You need a five-minute timer. You reach for Clock on your iPhone, or you open Spotlight and try typing "timer 5 minutes" — only to remember macOS has no built-in timer at all. So you google a web timer, wait for ads to load, and hope you don't close the tab by accident. The whole detour took longer than the thing you were timing.
This happens dozens of times a week if you work at a Mac. Brewing tea, waiting for a build, giving yourself a deadline on a task — timers are one of the most basic utilities, and macOS simply doesn't ship one.
Why macOS makes quick timers hard
Apple added a Clock app to macOS Ventura, but it requires opening the app, navigating to the Timer tab, scrolling the picker wheels, and pressing Start. That is four steps for something that should take one. Siri can set a timer with your voice, but talking out loud in an open office is not always an option, and Siri's timer lives in a notification — easy to miss, impossible to glance at.
Web-based timers work in a pinch, but they depend on keeping a browser tab open. Close it or switch spaces and the alarm might never reach you. None of these solutions respect how fast a timer should be.
The fix: Tickpull
Tickpull sits in your menu bar and lets you set a timer by dragging. Click the icon, drag downward to pick a duration, release to start. One gesture, no windows, no typing. A live ring fills around the icon so you always know how much time is left without looking away from your work.
Quick break reminder
Drag to 10 minutes, release. The ring quietly counts down in the corner of your screen. When it completes, you get a notification with haptic feedback. No app to switch to, no tab to babysit.
Cooking from your desk
Steeping tea or reheating food while you work? Drag to 3 or 4 minutes, let go. The filling ring is visible at a glance even in a cluttered menu bar.
Timeboxing tasks
Give yourself 25 minutes on a report. The countdown sits quietly in the menu bar — present but not distracting. When the ring completes, you decide whether to keep going or switch.