What it is
The Countdown Timer counts down from a time you set and alerts you when it reaches zero. It runs in the browser tab, with nothing to install.
How to use it
- Set the time, in hours, minutes and seconds.
- Start, and the countdown runs on screen.
- Pause or reset at any point.
- Hear the alert when it reaches zero.
Where a countdown earns its keep
The obvious one is cooking, and it is genuinely the most common: a timer on the laptop while your hands are busy.
The one that changes how people work is timeboxing. Setting 25 minutes for a task and starting a countdown does something a clock on the wall does not: it makes the end visible. The Pomodoro technique is the best-known version, 25 minutes of work and a 5 minute break, but the principle works with any interval you pick.
It also settles things that otherwise drift: the length of a talk, a turn in a board game, a timed exercise, a break in a class, or how long a meeting agenda item gets.
Keeping it accurate
Two practical notes.
Leave the tab visible if you can. Browsers slow down timers in background tabs to save battery, and while the final time stays correct, the on-screen count can update less smoothly.
Check the sound before you rely on it. Browsers block audio until you have interacted with the page, so press start once and confirm you can hear the alert before trusting it with something that matters.
Related: the stopwatch for counting up instead of down, and the metronome for keeping a beat.