Productivity · 15 minutes
15 Minute Work Timer
A quarter-hour block for the piece of work you keep circling. Fifteen minutes is small enough that starting costs nothing and big enough to leave a real dent.
15 Minute Work Timer
15:00
Ready
- Ends at
- —
- Elapsed
- 00:00
Settings
Space start or pause · R reset · F full screen
Why a 15 minute work timer works
- Clear one item, not the whole list
- Short enough to beat the flinch
- Fits between two meetings
The quarter-hour suits the job you keep walking past. Its value is that refusing it looks unreasonable even to you, which is how the avoided task finally gets started.
How to spend the fifteen minutes
| Minute | What to do |
|---|---|
| 0-1 | Write the one sentence version of the task |
| 1-13 | Work only on that, nothing adjacent |
| 13-15 | Note the next action inside the document |
More 15 minute productivity timers
- 15 Minute Focus Timer
- 15 Minute Productivity Timer
- 15 Minute Task Timer
- 15 Minute Deep Work Timer
- 15 Minute Office Timer
- 15 Minute Break Timer
- 15 Minute Planning Timer
- 15 Minute Priority Timer
- 15 Minute Time Blocking Timer
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Questions people ask
Is 15 minutes long enough to get real work done?
For anything that needs writing, deciding or drafting, yes. Fifteen minutes is roughly the time it takes to reach a working state on a familiar task, which is why it is the standard length for the first block of the day.
What if I get interrupted?
Note where you were in four words and restart the block. A broken fifteen minutes is not worth salvaging, but the note means you lose seconds rather than minutes.
Do I need to plan anything before starting the 15 minute work timer?
Decide the single task first and say it out loud. A block that starts with 'what should I do' loses its first three minutes, which is a fifth of the session.
Does the 15 minute work timer work offline?
After your first visit, yes. The page is cached by your browser, so it opens and runs without a connection.