# Timers in Amazon SWF
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With a timer, you can notify your decider when a certain amount of time has elapsed.

When responding to a decision task, the decider has the option to respond with a `StartTimer` decision. This decision specifies an amount of time after which the timer should fire. After the specified time has elapsed, Amazon SWF will add a `TimerFired` event to the workflow execution history and schedule a decision task. The decider can then use this information to inform further decisions. One common application for a timer is to delay the execution of an activity task. For example, a customer might want to take delayed delivery of an item.