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Speech timer

Five minutes for a conference slot, a wedding toast, or debate prep. Each ring is 15 seconds, so mid-sentence you can catch the time draining at the edge of your vision instead of reading digits.

Five minutes at the lectern

Five minutes is a common slot: the lightning talk at a meetup, the wedding toast that people will thank you for keeping short, the prepared speech in many club and school formats, the pitch round where the next founder is waiting. It is also short enough that a single overrun is obvious to everyone in the room. The dial on this page is silent, sheds a ring every 15 seconds, and only chimes at zero, so it works both for rehearsal and as a speaker clock the audience can see.

A rehearsal method that works

  1. Run it once without stopping and note the time left on the dial when you finish. Rings are easier to remember than digits: "four rings over" is 60 seconds to cut.
  2. Cut or add until three consecutive runs end with one or two rings still standing. That margin absorbs the pauses a live audience adds.
  3. Mark your landmarks. At 5 minutes, the halfway point is 10 rings; the close should begin around 4 rings, which is one minute out.
  4. On the day, start the timer as you say your first word, not as you walk up.

Landmarks for other slots

SlotTimerEach ringBegin the close at
3 minute pitch3 minute timer9 seconds4 rings, about 35 seconds
5 minute talkthis page15 seconds4 rings, one minute
7 minute prepared speech7 minute timer21 seconds3 rings, about a minute
18 minute conference talk18 minute timer54 seconds3 rings, under three minutes

Using it as the room's clock

Fullscreen the dial on a laptop facing the speaker, or on the confidence monitor if the venue has one. For a panel or a debate with fixed turns, build a Cycle with one block per speaker; the chime at each change is a fair, impersonal signal that nobody has to interrupt with. A Room does the same when the speaker and the timekeeper are looking at different screens.

What goes wrong

Rehearsing at reading speed and then slowing down on stage is the classic overrun; live delivery tends to run longer, which is why the rehearsal target leaves rings to spare. Watching the dial constantly reads as nerves; glance at it at the end of a point, once a minute. And a talk that ends with time to spare is fine. Nobody has ever complained that a speech was too short. The guide on presentations and speaking time goes further.

How do I rehearse with it?

Start it as you begin speaking and aim to land the close before the chime. The rings stay silent, so nothing interrupts a run-through.

Can the audience see it?

Yes. Fullscreen it and the dial works as a speaker clock the whole room can read.

Embed this timer
Use as a stream overlay

Add it as a browser source in OBS; the background stays transparent. Change t for any length.

Guides

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1–5start a preset
spacepause or resume the newest timer
ffullscreen the newest timer
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