I'm glad to see I'm not crazy, this is how I've always done it after trial and error of getting the process that works the best for me

I knew I wasn't crazy that it stops feeling hard when stirring at a certain point!

Yep. Grab it, spin it, set it back down--takes literally one second. I don't need microsecond precision for pasta.

If you don’t get the magnet variety, there’s almost zero risk of failure. Even the magnet variety is only going to stop being magnetic (if it falls off or the magnetism wears out).

I have a mechanical egg timer I’ve had for probably 35 years (mom got it when I was a kid and I inherited it). Super basic. Only way I expect it to fail is if I drop it, because the plastic is almost certainly brittle by now.

They are freakin wonderful little things.

I use the timer in the clock app on the phone. But also, I have a dozen preprogrammed timers that I can start from a shortcut on the home screen, and two timers in the swipe-down menu that are accessible even with the phone being locked. These are all implemented with the Automate app (for Android) — which, for better or worse, requires a bit of programming chops, even though the ‘coding’ is visual instead of textual.

I just keep forgetting to set the timer on my watch.

Advanced ADHD

I set a timer with my old Casio digital watch which cost less than $10 and runs for >2 years on the charge of a single button cell and whose strap I replaced with a cloth+velcro strap made by a neighbourhood tailor, who did it for ~ $1.

Instructions unclear, I no longer have toes.

Nope, add. I like my pasta al dente, btw. But if I rely on the time printed on the package they never are al dente but still kind of raw ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The fusili I have say 11 minutes but they need 12 - 15

If you're cooking the grocery store dried box pasta for 5 minutes it's likely gonna be undercooked.. and crunchy.. If it's fresh pasta 3 to 5 minutes sounds about right.

Well, some dried pastas in the store could be 5 to 8 I guess, but definitely not Barilla