I love timers.  Something about knowing there is a finite number of minutes left appeals to my fickle inner child.  So, what can you do with a timer?

Fight procrastination: The procrastinators 10+2 hack from 43 Folders recommends setting your timer on a 10 + 2 round.  You work for 10 minutes, goof off for 2 minutes.

Boost productivity: Set the timer for a 15 or 30 minutes to focus on a task and commit to it completely till the timer goes off.  You’re only committing for 15 minutes.  Totally doable.  This also works a treat if you set it for 5 minutes to get kids to put away their toys or generally pick up their play area.

Interval training: Many exercise protocols are based around intervals.  One of the most effective is tabata, where you practically kill yourself in 30 second spurts followed by 10 seconds of rest.

My timer mashup: set timer for rounds of 30 + 2.  Work for 30 minutes, exercise for 2.  I use “exercise” in a very loose sense here.   It doesn’t really matter what kind of exercise you do, as long as you move.  If you work at a desk / computer for a living, taking these breaks is great for your eyes, your neck, and making you realize you just spent the last 30 minutes on Twitter.  You can then spend 2 minutes repenting by doing jumping jacks.

I use sweatshop as my timer.  It’s a freebie I found here – Windows only unfortunately.

Do you use a timer?