Free ADHD-friendly focus timer
Borrow a little focus without promising your whole afternoon.
Choose five, ten, fifteen, or twenty-five minutes. Decide on one visible action, start the timer, and let the stopping point make the commitment feel smaller.
Pick one visible action before you press start. Stopping when the timer ends still counts.
What this timer is for
A short timer can turn an open-ended demand into a bounded experiment. Instead of deciding whether you can finish, you only decide what you will do until the timer ends. That makes the session useful for starting a draft, clearing one surface, reading a few pages, or returning to a task after an interruption.
The timer is not a measure of effort or worth. There is no streak, score, or penalty for pausing. If five minutes is the honest amount of attention available today, five minutes is a valid choice.
A simple focus sequence
- Choose one action that can be seen, such as “write the heading” or “sort the papers on this chair.”
- Remove one obvious distraction if doing so takes less than a minute.
- Pick the shortest timer that feels believable.
- When time ends, stop, continue, or take a break on purpose.
Leaving a note for your future self can make returning easier. A sentence such as “next, compare the two prices” removes the need to reconstruct the whole task later.
Choose the length by friction, not ambition
Use five minutes when the main challenge is beginning. Ten or fifteen minutes can help with a small task that has a clear boundary. Twenty-five minutes may fit work that already has momentum. Choosing a longer timer does not make the session more successful.
If you are interrupted, pause and write down the next visible action before switching away. When you return, restart with a fresh time window rather than treating the interruption as a failure.
Make the environment do a little work
Put the needed document or object in view. Close only the tabs that compete with the next action. Keep water, headphones, or a notepad nearby if they reduce the chance of leaving the task. The best setup is the smallest change that makes returning easier.
This timer is general planning support. For broader information about ADHD and support options, see the National Institute of Mental Health ADHD overview.