Sprint basics

A sprint is a shared timer. Someone starts a sprint, anyone who wants to take part joins it, and everybody writes until the time runs out. When the sprint is over, you report how many words you wrote and Sprinto posts a scoreboard.

Word counts are on the honour system. You type in your own count, and Sprinto never sees your document.

Your first sprint#

Start a sprint#

/sprint

With no options, /sprint starts a 15-minute sprint that begins in 1 minute. That minute is the join window: the time people have to join before writing starts. Sprinto posts this message when the join window opens:

SprintoApp

JOIN THE SPRINT The next sprint runs for 15 minutes and will begin in 1 minute. /join (with your starting word count), or /same (use your last word count).

Some channels and servers have their own default sprint, set by an admin, such as 20 minutes starting in 5 minutes. To see what /sprint would start in this channel, and where each setting comes from, use /explain .

Join the sprint#

/join

Join even if you started the sprint yourself. Only people who join are added to the sprint, and most new sprinters forget to join their own sprint at least once.

If your document already has words in it, give that count when you join. That count is your starting count:

/join word-count: 10000

At the end, report your new total. Sprinto subtracts your starting count to work out how many words you wrote in the sprint.

To start a sprint and join it in one command, add /join to the options:

/sprint options: 20 /join

This starts a 20-minute sprint with you in it, with a starting count of 0. To join with a starting count, use 20 /join 1000. To join with your last word count as your starting count, use 20 /same.

Write#

Write until time’s up. During the sprint, Sprinto posts nothing unless the sprint has chimes. A chime is a message saying how much time is left, such as “🔔 60 seconds remaining”. To get a chime 1 minute before the end, add chime -1 when you start the sprint:

/sprint options: chime -1

Chimes ping nobody by default. To be pinged by chimes, open /settings me and set Max chimes to 1 or more. More about chimes: Sprint (all options).

Report your word count#

When writing time ends, Sprinto asks for final word counts:

SprintoApp

TIME’S UP Please give your final word count with /words. You have 3 minutes.

Report the number of words you wrote:

/words count: 442

If you joined with a starting count, give your new total instead, and Sprinto works out the difference.

The time you have to report depends on the sprint length: 3 minutes for a 15-minute sprint. The time’s-up message says how long you have. If everyone in the sprint reports before then, Sprinto posts “All word counts are in! Results shortly.” and then the scoreboard.

To update your count during the sprint, leave a sprint, or cancel one, see During the sprint.

Reading the scoreboard#

When the time to report runs out, or everyone has reported, Sprinto posts the results:

SprintoApp

🏆 CONGRATS EVERYONE

= 1. @alex — 500 words (33 wpm) = 1. @sam — 500 words (33 wpm)     3. @jo — 120 words (8 wpm)      @kit — 95 words deleted (2% of starting words) Combined word count: 1,120 words over 15 minutes.

Everyone who joined gets a line: their name, the number of words they wrote during the sprint, and their words per minute in brackets. Tied sprinters share a rank, marked with =. If three or more people wrote something, the combined word count for the whole sprint is shown underneath.

Words per minute is the number of words you wrote divided by the whole sprint length, not by the time you were actually writing. If you join a 20-minute sprint 5 minutes late, your wpm looks low. This is on purpose, so the figure means the same thing for everybody on the scoreboard.

If you deleted more words than you wrote, your line shows the number of words deleted, with no rank. The percentage beside it is how much of your starting count you deleted. The percentage is left off when:

• your starting count is under 20 words
• you deleted fewer than 20 words
• you deleted less than 1% of your starting count
• you deleted more than 20 times your starting count

If nobody wrote anything and three or more people deleted words, the combined line shows the total words deleted instead: Combined: 600 words deleted (10% of combined starting words). If anyone had a starting count of 0, or deleted more words than their starting count, the line is Combined: 600 words deleted.

Under the results there’s usually one more line. Every second sprint, the line is a quote. On the other sprints, the line can be news from Sprinto’s developer, a reminder about /forgetme , a suggestion to start another sprint, a note that Discord is having problems, or, at the start of a month, a tip to vote for Sprinto on top.gg. Some sprints have no extra line. An admin can turn off the quotes with the show-quotes setting, or turn off the extra line completely with show-ps. See Settings.

If you forget to report#

You still appear on the scoreboard, with 0 words. To add your count after the scoreboard is posted, use /late:

/late count: 442

Sprinto edits the posted scoreboard to show your count. By default, /late works for 10 minutes after writing time ends. After that, the scoreboard can’t be changed.

Other ways to start a sprint#

/sprint takes options in any order, and you can combine nearly all of them.

The options box suggests options as you type. To have Sprinto explain the options you typed, end the command with a space and ?, or with help. Sprinto replies only to you.

/sprint options: 20 in 1 ?

Length and start time#

In the sprint options, a number on its own is the sprint length in minutes, from half a minute to 60 minutes. Add please for up to 2 hours. An admin can set a lower maximum length for a channel or server, such as 90 minutes, and please can’t go past the admin’s maximum.

/sprint options: 30

Synonyms

/sprint options: for 30 minutes

/sprint options: for 30 in 1

@Sprinto#2517 sprint 30

in sets when the sprint starts, in minutes from now. Use it to give people more time to join:

/sprint options: in 5

Synonyms

/sprint options: for 15 in 5

@Sprinto#2517 sprint in 5

To set both, give the length and the start. This is 20 minutes of writing, starting in 5 minutes:

/sprint options: for 20 in 5

Synonyms

/sprint options: 20 5

@Sprinto#2517 sprint 20 5

@Sprinto#2517 sprint in five mins for 20 mins

On the clock#

/sprint options: at :45

Synonyms

/sprint options: :45

/sprint options: at :45 for 15

@Sprinto#2517 sprint :45

A minute mark like :45 works without a time zone. To give a full clock time, such as at 11:45 or at 2:30pm, first set your time zone with /timezone : type a city, country or time zone name, such as Brisbane or PST. You can also name the time zone in the command, as in at 10:30 est. If you give a full clock time with no time zone, Sprinto refuses it and asks you to set a time zone.

Tip: put a space after :45 so Discord doesn’t turn :45 into an emoji. If Discord turns it into a clock emoji anyway, Sprinto asks which command you meant, with a button for each likely command.

In a bit#

/sprint options: iab

Synonyms

@Sprinto#2517 sprint iab

/sprint options: for 15 mins in a bit

Quick#

/sprint options: quick

However long#

/sprint options: hel

Synonyms

@Sprinto#2517 sprint hel

/sprint options: for however long

Pomodoro#

/sprint options: pomo

Synonyms

@Sprinto#2517 sprint pomo

/sprint options: pomodoro

Marathon#

/sprint options: marathon

For every option, including chains, breaks, flags and exact clock windows, see Sprint (all options).

Running it again#

To repeat the channel’s last sprint, use again or identical.

/sprint options: again

/sprint options: identical

again refuses to repeat a sprint that was set to a clock time with at or until, and suggests identical instead.

You can add changes after again or identical, with or without but:

/sprint options: identical but at :30

/sprint options: again in 2

See also#

• During the sprint — join, leave, cancel, and word counts
• Sprint (all options) — the full grammar