刻The original focus timer

Before clocks, focus was measured in incense.

Your focus timer shouldn't live inside the thing that distracts you. Ours burns on your desk: a low-smoke incense stick calibrated to exactly 25 minutes. When the scent fades, your break begins. The ancient Chinese called it 'one stick of time.' We call it deep work.

Light One. Begin.See our standards ↓
25 min calibrated burnLow-smoke blendNo phthalates · no dyes
Hourstick hero — incense stick burning on stone holder
25:00 ±3 min Effective burn time of incense sticks with no direct airflow
香Shop by ritual

The Study Hour Collection

Five scents for five moments of the working day. Each stick burns for exactly 25 minutes — so your timer sits on the desk, not in your pocket.

First Ink 晨墨
MORNING · 25 min

First Ink 晨墨

bergamot · yuzu · mint

25:00
$29.80

100 sticks per box · tip-proof ceramic holder included in the Starter Ritual set

仪The ritual

Three steps. Zero apps.

The incense clock worked for a thousand years because it made time physical. So does this.

Lighting an Hourstick incense stick
01

Light it

Strike a match, light the stick — and leave your phone in another room. Your timer is now on the desk, not in the app that distracts you.

Incense burning beside an open notebook
02

Work until it burns out

One stick, one task. The scent holds the room while the stick keeps the time — 25 minutes, calibrated to ±3 minutes.

Burned-out stick beside a cup of tea
03

Rest when it ends

When the ember dies and the scent fades, the block is over. Stand up, stretch, pour tea. Then light the next one.

验Our standards

Incense you can burn at your desk, with the window closed.

'Is incense bad for me?' is the first question every new customer asks. Fair. Here is what goes into every stick — and what never does.

Low-smoke by design

A solid-pressed, bamboo-free stick with no charcoal powder and no combustion accelerants — the two biggest sources of harsh incense smoke.

Clean-ingredient policy

No phthalates, no benzene compounds, no added dyes. Fragrance oils formulated to IFRA standards.

Prop 65 reviewed

Formulated against California Prop 65 listed substances — the strictest consumer chemical standard in the US.

±3 min burn calibration

A 25-minute stick is milled to land between 22 and 28 minutes in still air at 40–60% humidity — so the timer on your desk stays honest.

At a glance
Bamboo-free solid stick
No phthalates · no dyes
CPSC / FHSA labeled
CA Prop 65 reviewed

Questions about burning incense indoors? The FAQ covers room size, ventilation and safety.

Hourstick ritual — lighting an incense stick beside a notebook
宋Our story

A Song-dynasty timer for the notification age

In Song-dynasty China, scholars measured study sessions by incense: one stick, one session — 一炷香, 'the time of one incense stick.' Monasteries ran meditation by it. Poets timed verses against it.

We spent a year with perfumers and a combustion lab making that clock real again: solid bamboo-free sticks that burn at a stable, tested rate, in scents built for concentration instead of ceremony.

One stick of incense — that is how long the mind stays whole. After Lu You, Song dynasty poet
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