Our world is full of distractions, and these days, it can be shockingly difficult to manage our time well and stay on task. You look at your phone, intending to do one quick thing, and before you know it, you’re checking emails, responding to texts, and scrolling through social media. One often overlooked strategy to improve productivity is the use of a timer or a countdown clock. At its core, a countdown timer is a simple tool: a clock, physical or virtual, that can be set for a desired period of time and counts down until it reaches zero. Timers and countdown clocks have many benefits—here's how a countdown clock can help with time management.

Increases Focus

Setting a timer for a given task helps to increase focus on that task during the allotted time. By setting your timer, you’re intentionally committing a specific amount of time to a specific task. To accomplish the goal you’ve set for yourself, you must focus on that task alone for the entirety of the time. Because you’re working to complete a task within a set period of time, your focus will necessarily increase.

Helps Prevent Multitasking

Most people have the tendency to multitask. Multitasking creates the illusion that you are getting more done in a given period of time since you’re working on several tasks at once. In reality, hopping back and forth between numerous tasks without really finishing any of them is detrimental to your focus and decreases productivity. A much better strategy for time management is to focus on completing one task at a time and then moving on to the next one. Setting a timer will encourage you to focus on your chosen task for a set amount of time before starting a different task.

Creates a Sense of Urgency

Have you ever been browsing online and stumbled upon a website advertising a limited-time sale? These advertisements are often accompanied by timers counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the end of the sale. This creates a sense of urgency surrounding the sale, and the strategy often effectively convinces customers to make purchases.

When you set a countdown timer, you’re using the same principle to create a deadline for yourself to complete a task. Seeing the time on the clock consistently ticking down creates a sense of urgency to finish the task within the deadline, which in turn encourages you to work faster and with more focus. Rather than procrastinating or becoming distracted by coworkers or other tasks, you’ll be able to focus on getting the single task at hand done within your time limit.

Gauges the Length of Tasks

If you don’t know how long your tasks take, it can be difficult to manage your time well. If you’re trying to establish how much time it takes to complete a given task, try making an estimate and setting a timer. Work for however long it takes to complete the task or until the timer runs out. Once you’ve completed the task, take note of how much time is left on the clock or how long the task ran over. Then you’ll have a better idea of precisely how long the task takes, and you’ll be able to create a more exact schedule for that task in the future.

Limits Time Spent on Each Task

Using a countdown clock is also helpful for those who are perfectionists or have the tendency to work on projects for far too long. If you’re working on a long task or project that must be completed in stages, setting a countdown timer will help you to guard against the temptation to work on the project for longer than planned. By using this strategy, you’ll be able to contain work to your workday and budget your time wisely to complete all the tasks on your to-do list.

Creates Motivation

We all have those tasks that we dread starting, which often leads to far too much procrastination. A countdown timer can create motivation for even the most boring, menial tasks, or the tasks that seem too overwhelming to even start. By setting a timer for a small amount of time, even 15 minutes, you can give yourself the motivation you need to begin and eventually complete that task. And once you start it, you’ll probably realize that the task isn’t as daunting as you once thought.

Helps Build Momentum

By helping you to begin a task, a countdown clock helps you to build momentum. Starting a task is usually the hardest part, and once you get going, you’ll be able to easily continue the task. The longer you work for, the more easily the work will come, and before you know it, that task you loathed starting in the first place will be finished.

Improves Breaks

Unless you want to run yourself into the ground, breaks are a necessary part of work. Taking short breaks regularly while working helps you to stay focused and maintain productivity throughout the day. But taking a break after having completed too little work is never a good feeling. To combat the guilty break, set timers for both periods of work and breaks. If you stay focused during your work periods, then you’ll be able to enjoy a quick break without feeling guilty about your lack of completed work. Setting a timer for your break periods will also help you to keep your breaks from extending for too long by dictating at what time you should get back to work.

All these benefits demonstrate how a countdown clock can help with time management. Countdown timers are easily accessible on physical clocks and watches, phones, computers, and other devices, so you’ll never have any trouble finding a timer to help you improve your time management skills. A wall clock with a LED count up timer is the perfect addition to any facility, whether it’s an office, school, gym, or any other type of business. With the help of an easily accessible countdown timer, employees and patrons alike can exponentially improve their time management skills and increase their productivity.