radialtimers.com
Five minutes away from the screen, with a clear start and a clear end. Set it going, stand up, stretch or refill the water, and the double chime calls you back; until then it makes no sound at all.
Untimed breaks have a way of lasting until something interrupts them. A timed one has a start and an end that were decided while you were still clear-headed, which is why five minutes with a chime is easier to take and easier to come back from. This page is that break: silent for five minutes, a ring going every 15 seconds if you glance at it, a double chime that calls you back from wherever you went.
Everything on the list ends when the chime goes. Nothing on the list involves a feed, a game, or a thread, because those do not.
The break is half of a rhythm. Some people prefer running the work and the rest as separate dials: a 25 minute timer for the work, then this page, then the work again, which gives you a deliberate moment of choosing to continue. If you would rather the rest start on its own, the pomodoro timer chains four rounds with these five minute gaps, and the 50/10 version doubles both halves.
Long screen sessions go better with short, frequent rests than with one long one. A common pattern is a few minutes away every half hour or so; run a 30 minute timer in the background and use this page when it chimes. Looking far away and moving the neck is most of the benefit.
Taking the break at the desk, on the same screen, in the same chair: the body has not noticed a break happened. Turning five minutes into "just until the end of this video". Skipping the break when work is going well, and then hitting the wall an hour later with no break in sight. And taking a rest as a reward only, rather than as part of the plan; the point of scheduling it is that you take it whether the last block went well or not.
After several rounds, a longer rest of 15 to 30 minutes is the standard advice, and a walk or a meal fits that better than a screen. For lunch, the 45 minute timer keeps the afternoon from starting late. More on the rhythm of work and rest in focus sprints and deep work.
An open-ended break tends to swallow the half hour after it. Five minutes with a clear end makes standing up easy and coming back automatic.
No. The countdown follows the clock in a background tab, so leave the desk entirely; the chime still calls you back.
Add it as a browser source in OBS; the background stays transparent. Change t for any length.
A radial timer is a free online countdown timer you set in one click: pick a length, press Start, and an alarm sounds at zero. Run several timers at once, take one fullscreen, or pop one out picture-in-picture to float over other apps. Every timer keeps counting in a background tab, and any timer exports as a video. No download, no sign-up.
Its dial draws the countdown as 20 concentric rings, one for each twentieth of the duration. Rings empty one by one, outermost first, so a glance shows how far along you are without reading a digit.
Yes. The countdown follows the clock, so it stays on time while you work in another tab and still chimes at zero. The picture-in-picture popout keeps a small dial in view the whole way.
Yes. Any timer exports as an MP4 or a transparent WebM of the whole countdown, up to 4K and 60 fps, in 16:9, vertical, or square.
Yes. In OBS, add a browser source pointing at radialtimers.com/overlay?t=25m and a transparent dial counts down over your scene. Change t for any length, like 90s or 3h.
As many as you need. Each timer gets its own dial and runs on its own, which suits interval workouts, several dishes on the stove, or a room of activity stations.