GTD Timer

Use case: Implement GTD Two Minute rule into your everyday life

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done approach recommends:

If the Next Action can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it when you first pick the item up. Even if that item is not a "high priority", because it takes longer to store and track any item than to deal with it the first time its in your head. - David Allen, Getting Things Done, p.191

Generally, this rule means: if some task can be done in less than two minutes, do it now.

Productivity Scientific GTD Timer starts with predefined time of two minutes by default and you can start countdown with one keystroke. Of course this does not mean that you can countdown only for two minutes - any reasonable time period may be used from seconds to hours.

Use case: Set time budget for any task

Time budgeting is a very popular time management technique, because time likes counting like money does. And even more, because you can get more money but you can't get more time - all people get the same amount of time each day - only 24 hours. That's why it is incredibly important to set a time budget for certain activities similar to process of setting money budget before making purchases.

GTD Timer helps to set time budget by limiting amount of time that you are planning to spend for a particular activity. Before starting anything, ask yourself how much time you are willing to invest in that activity. Launch GTD Timer with planned amount of time and stick to your time budget.

Use case: Watch time left to completion of some particular activity

GTD Timer can be used to display amount of time which is left before completion of some activity. You can use it as auction timer, presentation timer, kithen timer, display time left for rest break or working day. You can set time period to countdown or enter time when the activity ends using "T" prefix (see).

Use case: Personal reminder

GTD Timer is very suitable as personal reminder. When starting timer you may enter message to yourself and this message will pop-up when timer will finish coundown. You may start any number of timers simultaneously (available in registered version) with different reminders.

Using presets and commands you can automate reminders. For example, you can create reminder preset which opens e-mail client and use it when you create reminder to send letter for anybody (with "mailto" command). Using "net send" command you can create reminder which sends message for other people in local network.

Use case: Run commands at a specified time

Using presets with commands GTD Timer is exceptionally suitable to use as scheduler to run commands at a specified time. For example, you can create preset to shutdown a computer after some task finishes (as described in documentation).

You can use virtually any command: launch programs, run batch files or single commands and so on.

Use case: Access services with waiting queues effectively

Many online services place users to waiting queue for some amount of time. For example, RapidShare file sharing service allows unlimited downloads only with RapidShare Premium Accounts, but if you use free account you have to wait for some amount of time between downloads. It is annoying to remember

Screenshots

GTD Timer's main window

Timer's window shown with Tray Icon and Context Menu

Time selection window

Help system window

 

Take a quick product tour

Starting GTD Timer

When starting GTD Timer opens Start Timer window (see in the picture below).

Use this window to setup parameters for the timer. To navigate between controls use Tab key. If you want to skip this window, click Cancel button or press Esc key on the keyboard. To close the program click Close button in the top-right corner of the window or press Alt-F4 key on the keyboard. After entering parameters press one of the buttons at the bottom of the window.

Parameters:

• Message (optional) - enter message that identifiers the timer or reminds you what to do when countdown finishes. This message will be displayed on the timer's window, shown as hint if you move mouse pointer over the timer's tray icon and displayed as pop-up balloon in System Tray when countdown finishes.
• Time (required to press Start button) - enter period of time for the timer. Time can be entered in two ways: 1) as a time period or 2) as a time moment during a day. You can omit this parameter if you press "2 Mins" or "10 Mins" buttons. Button "Start" appears when this field is filled with a correct value.
  • 1) To enter time as a time period you can use:
    • full format of hours, minutes and seconds: hh:mm:ss, example: 02:30:00 (2 hours and 30 minutes)
    • reduced format of minutes and seconds: mm:ss, example: 15:30 (15 minutes and 30 seconds)
    • just minutes, example: 15 (15 minutes)
  • 2) To enter time as a time moment you have to type prefix symbol "T" and follow it (with or without a space) within a certain time with a standard format of hh:mm:ss or hh:mm. Also you can use AM/PM mark or enter time in 24-h format. Example: "T 10:00" (make countdown till 10:00 AM). When you enter time as a time moment and press Start button time period for countdown automatically calculates based on a current time and a maximum length of period for 24 hours. For example, if current time is 10:20 A.M. and you enter "T 11:00 AM" then period for countdown calculates as 40 minutes, but if you enter "T 10:00 AM" then period for countdown becomes equal to 23 hours and 40 minutes.
• Preset (required, default value automatically chosen) - presets used to distinguish different instances of GTD Timer running simultaneously or to run timers with different look and feel. Preset may include different color of tray icon text and background for the timer as well as sound played when countdown finishes. If you run first instance of the GTD Timer, then first preset automatically chooses from the list, if second, then - second and so on.

