Fill a pan with hot tap water, enough to cover your eggs.
Put the eggs into the water.
Turn heat on high and bring the water to a boil.
Have a timer ready. For hard boiled eggs, set timer to 9-1/2 minutes. For soft boiled eggs, set timer to 7 minutes. But don't start the timer yet.
When the water comes to a full boil, start timer. You can turn down the heat but leave it hot enough to maintain a full boil.
If you are making hard boiled eggs, while the eggs are boiling, prepare a large bowl of ice water.
When timer goes off, remove the pan from heat.
For hard boiled eggs, immediately put them into the ice water to cool them off. A slotted spoon helps for this. Once they have cooled, refrigerate the eggs you don't eat right away.
For soft boiled eggs, put them in egg cups and serve and eat immediately.