Time Zone Overlap: How Much a Team Needs
How many overlap hours a distributed team really needs, what belongs in them, and a verified table of real overlap windows for 16 common city pairs.
2026-09-16 · 12 min read
Writing
Blog
Practical notes on timing things properly: focus sessions, sleep cycles, and why most online clocks are worse than they look.
Keep the Screen Awake While a Timer Runs
Screen went dark mid-countdown? A dark screen and a stopped timer are two problems. The per-device fix for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac and Chromebook.
2026-09-15 · 13 min read
Metronome Practice: Choosing a Tempo to Learn At
Practise at the fastest tempo you can play cleanly, not the fastest you can play. How to find that number, how far to step up, and when to subdivide instead.
2026-09-14 · 12 min read
Night Shift Sleep Schedule: Anchoring the Day
Anchor sleep, two night shift rotations mapped hour by hour, and the transition days every general guide skips. Practical scheduling, not medical advice.
2026-09-11 · 14 min read
Five-Minute Break Ideas That Actually Restore
What to do during pomodoro breaks, sorted by what each one restores: attention, body, mood or momentum, with realistic minute costs and the ones that overrun.
2026-09-10 · 15 min read
Run-Walk Intervals: Picking a Ratio That Lasts
Pick a run-walk ratio your last interval can hold, not your first. Starting ratios by goal, a four-week progression for each, and how to time it hands-free.
2026-09-09 · 12 min read
Daylight Saving and Recurring Meetings
Verified 2026 daylight saving dates for the US, UK, EU and Australia, plus the two mismatch windows that quietly shift a recurring meeting every year.
2026-09-08 · 9 min read
Turn an Old Phone Into a Bedside Clock
Turn an old phone into a bedside clock with no app to install: one URL in full screen, screen kept awake, dim enough to sleep next to. Android, iPad, laptop.
2026-09-07 · 13 min read
Box Breathing Timer: 4-4-4-4 and Other Patterns
Box breathing is 4-4-4-4. Compare it with 4-7-8, coherent 5-5 and 6-2-6-2, pick a count you can hold without straining, and run a box breathing timer free.
2026-09-04 · 12 min read
Rest Between Sets: How Long, and Why It Varies
Heavy strength work sits at 3 to 5 minutes, hypertrophy around 90 seconds, endurance under a minute. What each range buys, what it costs, and how to time it.
2026-09-03 · 13 min read
Exam Pacing: How to Time a Practice Test
Turn any exam section into a per-question pace, place three checkpoint alarms so you find out you are behind early, and set a stop rule you will actually obey.
2026-09-02 · 14 min read
Pomodoro and ADHD: Adapting the Interval
A pomodoro ladder from 5 to 25 minutes, a rule for when to move up or stay put, and what to do when the break bell lands in the middle of hyperfocus.
2026-09-01 · 11 min read
Boiled Egg Timing Chart: 6 to 13 Minutes
A boiled egg timing chart for runny, jammy, soft-set and hard yolks, with boiling-start and cold-start minutes and a soft boiled egg timer one click away.
2026-08-31 · 12 min read
How Many Pomodoros a Day Is Realistic?
How many pomodoros in a day? Sixteen fit on paper. A real 9 to 5 with two meetings leaves room for eight, and you finish fewer. Here is the arithmetic.
2026-08-28 · 13 min read
Chess Clock Increment vs Delay: What Changes
Increment can grow your chess clock and delay never can. The exact mechanics, how to read 3+2 and G/30;d5, and a ten-move example with the real numbers.
2026-08-27 · 14 min read
Tabata Timer: The 20/10 Protocol, Done Properly
The 1996 protocol was eight rounds of 20 seconds all-out and 10 seconds rest, at an intensity that ends the session. Score your last one against it.
2026-08-26 · 12 min read
Best Meeting Times for US and India Teams
The full US to India overlap grid for New York, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco, in both daylight and standard time, plus a rotation rule that stays fair.
2026-08-25 · 13 min read
Military Time Chart: Convert 24-Hour Time Fast
Military time chart with every hour both ways, the spoken form, why midnight is written 0000 or 2400, and the four mistakes that cause real errors.
2026-08-24 · 12 min read
Time Blocking a Day: From To-Do List to Timers
How to time block your day for real: a 20-minute planning ritual, block estimates you can trust, an honest overflow list, and blocks that actually run.
2026-08-21 · 16 min read
20-Minute Nap: Why the Timer Does the Work
A 20 minute nap works because it ends before deep sleep starts. The mechanics decide it: when the timer starts, how long you take to drop off, and the alarm.
2026-08-20 · 12 min read
Pomodoro Length: 25 or 50 Minutes? Test It
The best pomodoro length is the one you actually finish blocks in. A two-week 25/5 versus 50/10 self-test, the measure to use, and a rule for calling it.
2026-08-19 · 12 min read
EMOM Timer: What Every Minute on the Minute Means
EMOM means every minute on the minute. The rep count is the whole decision. Pick work you finish in about 40 seconds, plus five graded sessions to run.
2026-08-18 · 13 min read
90-Minute Focus Blocks: Structure That Holds
A 90-minute focus block works because of its internal shape, not because your brain runs on a 90-minute clock. Here is the block, minute by minute.
2026-08-17 · 12 min read
What Time to Go to Bed to Wake Up at 6 AM
What time should I go to bed to wake up at 6am? A precomputed bedtime table for a 6 AM alarm, plus what the 90-minute cycle assumption is really worth.
2026-08-14 · 15 min read
Do Online Timers Keep Running in Background Tabs?
Browsers throttle background tabs: Chrome checks timers once a second, then once a minute. Why a well-built online timer keeps the right count anyway.
2026-08-13 · 15 min read
The 52/17 Rule: Does the Work-Break Ratio Hold Up?
The 52/17 rule comes from one time-tracking company's user data, not a study — and its own re-runs produced 80/17 and 112/26. What the evidence supports.
2026-08-12 · 11 min read
The Pomodoro Technique: What Research Says
Where the 25-minute pomodoro block comes from, what break research actually supports, and which parts of the productivity lore are just lore.
2026-08-09 · 2 min read
Time Zones, UTC and DST, Explained
Why city time is a database, not an offset: UTC, the IANA tz database, and why daylight saving keeps breaking your meetings.
2026-08-09 · 2 min read
Why You Wake Up Groggy: Sleep Inertia
The grogginess after waking has a name, a typical duration, and known aggravators. What sleep inertia is and what actually helps.
2026-08-09 · 2 min read
