finish a small job and short enough to begin without much deliberation. That makes it a popular length for time-boxing: you decide in advance that the task gets exactly this much attention, and the alarm ends any debate about when to stop.

A tidy-up is the usual example. Suppose an evening reset has five areas, each given one round:

The whole routine takes 50 minutes, but you only ever commit to the next ten. When an alarm sounds, press Space and the timer starts again from the full 10:00.

Writing sprints follow the same logic. A typist who keeps 40 words per minute going without a pause would produce 400 words in ten minutes, and a more realistic 25 words per minute for a first draft gives about 250. Paste the result into the word counter for the true figure, or measure your speed first with the typing speed test.

Meetings can use it too. A stand-up with six people has 600 seconds to share, which is 100 seconds each. Many teams allow 90 seconds per person and keep the last minute spare for questions.

The progress bar doubles as a quick gauge. Each minute is 10 percent of its width, so when it is about 70 percent full you have roughly three minutes left. That is enough warning to finish a sentence or put the last plate away before the alarm sounds.

The countdown rings once and then stops. It does not repeat, and you cannot run two timers side by side or save one for later. If you want the cycle of work and rest to continue on its own, the Pomodoro timer chains focus sessions and breaks for you.

• Page must stay open. Closing the tab ends the count, and a phone that locks its screen may pause the page and silence the alarm. For anything important, set a second alarm on the phone itself.
• Shorter or longer. If ten minutes feels too long for a first step, try the 5 minute timer. If the job needs more room, the 15 minute timer is the next step up.
• Timing a task you have not done before. Run the online stopwatch once to learn how long it really takes, then set the countdown to match.

Behind the scenes the clock is compared with your device time instead of counting ticks, so a tab that the browser slows down while hidden still shows the right time when you return. The alarm itself can sound a little late in that situation, so keep the tab visible when the exact moment matters.

Give each round a label before you press Start, such as Round 2 or Bathroom. The label is shown above the digits and again in the message when time is up, which makes it easy to see which round just finished if you glance over from across the room.