What the Countdown Measures
The countdown runs from the moment you load the page to the target date and time, using your device's own clock and time zone. It updates every second, so leaving the tab open keeps it accurate.
Everything below the clock is the same interval expressed in different units. Days and hours are the obvious ones; working days is usually the more useful figure, because it tells you how much time you can actually do something with.
Days Versus Working Days
A deadline eight weeks out sounds generous. It is 56 calendar days but only 40 working days, and after public holidays and a week of leave, perhaps 33. Projects are planned in calendar time and executed in working time, which is why the two numbers are shown separately here.
The working-day count treats Monday to Friday as working days and excludes both the start day and any public holidays, which vary by country and cannot be assumed.
Time Zones and Daylight Saving
The countdown uses your device's local time on both ends. If the target is an event somewhere else — a launch, a market open, a call — convert it to your own time zone first, then enter that.
Daylight saving is handled automatically, which means a countdown crossing a clock change will be an hour shorter or longer than the plain arithmetic suggests. That is correct behaviour: the wall clock, not the elapsed seconds, is what the event runs on.
Common Countdowns
| Occasion | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|
| New Year | 1 January | Midnight local time |
| Valentine's Day | 14 February | Fixed |
| Independence Day (US) | 4 July | Fixed |
| Halloween | 31 October | Fixed |
| Thanksgiving (US) | Fourth Thursday in November | Moves each year |
| Christmas | 25 December | Fixed |
| Easter | Varies, March or April | Set by a lunar rule |
The fixed dates are available from the drop-down above. Moveable feasts have to be entered by hand, since the rule that sets them differs from one to the next.
Counting Down Well
- Count to the moment, not the day. "31 December" and "31 December at 23:59" are almost a full day apart. Set the time whenever it matters.
- Work backwards from the deadline. If a task needs 12 working days and there are 15 left, the slack is three days, not three weeks.
- Subtract the unusable days first. Weekends, holidays, and the days already committed to something else. What is left is the real number.
- Recount weekly. A countdown set once and forgotten stops informing anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the countdown keep running if I close the tab?
No. It is calculated live in the browser from your device clock; there is nothing stored and nothing running in the background. Reopening the page recalculates it from scratch, so it is always correct.
What happens if I enter a date in the past?
It counts up instead, showing how long ago that moment was.
Are public holidays excluded from the working-day count?
No. Holidays differ by country, state and year, so the count uses Monday to Friday only. Subtract your own holidays from the figure shown.
How many days are there in a year?
365, or 366 in a leap year. The average over the Gregorian cycle is 365.2425 days, which is the figure used here when converting a long interval into years.