Stop Watch

Trying to bring a little order into your task, or at least handle them in an efficient manner involves a good management of time. This can simply mean counting task duration to know what, and how much of workflow can be tweaked. In this regard, Stop Watch stays on your desktop, letting you know if you’re close, or in overtime.

The application comes in a lightweight package, and it takes a little while before you can check out the set of features. It shows up in a custom-made design, stripped of all elements of a regular window. It can easily be dragged around the desktop into a suitable spot, while taking no other space, neither in the taskbar, or tray area.

Note that the timer starts as soon as the application is active. Stopping, or pausing it is done from controls found in the context menu. Unfortunately, there aren’t any preset hotkeys for process status control, nor the possibility to configure any.

Customization options are almost missing entirely. Although the background color of the timer can’t be changed, it’s all for a reason. The color turns to red whenever you’re close, or way past the configured time limit. This is only one of the two operating modes, but the counter doesn’t stop there, nor alerts you in any way, apart from the different background color.

Another way to work is to simply leave it counting. Stopping doesn’t create a lap time, or log entry of any kind to help you track task more efficiently. In case a task starts as soon as you reach the desktop, there’s a dedicated option you can enable to make the application run with Windows. It can also be made to stay on top of every other window.

Timers, and counters can help manage tasks in an efficient manner. This is also the intention of Stop Watch, but feels a little rough around the edges, with no log file to count more actions, nor the possibility to set up an audio alert, or message prompt when the time limit is reached.