How to run several timers at once

Timing a meal, or anything else with more than one clock, without doing arithmetic in your head.

Why one timer is not enough

Every phone and search box has a countdown in it, and they nearly all have the same limitation: there is one of them. That is fine for boiling an egg and useless for cooking a meal, where four things go on at different times and come off at different times.

Running several named countdowns side by side turns that into a glance instead of arithmetic. The name is the important part — three anonymous clocks showing 12:04, 8:31 and 2:15 tell you nothing about which pan to look at.

Working backwards from when you want to eat

The way to time a meal is to start from the moment everything should be ready and count backwards for each item. Say you want to serve at seven o'clock:

• Roast, 40 minutes plus 10 minutes resting — goes in at 6:10
• Potatoes, 25 minutes — on at 6:25
• Beans, 8 minutes — on at 6:42
• Gravy, 5 minutes — started at 6:45, while the meat rests

Set each timer as you actually start that item, rather than setting them all at once. The countdowns then line up on their own, and the one at the top of the list is always the next thing that needs you.

Knowing how late you are

The detail that matters more than it sounds: when a timer here reaches zero it does not stop. It turns red and starts counting up, so it can tell you the beans went off four minutes ago rather than simply that they went off.

If you were out of the room this is the difference between a useful answer and a guess. Four minutes over on green beans is a nuisance; four minutes over on a soft-boiled egg is a hard-boiled egg. A timer that only rings and then shows zero has thrown away the one piece of information you needed.

Lengths you can type

The length box takes whatever comes naturally rather than forcing a particular format:

• 90 — a bare number is seconds
• 20 min — or 20m, 20 minutes
• 1:30 — a minute and a half; 1:00:00 is an hour
• 1h 15min and 2m30s — compounds work

If it cannot read what you typed it says so and leaves the box alone, rather than quietly turning it into a number you did not mean.

Beyond the kitchen

Anything with several clocks running at different rates: laundry cycles, a darkroom, brewing and steeping, parallel lab or workshop steps, board games with per-player time, medication spacing, parking meters, or keeping track of how long each of three things has been in the oven.

Timers in a browser tab, honestly

Two things are worth knowing about any web timer, including this one.

The countdown is reliable. Each timer stores the moment it will finish rather than a number being decremented, so background throttling — browsers cut timer callbacks to roughly one a minute in hidden tabs — cannot make it drift. Come back after any length of time and the reading is right, including when it is well past zero.

The alarm depends on the tab surviving. Alarms are scheduled on the browser's audio clock as soon as a timer starts, which is why they still sound while you are in another tab or another app. But if the tab is closed, or the browser discards it to reclaim memory, nothing can sound. When you open the page again the timer will correctly show as finished and say how long ago — but it will not have made a noise in the meantime. For something where missing the alarm actually matters, a kitchen timer or your phone's alarm is the right tool.

Frequently asked questions

How many timers can I run at once?

As many as you want. Each keeps its own name and length and they all count down together.

What happens when one finishes?

It sounds an alarm, the card turns red, and it starts counting up so you can see how long ago it went off. That is often the thing you actually need to know, and a timer that just shows zero has discarded it.

Do the timers survive closing the tab?

The timers themselves are saved on your device, so they are all there when you return, showing correctly as running or finished. But no alarm can sound while the tab is closed. If missing the alarm would be a problem, use a kitchen timer or your phone.

Will the alarm sound if I switch to another app?

If the tab is still open, yes. Alarms go on the browser's audio clock when the timer starts, and unlike JavaScript timers that clock is not throttled in background tabs. Your device must not be muted, and you must have pressed something on the page first, because browsers only allow sound after a deliberate action.

What can I type in the length box?

A bare number means seconds, so 90 is a minute and a half. It also accepts 20 min, 1:30, 1h 15min and 2m30s. Anything it cannot read is refused with a message rather than guessed at.

Is anything sent anywhere?

No. It runs entirely in your browser, there is no account, and your timers are stored on this device only.