Free Software: Two Minute Timer for OS X

Better late than never, I suppose

Many, many moons ago I wrote a tiny little two minute timer application for Windows as a free alternative to the $10 offering from the David Allen Company. I got more than a few emails asking for a Mac version. Well, ask and you shall receive!

This is a little different than the Windows version – it’s actually an Automator workflow converted to an application. Here’s what you’ll need to run it:

• OS X Leopard (10.5) – This workflow contains a couple of actions that are new in Leopard, so you’ll need to be on the latest/greatest in order to run it.
• Growl – Chances are, you already have this (several applications ship with it as an add-on). It’s a notification system that many 3rd-party Mac apps use (and worth checking out).

The first time you run it, you’ll probably get a warning about how you just downloaded the application blah blah blah – just click Open (and don’t worry – nothing funny going on, and I’ll reinforce this later on). You’ll see a Growl notification pane indicating that the timer is starting and, two minutes later, you’ll see another indicating that two minutes is up (as well as a friendly audible announcement of the same).

That’s just about it, no muss, no fuss. Enjoy!

Visit the software page to download the two minute timer application and the original Automator workflow (so you can hack on it and customize it to your hearts’ content). If you have any problems with it, feel free to get in touch with me and we’ll see if we can’t get things straightened out.