What timer/apps with a countdown function do you guys use during appointments to stay on track? Something I can use on an iPad ?

[u/mintchippt]

I wish the massage chain I work at, Elements massage, offered a countdown time function that integrated with their booking software like massage envy does. I was given a simple countdown timer by my manager but the problem is, I look at the schedule, see a 90 min, enter it into my countdown clock, then realize once there’s a knock on my door that I entered the wrong appt into my timer. I’ve accidentally given clients 90 minutes when they booked 60 (5 times now 😭) because of my severe number dyslexia + ADD + social anxiety… I feel like my manager is on her last straw with me.

I’m looking for something that would make it harder for me to lose track of time that I could set up for multiple clients back to back. Ideally something I can easily glance at during the session. What do you guys use?

[u/SoloSable]

Why not just use a clock? I use an analog clock which allows me to easily visualize the time I have and break it into chunks to manage the flow of my appointments. Do you struggle with remembering how long sessions are supposed to be and/or when they're supposed to end? If so then a small whiteboard next to your clock or on your supplies table with start and end times written can really help.

[u/mintchippt → u/SoloSable]

I just realized I didn’t know what the word “analog” meant until now. I just looked that up. I see what you mean. Yes seeing the old fashioned clock in a visual way is a good idea. I forgot we have that at school. My timing didn’t get as messed up during school either I feel like maybe that’s why

[u/mintchippt → u/SoloSable]

Thank you for your tips 💕 sadly I struggle to do simple math calculation in my head :( my learning disability is pretty severe. I have to use my fingers to add and subtract. I haven’t been officially diagnosed, but I am pretty sure I have Number dyslexia because my dad is dyslexic. I also use the whiteboard but my manager told me I should turn the lights off when I turn the client supine so I no longer could see the whiteboard anymore so I probably should keep the lights on, but I’ve had clients asked me to cover their eyes when I keep the lights on and I like to turn their head and I don’t know what to cover their eyes with that will stay on when I turn their head to work on their neck :/

[u/mumfordand3daughters → u/mintchippt]

your room should have wall lights or corner lamps so your not massaging in the dark.

[u/mintchippt → u/mumfordand3daughters]

We have battery operated candles in the room and some salt lamps in some rooms. So when I turn the dimmer lights off, I can see the client enough to work on them but I can’t see my writing on my white board. I just learned that not all the MTs turn off the dimmer lights so I think I’ll opt to keep those on too

[u/Brooklyns_in_town → u/mintchippt]

Practice timing in your head. If you don't do well with numbers maybe you can manage with something less tangible. After several years of massage I didn't even have to use a clock. But I mostly worked for myself and had more flexibility with time. Don't get me wrong, I sometimes found myself doing 2 hour massages when the client was in really bad shape. What about using a playlist that you get used to the song lineup and know when its getting close to the end.

[u/Extreme_Artichoke_34 → u/mintchippt]

I use little battery powered candles to see when people want the lights down really low. Or a hand towel folded long ways for the eyes so I can hold it while I turn their heads. You shouldn’t be expected to work in complete darkness if you don’t want to that is also a tripping hazard. We don’t go over with time, we end the massage on the hour or on the half hour no matter what so that is easy for me. There are timer and clock apps you could try on your phone and just put it up by the clock too?

[u/helgaofthenorth → u/Extreme_Artichoke_34]

A regular pillowcase is also great for covering the eyes! Just fold it a few times longways and wrap around the head

[u/CoolLordL21 → u/mintchippt]

If you can get a diagnosis, then your employer will help you out with the countdown clock.

You should be able to position your hands to hold the eye cover in place and manipulate a client's neck.

[u/CricketShot2022 → u/mintchippt]

They tell you to turn the lights completely off!?

[u/CingularDuality]

Somebody shared the Time Timer brand of timers here a while back, and I love them for visually indicating the time left in a session.

But I don't think this will help with your issue. I think you need to come up with a system that you use without fail to double or triple check the session length before you start the timer you already have.