Buttons:

• 2 Mins (shortcut Alt+2) - starts timer with time of two minutes
• 10 Mins (shortcut Alt+0) - starts timer with time of ten minutes
• Start (default button, Enter key) - starts timer with time entered in Time edit field, the button active only if this field contains correct time
• Cancel (Esc key) - cancels and closes dialog box, GTD Timer can be started from its window

If checkbox "Show this window on startup" is checked then this window appears when GTD Timer started, otherwise you can open this window using button on timer's window or via popup menu accessible from timer's icon. 

Configuring GTD Timer

To open timer configuration dialog call Settings menu item from GTD Timer Tray Icon context menu (do right mouse click on timer's icon to open the menu).

General tab

General settings tab is shown in the picture below.

 

This tab allows to specify general parameters for the program:

• Default Timer Window position - choose where to show timer's window on the screen (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right)
• Make Timer Window transparent - use Opacity slider control to set how transparent should be timer's window (move slider to left to make window more transparent)
• Stay on top while counting - shows timer's window on top while counting time
• Show time selection window on startup - shows time selection window when the timer starts
• Place link to GTD Timer to the Startup Folder - allows to run the timer when the system starts

Presets tab

Preset settings tab is shown in the picture below.

GTD Timer allows to create presets that include Tray Icon parameters, sound played and command run when countdown finishes.

Use this window to create, delete, rename, reorder presets or open Setup Preset dialog. Follow this link to learn more about presets and how to setup them.

Select checkbox Auto-select next preset after opening new window to allow GTD Timer automatically select next preset when opening time select window.

 

Configuring presets

GTD Timer allows to create presets - sets of parameters used to easily distinguish multiple running copies of the timer or to run different actions when countdown finishes.

Presets include:

• Tray Icon text and background color or transparency
• Sound options: no sound, default beeper or WAV audio file
• Command setting to run after countdown finishes (or no command by default)

To access presets configuration open Presets tab in Settings dialog (Settings dialog accessible via Tray Icon context menu item Settings).

Presets tab is shown in the picture below.

Use this window to add, remove, rename, reorder presets, access Setup Preset dialog, reset list of presets to default if required.

The checkbox Auto-select next preset after opening new window used to automatically select next preset in time selection dialog when multiple copies of the software running.

To access preset configuration dialog press Setup Preset... button.

Setup Preset dialog appears (shown in the picture below).

Use Preset Caption field to name preset, recommended to use such name that helps to easily distinguish deferent presets (for example, name can include list of preset settings)

Use Tray Icon Color tab to choose Tray Icon text color and background color or set background transparent by checking Transparent background checkbox.

Tab Sound is shown in the picture below.

Use this tab to configure sound played when timer countdown finishes.

Options:

• No sound - disable sound (operating system may play default system sound when displaying tray icon notification)
• Default beeper - play simple beeper sequence
• Audio file - play audio file in WAV format. For media files in this format you can navigate to Media folder of the directory where Windows operating system installed (default C:\Windows).

Action tab is shown in the picture below.

Use this tab to run action when timer countdown finishes or choose No action option to disable actions.

If you wish to run action choose Command line option and fill required field Command and optional field Parameters.

Actions run using operating system ShellExecute function.

