This elegant hourglass sand timer measures 15 minutes precisely from the start of each turn.

Our lives are so busy and frenetic; we are always forgetting to make time for what really matters. To make sure our priorities are well set, The School of Life have created a finely crafted glass sand timer to remind us to carve out 15 minutes a day for what truly counts. That isn't very long, and that's the point: it's longer than we often give to so many of the things we ostensibly think of as so important – like properly listening to a partner, rationally analysing our career ambitions, or playing in a concentrated way with a child.

The 15 minute glass doesn’t tell you what exactly to do with its allotted time. It just demarcates a very modest and manageable period – then it creates a floor beneath which it suggests we don’t fall. It delicately shames us into doing a minimum of what really counts. It is a gauntlet thrown down to our better selves.

Give yourself 15 minutes to finally write that letter to an old friend, or isolate a short window of time for quiet reflection on an important topic.