Toolkit Visual timer and focus cycles
Visual timer and focus cycles
See time as a shape that gets smaller, not only as numbers that change.
Everything you type or save here stays in this browser on this device. Neuro-Common does not receive it. Clearing your browser data removes it, so copy or print anything you want to keep. Back up or delete your saved tool data.
How to use it
- Choose One timer or Focus cycles.
- Pick a length. For one timer, tap a length or type your own number of minutes. For focus cycles, set your focus time, your break times, and how many rounds come before a long break.
- Press Start. The colored wedge is the time left. It shrinks as time passes.
- Optional: open Sound, numbers and heads-up to turn on a gentle warning before the end, hide the numbers, or keep your screen on.
- When time is up you will hear a soft chime. In focus cycles the tool then sets up your break, or your next round, and waits for you to press Start.
- Need longer? Press +1 minute at any time.
Good to know
- The 60-minute dial keeps every minute the same size, so 5 minutes always looks the same. The whole time makes the wedge fill the dial at the start of every timer, whatever its length. Timers longer than 60 minutes always use the whole time.
- Focus cycles are inspired by the Pomodoro Technique, created by Francesco Cirillo, which uses 25-minute focus intervals with short breaks. The starting lengths here are 25, 5 and 15 minutes. There is no single right length, so change them to suit your day.
- The timer counts real clock time, so it stays correct even if your browser slows this page down. The chime is scheduled on your device's audio clock, but a locked phone or a sleeping computer can still stop sound from playing. For something important, keep this page open with the screen on, and set a second alarm as a backup.
- If you hear nothing, check your device volume and silent mode, and check that Play a soft chime is on.
- Focus rounds finished today is only a count of finished focus timers. There are no streaks, no scores and no reminders about missed days.
- If you close this page while a timer is running, it picks up where it should be when you come back.
Where this comes from
- Focus cycles follow the idea of the Pomodoro Technique, created by Francesco Cirillo: pomodorotechnique.com
- The ADHD guide: executive function and daily life
More tools
Leave-on-time planner
Tell it when you need to be there. It works backward to show when to leave and when to start getting ready.
Get started: one small step
Name the task, shrink the first step until it feels easy, then do just that step with a timer.
Routine builder and picture chart
Build a routine with pictures or your own photos, tick it off each day, and print it as a large picture chart for a wall or fridge.
General support only. These tools are not medical, legal or diagnostic advice, and they do not replace professional help. If you are in crisis, go to Crisis help.