Study Timer Online

What is a study Timer?

A study timer is a time tracking tool that is geared towards studying. A study timer is unlike a standard countdown timer, it can help you organize your time, keep track of your time and stay accountable for your daily goals. It translates "I should study more" into "I studied 2 hours and 15 minutes today across 4 sessions".

This study timer has two modes: Countdown for a set-length of study (e.g. "study for 45 minutes") or Stopwatch for some open-ended study (e.g. you just want to know how long you went for). All sessions are timed and tagged with subjects (optional) in both modes.

Learn how to use this Study Timer.

• Choose your mode. Countdown for structured sessions — choose from the pre-set time durations (15, 25, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 minutes) or enter custom time duration. Open-ended study — Stopwatch Timer to time study until it is completed.
• Include a topic (optional). Label your session with the subject you're learning (Organic Chemistry, Chapter 5 etc.). This is indicated in the session log.
• Establish an objective for each day. Decide on the number of hours today that you are going to spend studying. Progress bar indicates your progress in real time.
• Select background noises (optional). Open a new tab to create a focused environment without the need for rain or lo-fi beats, or even the noise of a café.
• Start studying. Once completed, click the checkmark (✓) to note this session or the stop button if you will not enter the session.

How to create effective timed study sessions and why.

Study spaced over time ("distributed practice") has been proven to be much more effective than cramming in numerous studies. This is helped by creating boundaries with a study timer – study for this amount of time then stop.

Timeboxing is also a solution to the Parkinson's Law, which is work expands to fill time. If no one's timing you, a half hour review may become a two hour half busily read. A countdown fosters good "time urgency".

Lastly, it creates accountability by logging sessions. If you notice that you studied 5 hours this week as compared to 12 hours last week, you can change your behavior before it is too late — not the night before the test!

Study Strategies that work well with a Timer!

• Pomodoro Technique — 25 minutes of study with a 5 minute break. Great for keeping focus for longer. (Remember to use our Pomodoro Timer for this!)
• 52/17 Rule — 52 minutes of deep work, 17 minutes of rest. Research on productivity carried out by the Draugiem Group.
• Time Blocking — Schedule subjects to time blocks at a certain time of day and use a timer to implement each block.
• Spaced Repetition — Brief review over days. Conduct 15–20 minute review sessions of flashcards using countdown time.
• Active Recall — Close the book, set the timer for 10 minutes and write out what you can recall. Check, then repeat.

There are a few tips that will help you benefit from the study session.

• Learn at the same time of day, and in the same location. Routine lessens activation energy to get started.
• Move cell phone to another room. Studies at the University of Texas have shown that the presence of a cell phone on the desk (with the face down and muted) results in a decrease of mental ability.
• When on the "zone" and not wanting a countdown to break your "zone", use the stopwatch mode.
• Check end-of-the-week session log. Identify patterns – What was the most time given to which subjects? Which were neglected?
• Use ambient sounds with your study place. Background noise of a distracting type can be swamped by the sound of rainfall in common areas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start Studying Now

Choose a topic, set the timer and then let productive work flow. Your daily progress and session logs remain here in your browser window – and that’s it, no account, no app, no distractor. You and your work only.