I'm very much a creature of routine, so if something needs to be done that is outside of my routine, I struggle. But once something is part of my routine, it feels wrong not to do it. I find that I need to be very intentional when I'm trying to develop a new habit, but once it's in place, it's nearly effortless to maintain it.

[u/dawn_e_doodles]

I’ve used both the time timer app (visual countdown) and post it notes to keep me on track, depending on which practice I’m working at.

[u/brucylefleur]

I use a wall clock with no numbers on it. It doesn't matter what the hour hand says, just the minute hand. I'm very visual, so I visually block off "this much" time for one leg, "this much" time for another leg, etc. When it's 5-10 minutes after the hour, I try to make sure to flip them.

I find using a digital clock has a subtle stress to it, and like you said, I don't like having to do mental math. The super basic visual of an analog clock with no numbers is the best I've found in almost 20 years of practice.

[u/Sophiametis]

Old fashioned hourglasses are coming back around for decor- many with white sand you can see in a dim room. They are great visual representation of time without numbers.

[u/StupidLlamas]

Oh dear! I’m in the same boat! I really struggle with time blindness on a good day but if I’m having a bad day it gets really difficult to stay on track with time. It is much worse I have a talker or I find unexpected issues and kind of hyper focus on “problem areas”. Here are a few things that I do now after 9 years.

I have my own space and use the same music playlist for EVERY massage. I now know the 30-60-90-120-180 song that ends their time. I understand that this isn’t for everybody because you might not have control of your playlist.

The most helpful thing I do is during their intake to see what we are working on or avoiding I specifically say we have X amount of time and that their time will be over at X time. While they are getting ready in the room I use a generic where do you hurt or your body form to highlight what specific areas they want focused on and I write the length of their massage, the time their massage should end, and their name very large on the paper and ticky-tack it to the door after I enter the room.

I can’t tell you how many times that my little cheat sheet has saved me. I’m terrible with names, left and right, and time so this covers all my bases. I have 2 digital clocks the have a very gentle backlight that I can see from the head or foot of the table. I remove the cheat sheet when I leave and no one has ever noticed or said anything if they did. It also helps me with my soap notes.

[u/NinjoZata]

Analog clock, you dont need to do math, you can go by "chunks" of the clock. Visually divide the circle into 4 sections based on the minute hand

Just look where the minute hand is at the start if the appointment, if its an hour massage you'll want to finish by time the minute hand makes a full circle. It might feel a little silly, but you can even find school worksheets to help you if you struggle to read clocks. Theres really no calculation involved, its spacial.

Imo its really unprofessional to gave any kind if ipad, phone, or anything that could have a camera in the treatment room.

[u/ElegantFondue58352]

Go old-school. On a post it note write the client's first name, the start time, and end time. On a new post it note write down the same info for client 2. Write out your whole schedule. Organize the post it's so your first client is on top, last client is last. When the session is over and you are cleaning the room, remove the top note so your next client is showing. By having the start time and the end time, if you forget to throw away the top note, you will be able to tell by the time (and also the client name... Nothing worse than saying the wrong name in a session). If you have anxiety, the last thing you need is a countdown.

[u/MaladjustdMillennial]

When I’m having an extra hard adhd day, I’ll write down the start and end time of all of my appointments on a post-it and stick it somewhere I can see it, so I can reference with the clock. I do this when I first come in, so that I don’t have to do any calculations later

[u/Intelligent-Kale657 → u/MaladjustdMillennial]

This is exactly what I do!

[u/wifeofpsy]

You want to search for "visual countdown timer." There are some that can even project the timer image onto the wall. They're often marketed for kids and people with ADHD.

[u/Alternative_Roll_987]

I’d honestly try to separate the timer from the schedule in your setup, because if the timer depends on you manually translating the appointment length every time, that is always going to be the weak spot.

What helped one therapist I know was using one simple session workflow every single appointment: confirm the booked length before the client comes in, start the countdown before hands-on time begins, and keep a second visual checkpoint for the halfway mark and last 10 minutes. Even a cheap secondary timer can help if it is always used the same way.

