This first iteration of Focus Timer came about over ten years ago when I wanted a timer to help create a daily meditation. I didn’t like the experience of using traditional timers because the alarms were a jarring way to bring me out of such a peaceful state of mind. So I recreated the experience you might find at a meditation center where the leader strikes the gong three times to begin and end… easing you both in and out of the state of the session.

I had some gong sounds from a relaxation tape I used at night. Yes, an actual tape! I recorded that to my Windows 95 computer and used a sound editor to space out the gongs in certain increments. Then I burned these onto a CD. Remember CD-R’s?

To listen to them, I set up an old portable CD player to some speakers. This way I had a one-button way to start meditating.

Track 1 was 5 minutes, Track 2 was 10, Track 3 was 20, and Track 4 was 30 minutes. That’s all that would fit on a CD.

I’ve been using this same system for over 10 years.

I started to apply some of the concepts of Deep Work and Time Boxing to my daily activities and found these timers extremely helpful.

My hope is that you find them useful as well, whether for meditation or to facilitate dedicating time to your most important work.