20 Minute Timer
Press Start to count down 20 minutes.
This free 20 minute timer counts down 20 minutes with a shrinking red disc you can read at a glance. 20 minutes is 1,200 seconds (one thousand two hundred seconds). Twenty minutes is widely seen as the ideal power nap, and it is a popular length for exercise circuits, Pomodoro variants and checking a roast.
What a 20 minute timer is good for
Twenty minutes is the length sleep researchers most often recommend for a nap. It is long enough to rest properly but usually ends before the body slips into deep sleep, which is what causes that heavy, groggy feeling.
The power nap
Lie down, start the timer and allow a few minutes to drift off. The chime wakes you before deep sleep, so you get up feeling sharper.
A Pomodoro variant
Some people prefer twenty minutes of work with a five minute break instead of the classic 25. It suits younger students and tired days.
Checking a roast
Roasts are often checked or basted every twenty minutes. Restart the timer after each check.
Exercise circuits
A twenty minute circuit of body-weight moves is enough for a meaningful workout on a busy day.
The 20-20-20 rule
Opticians suggest looking at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes when using screens.
To pace yourself, glance at the disc rather than the numbers. With the 20 minute timer running, half the colour has gone after 10 minutes, and when only a quarter is left you have 5 minutes to wrap up. Open fullscreen if the timer needs to be read across a room, and add a label so everyone knows what the 20 minutes are for.
How to use the 20 minute timer
It is ready
The dial is already set to 20 minutes. To change it, drag the disc, tap a preset or open Custom.
Press Start
Or press the Space bar. The red disc shrinks back towards 12 o’clock as the time runs down.
Watch the disc
Read the time left at a glance, or open fullscreen for a big dial that fills the screen.
Time’s up
Your alarm plays until you press Stop. Press Reset or R to run the same time again.
20 minutes in other units
| Seconds | 1,200 |
|---|---|
| Minutes | 20 |
| Hours | 0.3333 |
| Fraction of a day | 1/72 |
Why use this timer
Why a visual timer helps
A shrinking disc turns time into something you can see. You read how much is left at a glance, without doing sums on a clock, and an invisible deadline feels less stressful when you can watch it approach. That is why visual timers are a staple in classrooms and are widely used by people with ADHD and autistic children and adults. Read our guide to using a visual timer, how it helps with ADHD time blindness, classroom transitions and autism.
Why this timer is accurate
The countdown is anchored to your device clock rather than counted in animation frames. It does not drift if you switch tabs or your screen sleeps: it keeps running in the background and still sounds the alarm on time. When you come back, the disc jumps straight to the correct position.