4 Minute Timer
A 4 minute timer counts down 240 seconds and sounds an alarm when it reaches zero. That is 0.07 decimal hours on a timesheet, or 6.67% of an hour.
A four minute timer is one full Tabata block, which is the only reason this particular length has a following.
Paused at 4:00
What a 4 minute timer is used for
Tabata intervals, the four minute mile, and French press coffee.
- A Tabata block
- Tabata is eight rounds of twenty seconds of work and ten seconds of rest, which totals exactly four minutes.
- French press coffee
- Four minutes of steeping before plunging is the standard method, and the grounds keep extracting until you do.
- Mile pace attempts
- The four minute mile stood as the barrier until Roger Bannister broke it in 1954, and it remains the round number runners pace against.
- The 4-7-8 breathing pattern
- Four minutes covers roughly twelve cycles, which is well past the four-cycle starting dose usually recommended.
Running a Tabata block against the clock
One four minute countdown is enough to run a Tabata if you keep track of the intervals yourself: twenty seconds of all-out effort, ten seconds of rest, eight times over. Choosing eight exercises in advance helps, because the exercise you are on tells you which round you are in.
Warm up first. The original protocol asked for maximal effort on an exercise bike, so treat the block as the hardest four minutes of a session rather than a warm-up in its own right, and build up over several weeks if high intensity work is new to you.
The 4 minute timer at a glance
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 4 minutes |
| Seconds | 240 |
| Decimal hours | 0.07rounded |
| Clock format | 0:04 |
| Share of an hour | 6.67% |
| Blocks per hour | 15 |
| Blocks per 8 hour day | 120 |
| Pomodoros (25 min each) | 0.16 |
| Decimal hours are rounded to two places, as payroll does. Block counts are whole blocks with no breaks between them. | |
For other lengths, use the minutes to decimal hours converter or the hours calculator.
Your focus time, counted and kept
A countdown tells you when the block ends. PomoTodo records that the block happened, which task it went to and what the week added up to, so a month of 4 minute blocks becomes something you can actually look at.
Free plan tracks unlimited focus time across unlimited tasks. No card required.
Timers either side of 4 minutes
If 4 minutes is the wrong length, the two nearest are 3 minutes and 5 minutes.
Questions about the 4 minute timer
Why is a Tabata exactly four minutes?
Because the protocol is fixed at eight rounds of twenty seconds of maximum effort with ten seconds of rest. Eight times thirty seconds is two hundred and forty seconds, or four minutes. The original study by Izumi Tabata used that structure on stationary bikes.
How long should French press coffee steep?
Four minutes is the usual starting point. A shorter steep gives a lighter cup, a longer one a stronger and more bitter cup. Use a coarse grind so the plunger moves down smoothly and fewer fine grounds end up in the coffee.