(Tiny Tips) – Online Timers – It’s difficult to stay focused for long periods of time, and despite what you may have heard, there’s no easy way to change that. What you can do, however, is take breaks when it suits you best to make it easier to focus when you need to.
By taking regular breaks, you can stay refreshed and focused when you need it. This is where the timer comes into play.
The length of breaks you take and what works best for you will vary from person to person, but luckily there are many timer options for managing these breaks. Here are five of the best.
These 5 Free Online Timers Can Help Boost Your Productivity
Pomodor
If you are very familiar with the Pomodoro Technique, the name of your first website should make sense to you. If you’re new to the Pomodoro Technique, there’s no need to worry.
Despite the name, the technique is actually very simple. The Pomodoro Technique works by setting a timer for several different intervals.
The concentration phase lasted 25 minutes and ended with a five-minute rest period. After doing this four times, take a longer break to recharge. Typically this break lasts 20 minutes.
If this sounds a little confusing, don’t worry. Pomodor handles all timing elements for you. The website is clear and easy to understand.
When you’re ready to get to work, just press play and forget about it. Pomodor starts counting down your every word, letting you know how much time is left until your next break with just one glance.
There are many useful options here. You can choose the length of each focus time and pause, and you can enable dark mode if light mode is a bit too taxing for your eyes.
What’s really cool, though, is that Pomodor can track how you use it. After using Pomodor Timer a few times, you can see different statistics about how and how long you work based on your usage.
Custom Interval Timer
If you like the idea of setting a specific time limit to get work done, but don’t like the specific structure behind Pomodor, custom interval timers are another extraordinary solution.
Now, the original purpose of this timers seems to be for use during high-intensity interval training. Therefore, the duration of each section is calculated in seconds, which is not always ideal. Consider using a calculator to determine the required length.
Regardless, this is an incredible tool for creating timers based on your specific needs. If you like the idea of the Pomodoro Technique but prefer shorter segments, you can easily implement it using this tool.
The possibilities are endless and you can do more than just adjust the length of each section. You can name each interval so you know what to do, and even color-code each section so you can see it at a glance.
After creating your timer, you can bookmark the page to protect it and even send the link to others if you think your timers is worth sharing.
Timerdoro
Next on the list is Timerdoro. As you might have guessed, this timer web service is also inspired by the Pomodoro Technique, but with a unique twist.
The purpose of Timerdoro is to set up multiple complex timers that can run simultaneously. For example, let’s say you want to complete a four-hour project using the Pomodoro Technique.
With Timerdoro, you can set an auto-restart Pomodoro timer and then set a four-hour timer to tell you when to stop working. You can assign a different timer sound to each sound, making them more unique as well.
Using Timerdoro in this way only scratches the surface of its capabilities. Say you need to remind yourself to look away from the screen frequently to avoid eye strain, or to get up from your desk every hour for health reasons.
Timerdoro can use the Pomodoro Timer to run both timers simultaneously, each timer has a different color accent, and each timer has a unique notification sound.
If you want to run multiple timers simultaneously, Timordoro is your best choice.
KanbanFlow
If you’ve ever worked in an Agile or DevOp work environment, or simply care about your own productivity, you’re probably already familiar with Kanban.
If not, the premise is simple. Kanban is a framework for visually representing work items on a Kanban board. This means you can view the status of every part of your job at any time.
At its core, KanbanFlow is a Kanban board that allows you to create and organize tasks that need to be completed within a specified deadline.
But what makes KanbanFlow special is that it also includes built-in timers that can be assigned to any task. This gives you all the benefits of Kanban boards while working to a Pomodoro timer or your own customized schedule.
While the timer is running, you can select any task from the board. This allows KanbanFlow to track how long it takes you to complete each task.
Pomofocus
Finally we have Pomofocus. Pomofocus is a completely online and free Pomodoro timers. You can even download a desktop copy if you don’t want to run the timer through your browser.
Pomofocus works much like you would expect a Pomodoro timer, but it has a lot of cool features that make it worth using.
Pomofocus tracks your tasks as you use them day after day, allowing you to track your productivity, which complements the ability to log your completed tasks as you complete them.
The site also offers color transitions for different stages of focus and rest, as well as audio notifications to ensure you stay on track.
Timers Are Just One Tool to Manage Your Productivity
Hopefully this list of productivity timers will help you think about your productivity differently. Focusing isn’t as difficult as it sometimes seems, and a productivity timer can help change the way you think about your work.
However, they are just a tool. Like a hammer against a screw, a productivity timer is just one of the many options available to you. They are suitable for some tasks but not others.