Attention span? No thanks, haven’t seen it in years. Let’s blame phones and screens, though I guess I could blame my unwillingness to do anything about it.
Until now. In an attempt to reclaim my focus so that I could continue to do things like work for a living, I ordered every imaginable timer off Amazon. There were some cuties in the mix, and some with interfaces so bizarre and alienating I couldn’t even figure them out.
Only one stood out to become an important part of my life.
The Mooas Dodecagon Mini Timer has, as advertised, 12 faces. You press the power button until it beeps if you want the timer to beep; press that button ’til it buzzes if you want it to buzz. Then you put the number of minutes you want to time face up (there are 11 options, ranging from one to 90 minutes), and it sits there. Timing you.
Judging. Watching. Waiting. Maybe supporting! It has a little blue light when it’s timing, and that light is saying, “Yes, you can. You can answer one more email! You can write one more paragraph! This too shall pass!”
Timers, people who similarly struggle will know, are a key of the Pomodoro technique. (The “technique” is that you write for 25 minutes and then you fuck off for five minutes, then you do it again.) Naturally, one side of this cute li’l polygon is for 25-minute intervals.
The thing is, it works. Some days I can do anything for five minutes, some days I can do anything for an hour. That’s between me and my timer.
The Mooas Dodecagon is also cute. As a total desk queen (ask me about my unhinged split keyboard!), it fits right in with my aesthetic absurdity. It also comes in blue and orange, and if the timer seems appealing, this company makes a lot of other weird, cheap, cute stuff.
Does it have spyware, like TikTok or the U.S. government? Maybe! Do I care? I don’t — and now, our time is up.
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