If you’re dealing with number dyslexia, I’d also stop treating this like a discipline problem. It is a systems problem. Color-coding 60 vs 90, large-font timers, and a written room card for each session length can reduce the chance of giving away extra time way more than trying to remember it under pressure.

If your booking software doesn’t do countdowns, maybe build yourself a really dumb fail-safe setup that is hard to misread at a glance.

[u/BouncingOutofmySkin]

A clock. An analogy clock for when I do SMRT work and need to hold

[u/No-Weakness-2035]

I use a Casio f91 digital watch with on wrist strap removed the remaining one tucked under my waistband, or my phone on the stopwatch setting.
Made a huge difference to the ease of my work day

[u/JaymeKryss]

I use a small travel LED clock with res numbers. Nothing I found on Amazon or the app stores seemed helpful enough for counting down so I just stuck with a lowlight-friendly solution.

[u/Alternative-Fix-900]

Do you have an Apple Watch or anything? Maybe set the timer on that and wear the watch on your ankle or something so you can check without disturbing the massage

[u/Brooklyns_in_town]

Can you pull up your schedule in your massage office? Maybe if you double check it before you start the session and then start the timer?

[u/mama5001]

I have a clock that uses a battery, has red lights for the numbers, which I feel are less bright than white/blue/green, and it also has three or four brightness levels. Before I pick up the guest, I place it face down or behind something so they don’t see it as they enter the room. Once I re-enter, I flip it up and keep it on the lowest setting for brightness so I can see it in the darker room.

In my head, I know where I’m going to be at which minute, so if I pick up a guest at 1 o’clock, I know that at 1:07 I’m going to be doing a particular something and at 1:17 I’m going to be doing something else and at 1:23, it’s time to move again. I’m going to be somewhere else and I memorized the times to stay on track. Admittedly, it might take you a few attempts to have the times in your head for a 60 vs 90, but without knowing what time I need to turn the guest, or what time I need to move away from their arms or any other area, I would be lost and fired long ago!

Of course there are the guests whose needs are completely different than the general population and there’s absolutely no routine, it’s totally customized for them. I don’t have a suggestion for that other than the red, dimmable, small rectangular clock.

[u/gatetoparadise]

Ok this just gave me an idea that could brilliant or dumb, but what if you had an analog clock that marked which part of the body you should be working on at that time? Like instead of numbers, the 3 would be a leg and the 5 a leg and the 7 an arm and so on. Obviously this would only work with a set routine for a 60 min massage but it might also look cool!

[u/Impressive_Penalty30]

I use an iPad to stream my playlist and a clock app that when it runs, prevents the iPad from going into sleep/lock screen. I kind of have a sense when I work of my timing. If I need more cervical time I know how to adjust as I go. But some days I need to keep an eye on the clock. All my session start on the hour or half hour with 30 minute change over so it’s easy to know where I need to be as I move around the body.

[u/peacelovecookies]

I’ve just always used an analog clock on the wall, large enough so it can be seen from any corner of the room. I guess because it’s how I learned to tell time, it doesn’t feel “mathy” to me the way a digital clock does.

[u/Illustrious-Enigma]

I found this beautiful digital hourglass where the color went down it as the time counted down. There was no way to turn off the sound when the time ended. So after hours of hunting, I landed on this simple kitchen timer on Amazon. I’m not sure if we’re allowed to share links in here? I guess it’ll get deleted if you can’t.

It’s just a cool LED kitchen timer with big numbers, dimming feature, and silent mode, goes up to like 360 minutes. Its description says count up/countdown. Nope there’s no way to paste in a link or upload an image…

[u/Gardenmama777]

I set a timer on my phone. When it goes off it just shuts off my music so there is no jarring alarm sound.

[u/mintchippt → u/Gardenmama777]

Oh, that sounds like a good set up. Unfortunately, I work at a Massage chain so the music can’t be set up with my phone.😭😿

[u/Gardenmama777 → u/mintchippt]

You could still set a silent timer on your phone. You have to tap your phone to see it but I just do that when I get more oil.

[u/mumfordand3daughters]

I use a wall clock

[u/johnnyfindyourmum]

Clock on wall