Articles
Written for Untimers, by the person building it.
Why the product is the way it is, what the research behind it actually says, and where it says nothing at all. Also available by RSS.
A day in pieces
Untimer cuts a working day into pieces of twenty five minutes that are all the same size. Here is what changes when you count your day in pieces instead of guessing at it in hours.
Read it29 August 2026 · 5 minute readSomething close at hand
A goal that is months away does not pull, and a game that scores you every minute does. Milestones are Untimer's answer to that distance, and the research on rewards is why they are built the way they are.
Read it29 August 2026 · 5 minute readStarting is the hard part
Most of what gets called procrastination is a starting problem. Untimer makes the start small, deliberate and cheap to walk away from, and here is why each of those matters.
Read it29 August 2026 · 5 minute readWhere the time went
After a few weeks the record of your days starts answering questions: what your time went to, when you focus best, and what usually pulls you away. Here is what each reading in Insights tells you.
Read it22 August 2026 · 6 minute readA timer that never ticks
Refresh the page and most browser timers forget you. Untimer does not, because nothing in it counts down. A session is one moment on a server, and every screen shows how far away it is.
Read it22 August 2026 · 6 minute readStopping early is showing up
Untimer has no streaks, no points and no failure state. A session you stop counts for nothing, is said to be nothing, and is still on your record. Here is why.
Read it22 August 2026 · 5 minute readWhere you left off
An interruption does not end a session in Untimer. It is a tap, and a line about what it was. That line comes back to meet you when you return, and there is a study behind it.
Read it22 August 2026 · 5 minute readWhy twenty five minutes, and why you cannot change it
There is no evidence that twenty five minutes is the right length for a session. Untimer uses it anyway, and does not let you change it. Here is why both of those are true at once.
Read it22 August 2026 · 5 minute readWhy you wind Untimer
There is no start button. You press and hold the glass for two and a half seconds, and letting go is what starts the session. Here is why it works that way.
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