Multiple timers at once

Multiple timers at once

A single countdown is fine until you are cooking a real meal, at which point one timer becomes actively unhelpful. The Multi-timers tab lets you run as many independent countdowns as you need, side by side, each with its own name, duration and alarm sound. Every card shows its own progress bar, and each can be paused, resumed or removed without touching the others.

A worked example: getting dinner on the table

Say you are making roast chicken with potatoes and green beans. Chicken goes in first — name a timer "Chicken", set 60 minutes, give it the classic bell. Twenty-five minutes later, potatoes: another timer, 35 minutes, digital alarm. Ten minutes before the end, the beans: 10 minutes, chime. Three timers, three distinct sounds, and you can tell from the next room which one just went off without looking.

The distinct-sound trick is the whole point. With one shared alarm you still have to walk over and read the screen. With different sounds per timer, you learn them in a single evening.

Adding, pausing and clearing timers

Give the timer a name, set minutes and seconds, choose a sound, and press Add. Each card carries Start, Pause and Stop, plus an ✕ in the corner to remove it. Quick-add buttons above the grid cover the most common kitchen durations — eggs, pasta, cake, pizza, popcorn, potatoes, chicken — so a full set of timers takes seconds to build.

Beyond the kitchen

The same pattern works anywhere several things run in parallel. Laundry and dishwasher cycles. Two children on shared screen time. A parking meter and a load of laundry. Batch tasks at work where each has a different deadline. Anything you would otherwise track by glancing at a clock and doing arithmetic.

Your timers survive a reload

If you have allowed local saving, running timers are stored on your device and restored when you come back — with the remaining time recalculated from the real clock, not from where the page left off. Close the tab by accident mid-roast and the chicken timer is still correct when you reopen it.

A worked example: a full roast dinner

The case multi-timers exist for is the meal where four things must finish at once and each started at a different moment. Working backwards from serving at 7:00 pm:

Dish	In at	Timer	Sound
Chicken	5:55	60 min	Classic bell
Potatoes	6:20	35 min	Digital
Stuffing	6:35	20 min	Marimba
Green beans	6:50	10 min	Chime
Resting the meat	6:55	10 min	Soft pop

Five timers, five distinct sounds. From the next room you know which one finished without walking over to read a screen — which is the entire point, and something no oven timer has ever managed.

Why different sounds beat one loud alarm

With a single shared alarm, every beep costs you a trip to the kitchen to find out what it meant. With five, you learn the mapping in one evening and stop thinking about it. It is the difference between an alarm that interrupts you and one that informs you.

Pick sounds that are genuinely distinct rather than five variations of a beep. The classic bell, the marimba, the chime and the digital alarm sit far enough apart in pitch and rhythm to be told apart through a wall.

Beyond the kitchen

Anywhere several things run in parallel on different clocks: laundry and dishwasher cycles finishing twenty minutes apart, two children on separate screen-time budgets, a parking meter alongside a load of washing, or batch tasks at work with staggered deadlines. Anything you would otherwise track by glancing at a clock and doing arithmetic.

Cooking backwards: the method behind the tool

The reason a multi-timer exists is that a meal is not a sequence of tasks but a set of parallel processes that must converge on a single moment. The technique professional kitchens use for this is simple and almost never taught to home cooks: work backwards from service.

Write down the time you want to eat. For each dish, subtract its total time — including resting, which people forget — and you have its start time. Sort those start times in order and you have your evening. The mental work is done before you turn the oven on, and everything after that is following a list rather than doing arithmetic while holding a hot pan.

A full roast dinner, worked through

Serving at 7:00 pm:

Dish	Duration	Start	Sound
Chicken (4 lb, 375 °F)	80 min + 15 rest	5:25	Classic bell
Roast potatoes	50 min	6:10	Digital
Stuffing	25 min	6:35	Marimba
Gravy	15 min	6:45	Desk bell
Green beans	8 min	6:52	Chime

Five timers, five distinct sounds, one shared deadline. From the next room you know which one finished without walking over to read a screen — and that is the whole point, because the walk is when the beans overcook.

A ROAST DINNER, TIMED BACKWARDS FROM 7:00 PM

Why distinct sounds change the experience

With one shared alarm, every beep costs you a trip and a moment of anxiety about what it meant. With five, you learn the mapping within a single evening and stop consciously processing it at all. It is the difference between an alarm that interrupts you and one that informs you.

Choose sounds that differ in pitch and rhythm rather than five variations of a beep. The classic bell, the marimba, the chime and the digital alarm sit far enough apart to be distinguished through a closed door.

Timing reference for parallel cooking

Approximate durations for planning backwards. Adjust to your oven, which is almost certainly not calibrated.

Item	Time	Note
Whole chicken	20 min per lb at 375 °F	Plus 15 min resting
Turkey	15 min per lb at 325 °F	Plus 30 min resting
Roast potatoes	50 min at 425 °F	Turn at halfway
Baked potato	55 min at 400 °F
Green vegetables	5–10 min	Last thing, always
Rice	18 min	Plus 5 min covered off heat
Pasta	8–11 min	Depends on shape
Gravy from pan juices	10–15 min	While the meat rests

Resting is a cooking stage, not a pause

The most commonly skipped step and the one that most affects the result. Meat removed from heat continues cooking from residual heat, and its muscle fibers relax, letting reabsorbed juices redistribute. Carve immediately and they run onto the board instead of staying in the meat.

Fifteen minutes for a chicken, thirty for a large roast, ten for steaks. Give resting its own timer — it is the one everybody forgets, and it happens precisely when the kitchen is busiest.

Parallel timing beyond the kitchen

Laundry day. A washer cycle, a dryer cycle and a load that needs taking out before it creases, all on different clocks. Naming the timers "Washer", "Dryer" and "Fold" removes the guesswork entirely.

Household screen time. Two children with separate allowances, each with their own timer and their own sound. The timer is the one enforcing the limit, which is a meaningfully different conversation from you enforcing it.

Batch work. Several tasks with staggered deadlines — a build running, a document due, a call in forty minutes. One timer each, one sound each, and no mental overhead spent tracking them.

Fermentation and slow processes. Bread proving, yoghurt culturing, sourdough feeding, seeds soaking. Long timers running alongside short ones, which is exactly the case a single kitchen timer handles worst.

Common questions