Reddit mentions of Teacher Created Resources Small Sand Timers Combo Pack (20663)

Copy+paste'd from a similar cry for help.

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Trimming round times is key.

I bought a set of sand timers, though I only really ever use the 1- and 2-minute timers; putting that timer in front of the players who loooove to take their sweet time deciding who to hit or what to cast makes them hurry right along. Usually.

When time runs out, I demand they state their action, and if they still don't have something in mind, they lose their turn. Choice paralysis is a hell of a drug, folks. Of course, I make that clear from the beginning, so there's no hard feelings. There's no sense slowing down gameplay just because you didn't consider what you want to do in the 10 minutes it took to make it around the table.

Anyway, I wouldn't say it's as effective as I want to be, but it'll help more as the average level of the table goes up. A minute sand timer with a turn forfeiture penalty encourages fast thinking. But with 8 players, it might be worth looking at some different initiative methods:

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Another way to speed up initiative and keep the group engaged is... a little harder to explain in words than it is to do in practice.

Step one: Lump all the PCs and friendly NPCs into one group, then the opponents into another group.

Step two: The players and opponents take turns in round-robin fashion rolling initiative from round to round.

Example: On round 1 of combat, Ciel the sorcerer, who is closest to the DM's left, rolls a total of 13 for initiative, but the hobgoblin Iron Shadow rolls a huge 23, so all the opponents go first, followed by all the PCs and NPCs. Round 2, Strong LeStrong the barbarian, who is immediately to Ciel's left, rolls a very good 16, and the goblin champion rolls a 7, so on this round, all the heroes go first, followed by the baddies. And on and on and on.

Step three: Use those timers again to trim average round time.

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Finally, I'm thinking of giving this guy's take a fair shot. tl;dw, he does away with initiative entirely, both sides decide what they're going to do in advance, and then everything is resolved at the same time. In other words, except for something like holding an action and waiting for a trigger - "I'm going to hold my action, whoever attacks Ciel this turn is getting a hammer thrown at them!" - all declared actions and targets are locked in place and will go off as stated. Yes, that means we'll run into that archaic problem of characters attacking downed or already-dead characters, but that's the nature of the beast.