A free visual countdown timer designed for ADHD and focus work. The red zone on the clock face shrinks as time passes, giving you a clear, immediate sense of how much time remains — no numbers to decode, just a shrinking red area.
The Visual Focus Timer supports 60-minute and 120-minute session modes. Drag the clock face to set any duration up to the maximum. A digital readout in the center hub shows the exact time remaining. An audio alarm sounds when the timer reaches zero. Use the Float button to open the timer in an always-on-top mini window so it stays visible while you work in other apps.
This timer is designed for people with ADHD, students, remote workers, and anyone who struggles with time blindness. Visual timers are recommended by ADHD coaches and occupational therapists because they make the passage of time concrete and visible rather than abstract.
A visual timer shows the passage of time as a shrinking shape — usually a colored area on a clock face — rather than just numbers. This makes time physically visible, which helps people with ADHD, autism, and executive function challenges stay aware of how much time remains during a task.
Yes. The Visual Focus Timer is completely free to use with no sign-up, no account, no ads, and no subscription.
Yes. The timer is a single self-contained page. Once loaded it works fully offline, including the audio alarm.
Click the Float button at the bottom of the page. In Chrome and Edge the timer uses the Document Picture-in-Picture API to open an always-on-top window. In other browsers it opens in a small popup window.
Time blindness is the difficulty in perceiving the passage of time, commonly experienced by people with ADHD. Visual timers directly address this by replacing the abstract concept of time with a concrete, shrinking visual cue.
Yes. Drag the clock face to set any duration from 30 seconds up to 60 minutes (or up to 120 minutes in 2HR mode).
People with ADHD often experience time as a binary state: now and not now. A traditional digital clock showing 47 minutes requires interpreting a number, doing mental arithmetic, and converting that into a felt sense of urgency. A visual timer removes all of those steps. The shrinking red zone communicates duration the same way a glass of water communicates fullness — immediately and without cognitive load.
Research on ADHD time management consistently shows that externalizing time — making it visible, physical, and concrete — significantly improves task initiation, time-on-task, and transition awareness. Visual timers are a standard recommendation from ADHD coaches, occupational therapists, and educational psychologists for exactly this reason.
The red dial design is inspired by the classic mechanical Time Timer, which has been used in classrooms and therapy settings for decades. This web version brings the same concept to any browser or device, for free, with no installation required.
The Visual Focus Timer works naturally with the Pomodoro technique — 25-minute focused work sessions followed by 5-minute breaks. Set 25 minutes, start the timer, and work until the alarm sounds. The shrinking red zone gives you a constant, peripheral awareness of how the session is progressing without requiring you to check a clock.
For longer deep work sessions, switch to 120-minute mode and set 90 minutes or more. The visual feedback scales with the duration, so the timer is just as readable at 2 hours as it is at 10 minutes.
The Float button moves the timer into a small always-on-top window that stays visible above all other applications. This means you can keep working in your code editor, document, or browser while the timer remains visible in the corner of your screen. In Chrome and Edge, this uses the Document Picture-in-Picture API for true always-on-top behavior. In other browsers, the timer opens in a compact popup window.
Red Dial Timer is also available as a native iOS and iPadOS app on the App Store. The app adds distraction blocking via Apple Screen Time, accurate background timing, and lock screen notifications — so you can step away from your device and trust that the timer will alert you when time is up. Download Red Dial Timer free from the App Store.