2 Minute Timer
Set for 2 minutes. Press start — it rings when the time is up.
This timer runs while the tab is open. If you need it to go off when your phone is in your pocket — that part needs the app.
The two-minute rule, and where it fails
David Allen’s rule is simple: if a task takes less than two minutes, do it now rather than filing it, because capturing and tracking it costs more than doing it. As a way of clearing small debris from a list, it works.
It fails in two specific places. The first is estimation — “two minutes” is the most optimistic number in the language, and a task that genuinely takes two minutes is rarer than it feels. Timing a few of them is uncomfortable and instructive.
The second is context. The rule assumes interruption is free, and during focused work it is not: two minutes of doing plus twenty of finding your place again is a bad trade. The rule belongs to sorting and admin, not to the middle of something hard. Used there, it becomes a respectable way to avoid the real task.