Free no-account tool · Fixed flow reviewed August 2026
Urge Surfing Timer for Everyday Urges
This timer gives you a 3-, 5-, or 10-minute pause to notice an ordinary urge without automatically acting on it or trying to force it away. You do not describe the urge, create an account, or save an outcome. The urge may change or remain present; either result receives a practical next step.
Before the timer starts
Is this an everyday urge?
Use this timer for ordinary habits such as scrolling, checking, shopping, messaging, or an everyday snack choice when you remain safe and able to choose.
No account. No urge description. Nothing is saved or sent.
Stop here
This timer is not the right tool for a situation that is unsafe or needs qualified health or recovery care.
- Move away from immediate means of harm when it is safe and practical.
- Contact a trusted person and an appropriate qualified health, recovery, or crisis service.
- Use the correct local emergency service if there is immediate danger. In Spain and the EU, call 112; elsewhere, use the correct local emergency number.
Choose a realistic pause
Ready when you are
3 minutes set aside.
The aim is a pause and a new choice—not forcing the urge to disappear.
Pause in progress
3 minutes remaining
Notice the pull without naming it good or bad.
Pause stopped
What would be useful now?
Ending early is allowed. It does not mean the pause failed.
Pause ended
You can leave the exercise here.
Return to the resource map if another ordinary next step would be more useful. No completion or product action has been recorded.
See everyday-urge resourcesThe chosen pause is complete
What is true now?
Completion means the timer ended. It does not mean the urge had to disappear.
A practical next step
The urge changed.
- Choose the next ordinary task.
- Move farther from the trigger if that helps.
- Repeat later only if another pause feels useful.
- Add practical distance from the action if you can.
- Contact a trusted person if staying in choice is becoming difficult.
- Choose different support if this is no longer an ordinary habit urge.
A single pause and a structured sequence are different formats.
See the structured Craving ProtocolCreated by Alex Zah. Alex benefits financially if you buy it.
A bounded practice
What urge surfing means
Urge surfing means observing an urge without automatically acting on it or trying to force it away. The SAMHSA counseling manual and the VA tobacco-support manual describe the practice inside substance and tobacco support programs. Those sources support this definition only. This timer does not deliver those programs or establish their outcomes.
No universal countdown
Why the timer does not promise an endpoint
An urge can change, stay present, return, or become more or less noticeable. Three, five, and ten minutes are chosen pause lengths, not predictions. The countdown measures only the time you selected; it does not measure urge intensity, success, safety, or readiness.
Exact tool behavior
How privacy works
The tool asks for no urge description, type, intensity, body location, reason, category, health label, name, account, or free text. Scope choice, duration, countdown, cue, pause, stop, completion, outcome, and support state stay in current-page memory. Nothing is saved or sent. Reloading, leaving, closing, or opening a new tab restores nothing.
There are no cookies, browser-storage records, URL state, form posts, API requests, notifications, service workers, wake locks, vibration, or audio. The only permitted aggregate lifecycle events are tool_start, tool_complete, and tool_cta_click, carrying only the public tool identifier and page path. Duration, timer state, cues, outcomes, and support use are never included. The support route emits no lifecycle event.
Read the broader privacy standard for qualifying fixed-choice browser tools.
Know the limit
What this tool cannot do
It cannot diagnose, provide addiction or withdrawal care, prevent relapse, provide care for purging, restriction, or bingeing, give nutrition advice, assess risk, or provide crisis support. It cannot guarantee an urge will change, and normal completion does not mean that it did.
For a different ordinary starting point, use the everyday-urge resource map. To compare formats before using an app, see five current urge-surfing tools.
Questions people ask
Before using the timer
What is urge surfing?
It is a practice of observing an urge without automatically acting on it or forcing it away. The cited SAMHSA and VA manuals teach it inside substance and tobacco support programs; this browser timer does not provide those programs or outcomes.
Will the urge disappear before the timer ends?
It may change or remain present. The timer creates a chosen pause and does not predict a universal duration.
Does the tool store what the urge was?
The tool never asks what the urge was. Duration and result choices remain only in current-page memory and disappear when you reload, leave, or close the page.
Can I use this for withdrawal, purging, restriction, or bingeing?
No. It is not withdrawal, addiction, eating-related, or crisis care. Use qualified support.
What if I stop early?
Ending a pause is allowed and is not failure. An early stop does not count as completion and does not show the product offer; you can return to the neutral resource hub or choose different support.
Sources and tool ownership
Alex Zah publishes this timer and owns the separate paid Craving Protocol. The technique sources below are cited only for a limited definition.