I'm trying to replace Thread.sleep with a java swing timer as I hear that is much better for graphics. Before, I had something set up like this, but it was interfering with the graphics. while(counter < array.size){ Thread.sleep(array.get(counter).startTime); //do first task Thread.sleep(array.get(counter).secondTime); //do second task Thread.sleep(array.get(counter).thirdTime); //do third task counter++ } Now, I'm trying to replace each Thread.sleep with one of these and then I have the actual events that happen after this, but it does not seem to be waiting at all. int test = array.get(counter).time; ActionListener taskPerformer = new ActionListener(){ public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt){ } }; Timer t = new Timer(test, taskPerformer); t.setRepeats(false); t.start(); Basically, how do I ensure that the program will wait without giving it any code to execute inside of the timer? Thank you!