diff --git a/applets/clock/clock.c b/applets/clock/clock.c
index c4f4a02..772b9e1 100644
--- a/applets/clock/clock.c
+++ b/applets/clock/clock.c
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ clock_set_timeout (ClockData *cd,
  		struct timeval tv;
 
 		gettimeofday (&tv, NULL);
- 		timeouttime = (G_USEC_PER_SEC - tv.tv_usec)/1000+1;
+		timeouttime = (G_USEC_PER_SEC - tv.tv_usec)/1000+20;
 
 		/* timeout of one minute if we don't care about the seconds */
  		if (cd->format != CLOCK_FORMAT_UNIX &&
