Alex Hormozi's Timer Method: Use a Big Timer to Get More Done

What Hormozi actually said

Hormozi has never published a formal “timer method.” It shows up again and again in his short posts and interviews. Here is what he has said (with sources) so you’re working from the real thing and not a paraphrase of a paraphrase.

“you’d be amazed how much can finish when you set a timer for 45min and turn off your notifications.”

• The timer as a referee. He keeps a twist kitchen timer on his desk and sets it to how long he thinks a task will take. In his example that was 35 minutes. The moment his phone rings or he looks at Slack he stops the timer so only real work counts.
• The timer as a commitment. For business owners under $100k a month his advice is to turn a kitchen timer to 4 hours and advertise until it goes off and to pick one channel instead of all of them.
• The timer as proof you tried. Before you decide you can’t figure something out he says to set a timer for 20 hours and actually spend them.
• The dead phone. On the Iced Coffee Hour podcast (April 2025) he described making his phone “a dead element”. An app blocks calls, texts, Slack and everything else, and getting it back means physically walking across the building. He works in an office with no outside light, wears earplugs and headphones and sets a kitchen timer for how long he expects each task to take. After a block of 45 or 60 minutes he takes a 5 to 10 minute walk to reset.

Put together, the method has two halves: a clock you can see and a phone that can’t reach you. Most people copy the first half and skip the second.

Why a big timer hacks your attention

None of this is magic. A visible countdown stacks a few well-studied effects in your favor.

Work expands to fill the time you give it

Historian C. Northcote Parkinson made this observation in a 1955 essay for The Economist and it became known as Parkinson’s law. “This afternoon” is not a deadline. “38 minutes left” is. A countdown shrinks the container so the work has less room to sprawl.

You speed up as the finish line gets closer

Psychologists call it the goal-gradient effect. In a 2006 study in the Journal of Marketing Research, coffee shop customers bought coffee more often the closer they got to a free drink on their loyalty card. A running clock gives you that “almost there” pull every few minutes instead of once at the end of the day.

Switching tasks leaves attention behind

Sophie Leroy’s 2009 research on “attention residue” found that when you switch away from an unfinished task part of your mind stays on it and your performance on the next task drops. One task per timer means no switching and no residue.

The phone is the biggest leak

UC Irvine researcher Gloria Mark reports that people now hold attention on a single screen for about 47 seconds on average. And in a 2017 “Brain Drain” study, people whose phones were in another room did better on cognitive tests than people whose phones sat face down on the desk. Later replications found smaller effects so treat that one as a nudge rather than a law. Still, it’s why Hormozi goes as far as he does with his phone.

Why “big” and “visible” matter

A timer hidden in your phone defeats the point: checking the time means picking up the one device built to pull you away. A big countdown in your line of sight works in your peripheral vision. You never have to check it so it never becomes an excuse to stop.

How to run the timer method today

1. Pick one task. Choose a single task and write it down. One task, not a list. If it's big pick the next concrete piece of it.
2. Set the clock. Set a countdown. 45 minutes is a strong default. Use 25 if you're out of practice or 60 to 90 once long sessions feel normal.
3. Make it big and visible. Put the countdown where you can see it without reaching for anything: full screen on a second monitor, a tablet on your desk or a physical kitchen timer. Not on your phone.
4. Kill the phone. Block your distracting apps for the length of the session or put the phone in another room. If checking it takes effort you'll stop checking it.
5. Race the clock. Work until the timer hits zero. No quick checks. If something does distract you, pause the clock so distracted minutes don't count. Hormozi does the same with his kitchen timer when he checks Slack. If you finish early start the next piece instead of stopping.
6. Break, then go again. Take a 5 to 10 minute break away from screens and then reset the timer for the next block.

Hormozi’s timer vs. Pomodoro

The Pomodoro Technique is the best-known timer method. Francesco Cirillo created it in the late 1980s. Hormozi’s version overlaps with it but differs in a few ways that matter.

If you already like Pomodoro, you don’t have to switch. Keep your rhythm and add the dead phone.

Common mistakes

• Using your phone as the timer. Every glance at the time is a chance to open something else.
• Bringing a to-do list into the block. One timer, one task. Pick the next one when the timer ends.
• “Just checking” mid-block. A 30-second check turns into a 10-minute detour and the residue lingers after that.
• Starting too long. A 90-minute block you abandon at minute 20 teaches you to quit. A 25-minute block you finish teaches you to finish.

The half most people skip: the dead phone

A timer makes you work faster but it can’t stop you from picking up your phone. That’s the part Hormozi takes most seriously and the part willpower is worst at.

That’s what Kappi is for. Start a focus session and Kappi blocks the apps you choose with Apple’s Screen Time until the session ends. Stay on task and Kappi is happy.