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Timer widget

A countdown on your desk. Set the minutes and seconds, start, pause or reset it, and hear beeps in the last minute and an alarm at zero.

All plansUpdated

The Timer is a single countdown that sits on a desk. Use it to give a task a fixed amount of time, to keep one part of a meeting to time, or to set yourself a short break. You set the minutes and seconds, press Start, and watch the ring around the time shrink and change colour as time runs down. Near the end it beeps, and at zero it sounds an alarm and shows Time's up.

Each Timer keeps its own time, so you can put more than one on a desk, for example one per item on an agenda.

More about this widget Coming soon

Before you start

  • The Timer is on every plan.
  • You need a desk open. The Add widget button and the quick-add key work only on an open desk.
  • The beeps and the alarm follow your sound settings. See Sounds and haptics Coming soon.

Add a Timer

  1. Open the desk you want the Timer on.
  2. Click Add widget in the centre of the header.
  3. Click Timer.

The Add widget menu groups widgets into columns by what they are for. Timer is in the Plan & track column, with Tasks, Calendar and Attention. You can also type timer in the search box at the top of the menu and press Enter to add it.

A new Timer is a small square (224 × 224) set to 10 minutes. It shows 10:00 inside a ring, the full time on a smaller line underneath, a min and a sec box for setting the time, and a Start button.

Faster ways to add one

  • Press I. On an open desk, click an empty part of the desk so that no widget is selected and you are not typing, then press I. A Timer appears straight away. The Add widget menu shows this key in grey beside Timer.
  • Use the command palette. Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows, type timer and choose Add Timer.
  • Start a desk from a template. When you create a desk, the Daily Focus and Weekly Plan templates under Start from a template each include a Timer already set to 25:00. See Create a desk.

Change the quick-add key

  1. Press ⌘ / on a Mac or Ctrl / on Windows to open Keyboard shortcuts.
  2. Under Canvas quick-add, click the key chip beside Add Timer.
  3. Press the letter you want to use instead.

Press Backspace instead of a letter to turn the Timer's key off, or Esc to leave it as it was. Reset to defaults puts every quick-add key back. See Add widgets with a single key.

Set the time

You can set the time whenever the Timer is stopped: when you first add it, and after you press Reset.

  1. Click the min box and type the minutes, from 0 to 999.
  2. Click the sec box and type the seconds, from 0 to 59.
  3. Press Enter, or click anywhere outside the box. The time inside the ring and the full time underneath change to match.

Start, pause and reset

  1. Click Start. The countdown begins and the button changes to Pause.
  2. Click Pause to stop the countdown where it is. The button changes to Resume.
  3. Click Resume to carry on from the same point.
  4. Click Reset at any time to stop the Timer and put the full time back. The time you set is kept, ready to start again.

When the time runs out, the Timer shows Time's up. Click Again to run the same length of time again from the start, or Reset to go back to a stopped Timer, where you can change the time.

Read the ring

The large number in the centre is the time left, in minutes and seconds. The smaller line underneath shows the full time you set.

The coloured ring is the time left: it starts as a full circle and shrinks as time passes. Its colour tells you how far through you are:

  • Green for the first half.
  • Yellow once half the time has gone.
  • Amber once three quarters of the time has gone.
  • Red for the last 10 seconds. The number turns red too, and the ring pulses.

At zero, the ring and the words Time's up stay red until you press Again or Reset.

Sounds

While the Timer is running, it beeps when there are 60, 30 and 10 seconds left, then once a second for each of the last five seconds. The beeps get higher in the last ten seconds. At zero it plays a short three-note alarm.

The sounds follow Settings > Advanced > Sounds. To get there, click the gear at the right end of the header, then the Advanced tab.

  • Sound effects turns all of PlexiDesk's sounds on or off, including the Timer's.
  • Volume sets how loud they are.
  • Quiet while widget active silences sounds while you are working inside a widget. If you are typing in another widget when the Timer reaches a beep, you will not hear it while this is on.

See Sounds and haptics Coming soon.

Leave the desk and come back

The countdown is saved with the widget, so time keeps passing when you go to another desk, switch to another app, or quit and reopen PlexiDesk. When you come back, the Timer shows the time that is really left. If the time ran out while you were away, it shows Time's up.

See it large

  1. Rest the pointer on the Timer so its title-bar buttons appear.
  2. Click Expand (the outward arrows).
  3. Choose Focus mode.

The Timer fills a pane on its own, with a larger ring and larger numbers. Start, Pause, Resume, Reset and Again work just as they do on the desk. Press Esc, or click the close button, to go back to the desk. See Open widgets full screen and side by side.

Choose Larger on desk instead to make the widget bigger where it is.

The title bar

The title bar's buttons appear when you rest the pointer on the Timer. The ones you are most likely to use with a Timer are:

  • Rename (the pencil), or double-click the name, to call the Timer after what you are timing, such as "Draft intro" or "Agenda item 2". Press Enter to save.
  • Pin (the pin) to keep the Timer in a corner of the screen while you move around the desk. Pick Top left, Top right, Bottom left or Bottom right. To put it back, click the pin again and choose Unpin — return to canvas.
  • Expand for Larger on desk or Focus mode.
  • × removes the Timer from the desk. PlexiDesk asks Remove from the desk? first.

Right-click the title bar for the menu that every widget shares. See The controls on every widget and Right-click menus.

The title bar starts with an AI button (the sparkle). The Timer has no AI of its own, so on a Timer this button opens the Plexii panel, where you can ask Plexii a question. See Use a widget's AI button.

Sharing

When you publish a live view of a desk, the Timer is shown on it. Visitors can see it but cannot start, pause or reset it. See Publish a live view of a desk.

The Timer holds only its time and whether it is running, so it has nothing to import or export.

Timers, focus sessions and the Home focus timer

The Timer widget is a plain countdown on a desk. It keeps counting whatever else you do, and it does not start a focus session.

  • To start a focus session on the desk, use Focus in the header. See Start a focus session Coming soon.
  • To start a short focus session from Home, use the Focus timer tile. See Focus timer widget.

Good uses

  • Time-box a task. Set 25:00 for a first draft, start it, and stop when the alarm sounds.
  • Keep a meeting to time. Add one Timer per agenda item and rename each one after its item.
  • Take a proper break. Set 5:00 or 10:00 before you step away, so you know when to come back.
  • Get started on something you have been avoiding. A short countdown, such as 2:00 or 5:00, makes a start feel small.
  • Pair it with your list. Keep a Timer beside a Tasks widget and give the task at the top of the list a fixed amount of time.

Common questions

Where did the minutes and seconds boxes go? They show only while the Timer is stopped. Click Reset, set the new time, then click Start.

I pressed I and nothing happened. The key works only on an open desk, when you are not typing and no widget is selected. Click an empty part of the desk and press I again. If you changed the key or turned it off, check it in Keyboard shortcuts (⌘ / on a Mac, Ctrl / on Windows).

I do not hear any beeps. Check Settings > Advanced > Sounds: Sound effects should be on, Volume above 0%, and Quiet while widget active off if you are often working in another widget while the Timer runs. Check your computer's own volume as well, and keep the Timer on screen, or pin it, while it runs.

Does the Timer keep going if I close PlexiDesk? Yes. The countdown is saved with the widget, so the time keeps passing. When you open the desk again, the Timer shows the time left, or Time's up if it has run out.

Can I run several Timers at once? Yes. Each Timer keeps its own time and settings.

Can people who view my live desk control the Timer? No. On a live view, the Timer is for display only.

Still need help? Contact support at [email protected].