Turn it on, set one
Putting the pasta on a task list is absurd — but you still reach for something, and if Fanad is already the chat window you're standing in, it might as well hold the timer. That's the whole module: a one-shot kitchen timer that lives in chat and leaves your list alone.
optin timer
timer 12 min pasta
⏰ Timer set — 12 min — pasta · rings 6:42 pm. (“timer” shows it · “timer off” cancels) …12 minutes later: ⏰ Ding — 12 min is up: pasta.
Say the duration however it comes out of your mouth — timer 12 min pasta, timer 1h laundry, timer 90 seconds. The label is optional but future-you appreciates knowing which ding this is when two are running.
Managing them
- timer — bare, lists what's running and when each rings
- timer off 1 — cancels one (the set-confirmation also carries a ✕ Cancel button, so mis-sets die in one tap)
And that's the entire command surface. It rings once, then it's gone.
What makes it different from a reminder
It's worth being precise, because Fanad has both:
| Timer | Reminder | |
|---|---|---|
| Counts | a duration (“12 min from now”) | a clock time (“at 8pm”) |
| Lands on your list | never | yes — the task stays until you done it |
| After it fires | gone | the task remains |
| Good for | pasta, laundry, meters, breaks | bins, calls, meds, errands |
The rule of thumb: if you'd feel silly seeing it on tomorrow's list, it's a timer. “Take the bins out” is a reminder — if you miss the ping, the task is still there tomorrow. “Pasta” is a timer — if you miss the ding, no list can save the pasta.
Timers as a focus trick
The sleeper use case has nothing to do with kitchens. A timer is the cheapest possible commitment device:
timer 20 min just start the gutters
Twenty minutes is small enough to start when the whole task feels impossible — and starting is usually the entire problem. Pair it with a started task and its steps, and the ding becomes permission to stop, which paradoxically makes starting easy. (If you're doing this daily, the journal can tell you whether it's actually working.)
Same trick, other direction: timer 30 min phone break, timer 1h then decide. A ding is a boundary you set for yourself, delivered by something that won't judge you either way when it arrives.