Small bash script I use to create timers from the terminal. Place it in your $PATH. When the alarm goes, a message is printed on terminal, a beep sound is played, a native notification is displayed and a message box pops up.

timer

#!/bin/bash

# USAGE
# timer <time> <optional message>
# timer 15 You've lived enough. Go die!

echo "Will go off in" $1 "minutes..."
sleep $(($1*60))
shift
echo "Time's up!"
mplayer /usr/share/sounds/gnome/default/alerts/drip.ogg &>/dev/null
notify-send 'Timer' "$*"
zenity --info --title "Timer" --text "$*"