radialtimers.com

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Visual timer

Time is drawn as 20 concentric rings that empty one by one, so how much is left reads from across a room without a single digit. Set any length, take it fullscreen, and the chime marks zero.

What makes a timer visual

A visual timer shows how much is left as an amount, not a number. A digit tells you "6:42" and asks you to work out what that means; a shape tells you "about a third". This page draws time as 20 concentric rings that empty from the outside in, so remaining time is an area you can see from across a room, the way a red wedge on a mechanical visual timer works, but for any length up to 100 hours and on any screen.

Who it is for

  • Children who cannot yet read a clock but can see a shape shrink.
  • Anyone for whom time is slippery: attention difficulties, autism, or simply a day with too many tabs open.
  • Groups, where one clock at the front beats twenty phones.
  • Presenters, cooks, and coaches who need the time at a glance while their hands and eyes are busy.

Setups

On a wall. Open the page on a spare tablet or laptop, fullscreen with the f key, and lean it where it is seen. Ten minutes is preloaded; type any length in the custom fields first if you need another.

Over other windows. The Pop out control floats a small dial in picture-in-picture, so it stays visible over a document, a game, or a video call.

On a stream or a slide. The overlay URL below adds a transparent dial to an OBS scene; a video export drops one into a slideshow.

Picking the length

SituationTryEach ring
Get shoes on, leave the house5 minutes15 seconds
Screen time before dinner30 minutes90 seconds
Homework, one subject25 minutes75 seconds
Quiet time, waiting room, long drive1 hour3 minutes

Using it well

Name the end before you start: "when the rings are gone, we go." A visual timer works because the end is not negotiable, so avoid adding minutes at zero. For short things, make sure the rings move fast enough to be noticed; under two minutes each ring lasts only seconds and the shrinking is obvious. For long things, check in with the child at half rings, not at random. And keep the chime audible, since the sound is the hard stop that the picture leads up to.

Related pages

The classroom timer has lesson-shaped routines, and timers for kids and transitions covers the home side in more depth. If you are curious what the rings are doing and why, what a radial timer is explains it.

Who are visual timers for?

Anyone who feels time better than they read it: classrooms, focus sessions, homework, transitions between activities. Watching the rings empty makes the remaining time concrete in a way a countdown number is not.

Can it fill a wall or projector screen?

Yes. The fullscreen view is the dial and the time and nothing else, made for a projector or a spare screen at the front of a room.

Does it make a sound at the end?

A clear double chime at zero, and the dial keeps pulsing until you stop it, so the end of time is both seen and heard.

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

More timers

Every timer, on one page

Shortcuts

1–5start a preset
spacepause or resume the newest timer
ffullscreen the newest timer
ntype a custom duration
escreset finished timers
?toggle this card

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