Perhaps as long ago as 1600 BC water clocks were used in Egypt and Babylon. Ancient Greeks called theirs, clepsydra - the water thief.
Perhaps we ought to visualise time as a precious commodity. Since the runaway success of mechanical timekeeping, we are almost conditioned to see time in a circular fashion, but perhaps this is misleading - after all, and as we know, time does march.
Set a start and end time and you will see the level of the time beaker declining in real-time, proportional to time remaining.
Shorter intervals will be reflected in a faster movement. If the time interval is longer than 15 minutes, you may not easily detect the movement - but it is happening, come back and check whenever you like.
Monitor visually how much time is actually left to finish your project. Put an end to procrastination.