What is the proper way to set a timer in android in order to kick off a task (a function that I create which does not change the UI)? Use this the Java way: http://docs.ora
As I have seen it, java.util.Timer is the most used for implementing a timer.
For a repeating task:
new Timer().scheduleAtFixedRate(task, after, interval);
For a single run of a task:
new Timer().schedule(task, after);
task being the method to be executed
after the time to initial execution
(interval the time for repeating the execution)