3 Minute Timer
Three minutes, with an alarm at the end. The length of a boxing round, a cup of properly steeped tea and a soft-boiled egg.
Counting down
03:00
Three minutes
Three minutes is the point where several unrelated things happen to converge. It is a championship boxing round. It is the steeping time on most black tea. It is a soft-boiled egg from a rolling boil, with a set white and a liquid yolk. And it is about the longest a piece of popular music has traditionally been allowed to run.
The cooking cases are the ones where getting it wrong is obvious. An egg at three minutes has a runny yolk; at four the yolk is thickening at the edge; by six it is set through. Tea left past its steeping time does not get stronger in any pleasant sense — it gets more tannic, which reads as bitter, and no amount of milk undoes it.
What all of them share is that the difference between right and wrong is about sixty seconds, which is well inside the range people misjudge. Three minutes counted in your head is frequently four, and four minutes of steeping is a different cup of tea from the one you wanted.
What people use it for
- Soft-boiled eggs from boiling water
- Steeping black tea before it turns bitter
- A boxing or sparring round
- Instant noodles and quick-cook rice
- A short timed presentation or pitch
How it works
Already set to three minutes — Start or Space begins it.
It counts down from the clock, so it is exact whether or not the tab is in front of you. That is the case that matters when the timer is in a browser tab and you are at the hob.
The tab title shows the remaining time, so you can see it from the tab strip without switching windows.
Change either field to make it three and a half minutes, or four.
- Space
- Start or pause.
- R
- Reset.
- Tab title
- Shows the time left, so a background tab still tells you.
Questions
How long should a soft-boiled egg go for?
About three minutes from the moment a fridge-cold medium egg goes into water already at a rolling boil gives a set white and a liquid yolk. Four gives a jammy yolk and six sets it through. Larger eggs need a little longer.
How long do I steep tea for?
Around three minutes for most black teas. Longer does not make it stronger in any useful sense, it makes it more tannic, which is what people mean when they call over-steeped tea bitter.
How long is a boxing round?
Three minutes at professional championship level, with a minute between rounds. Amateur and women's professional bouts often use two-minute rounds instead.
Does it sound an alarm?
Yes. The alarm is scheduled at the start rather than fired at the end, so it is on time even if the tab has been in the background the whole three minutes.
Can I set it for three and a half minutes?
Set minutes to 3 and seconds to 30.
Can I use it for rounds with a rest in between?
The interval timer is better for that — it runs work and rest phases back to back for as many rounds as you set, without you touching it between them.
Will it still work if I lock my phone?
The finish time does not move, so it is still correct when you unlock. The screen is held awake while it runs on browsers that allow it.