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About this tool
Chime at fixed intervals or at random gaps through a session, with start and end bells, to prompt brief awareness pauses.
The Mindfulness Bell Timer rings a bell through a session so you can stop, stay still and follow three breaths before carrying on — the 'bell of mindfulness' practice associated with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village tradition. Bells can be evenly spaced, which suits formal sitting practice, or scheduled at random gaps inside a minimum and maximum you set, which suits informal practice during a working day because the interruption cannot be anticipated. Opening and closing bells are optional, and the full schedule is listed so you know exactly what the session will do.
Open Mindfulness Bell Timer on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Set 'Session length (minutes)' anywhere from 1 to 180 and choose the Bell spacing: 'Fixed interval' or 'Random gaps'.
For a fixed interval set 'Minutes between bells'; for random gaps set 'Shortest gap (minutes)' and 'Longest gap (minutes)' and press 'New random pattern' to redraw the schedule, then tick 'Opening bell at the start', 'Closing bell at the end' and 'Play the bell sound' as you want them.
Press Start and watch the Time remaining clock, the next-bell countdown and the Bell schedule table turning each row from Waiting to Rung; 'Copy schedule' takes every bell time as text.
Pause-to-pause gaps are drawn inside your chosen range; the trailing gap to the closing bell (if enabled) isn't bounded by that range.
Each random schedule comes from a seed, so the same pattern can be regenerated or shuffled deliberately.
Every bell time is listed and marked as rung or waiting, so nothing about the session is a surprise to the person running it.
It is a sound used as a cue to stop and return attention to the present. In the Plum Village tradition the instruction is to pause whatever you are doing when the bell sounds, stay still, and follow three in-and-out breaths before continuing — a practice sometimes called 'stopping'.
Fixed intervals suit formal sitting, where the bell marks stages of a known session. Random intervals suit informal practice during work, because a bell you cannot predict produces a genuine interruption instead of something you brace for; the tool keeps pause-bell gaps inside a minimum and maximum you choose, though the closing bell's own timing isn't constrained by that range.
Ten to twenty minutes is a common starting length, and consistency generally matters more than duration — most structured programmes ask for daily practice rather than long sessions. This timer allows anything from 1 to 180 minutes so it fits a two-minute reset as easily as a long sit.
Usually yes on a desktop browser, but mobile browsers commonly suspend audio and timers in background tabs to save battery, so the bell may be delayed or silent. Keep the tab visible and the device unmuted for reliable bells.