Examples of actions:

• Force to shutdown system:
  Command: shutdown
  Parameters: -s -f -t 00
• Open "D:\Documents" folder:
  Command: D:\Documents
  Parameters: <Leave empty>
• Open e-mail client with address user@example.com:
  Command: mailto:user@example.com
  Parameters: <Leave empty>
• Navigate to URL http://productivity-science.com
  Command: http://productivity-science.com
  Parameters: <Leave empty>

List of keyboard shortcuts

Use the shortcuts to manipulate GTD Timer from the keyboard

Main window shortcuts

While using main window shortcuts be sure that main window has input focus (do mouse click on timer's window, icon for example).

List of shortcuts:

• Space - start timer
• Enter or T - open time selection window
• S - stop timer
• P - pause timer
• Keys 1, 2, 3..0 - start timer with number of minutes from 1 to 10
• C - open configuration window
• O - switch on/off timer's on top while counting feature

Time selection window shortcuts

List of shortcuts:

• Enter - start timer (only if time entered and Start button enabled)
• Esc - cancel input, close window
• Alt-2 - start timer with time of 2 minutes
• Alt-0 - start timer with time of 10 minutes
• Tab (Shift-Tab) - move forward (backward) between fields
• Alt-Down Arrow - open drop down lists
• Alt-F4 - close window, exit program
• Alt-H - set/clear checkbox Show this window on startup

Starting GTD Timer From the Command Line

GTD Timer timer can be run from command line. You can create one or multiple shortcuts to the software executable (gtdtimer.exe) and pass parameters to it. Alternatively you can start timer from batch files.

Remember to precede executable file name with full path where the software was installed or add the path to the system environment PATH variable.

Usage:

gtdtimer.exe /T=MM:SS [/M="Message Text"] [/P=Profile number]

Parameters:

• /T - Time to countdown, format is the same as used in time entering window. This parameter is obligatory.
• /M - Message string for the timer, use double quotes to enclose messages with spaces. This parameter is optional.
• /P - Profile number, integer, less or equal to number of profiles configured. This parameter is optional, used first profile if omitted.

Examples:

• Start GTD Timer and countdown till 18:00 with message "Time to go home"
  gtdtimer.exe /T=T18:00 /M="Time to go home"
• Start GTD Timer and countdown for 10 minutes with message "End of a break!"
  gtdtimer.exe /T=10 /M="End of a break!"
• Start GTD Timer, countdown for 45 minutes with message "System shutdown" and use previously configured profile number 5 to run command to shutdown computer (see examples of commands in preset configuration section):
  gtdtimer.exe /T=45 /M="System shutdown" /P=5

Purchasing and Registering the Software

GTD Timer can be used in two modes: as a free version and as a registered commercial version.

Free version of GTD Timer is available only for personal use and only on "Home" versions of Microsoft Windows. Also free version has following limitations in functionality: 1) no multiple running copies allowed; 2) no preset choosing allowed; 3) necessity to see nagging screen.

To use full non-limited in functionality version of GTD Timer a license must be purchased and software should be registered. Additional benefit of purchased version is ability to use official support from Productivity Scientific company.

For evaluation purposes all features of the software can be used for free within the time-limited trial period of 30 days, but at the end of this period if you are not eligible for free version you must either purchase a license for the program or uninstall it.

Purchasing a License and a Obtaining Serial Number in order to Register the Program

You can purchase a license from ordering page of this website. Please note that the actual purchase transaction is performed by our partners - registration services that are well-known and secure companies. The Productivity Scientific company does not have access to your financial information (like a credit card number, etc.) during the entire process and after the transaction.

While obtaining the license, you should provide your full name and e-mail address. For security reasons the Productivity Scientific company will send your serial number only to the provided e-mail address.

Serial numbers for all our software delivered immediately after end of the purchase transaction. You can use registered version of the software just few minutes after starting the transaction.

Registering the Program

To register the program you have to enter your full name, e-mail address and serial number to the corresponding fields on the Registration tab of the Settings dialog box.

The Registration tab is shown in the picture below.