Introducing Hourly Sparks: Gentle Reminders for the Habits You Do All Day

Most habits happen once a day — a morning walk, an evening journal. But some of the best things you can do for yourself aren't once-a-day habits at all; they're little and often, spread across your whole day. Drinking enough water. Standing up and moving if you sit for work. Taking a screen break. These are exactly the habits people mean to do and then forget about by mid-afternoon. That's what Hourly Sparks are for — gentle, repeating reminders throughout your day, designed to help without nagging. Here's everything you need to know to use them well.

What are Hourly Sparks?

An Hourly Spark is a habit that repeats at a set interval during hours you choose — rather than just once a day. Instead of a single daily tick, you get a gentle nudge every 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes within your chosen window, and you log each one as you do it.

Some genuinely useful examples:

• Drink a glass of water — hydration is one of the easiest wins for your energy, focus, and mood, and a nudge every couple of hours keeps it on your radar. (More on why in our hydration guide.)
• Stand up and move — if you sit at a desk for long stretches, an hourly prompt to stand, stretch, or walk about can make a real difference to how you feel, and helps counter the effects of sitting still for hours.
• A quick stretch or posture reset — small, regular movement breaks are a simple way to look after your body through a long working day.
• A mindful breath or screen break — a gentle cue to pause and reset through a busy day.

The idea is simple: for the habits that benefit from happening repeatedly, a once-a-day reminder isn't enough — so Hourly Sparks fill the gap.

Turning Hourly Sparks on

Hourly Sparks are switched off by default — so if you've never wanted them, they'll never bother you. To use the feature, you first need to enable it:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Find the Hourly Sparks option and toggle it on.

Once enabled, the hourly option will appear when you create a custom Spark. (If you don't see the hourly setup described below, this toggle is almost certainly why — switch it on first.)

Setting up your first Hourly Spark

With the feature enabled, creating an Hourly Spark takes a moment:

1. Create a new custom Spark and give it a name (e.g. "Drink a glass of water").
2. Pick a colour and icon, and choose a category (Healthy Eating, Fitness, and so on).
3. Under Frequency, choose Hourly.
4. Set your active hours — the start and end time between which you want to be reminded. For example, 08:00 to 16:00 means you'll only get nudges during those hours, and never outside them. (No 3am reminders — your evenings and nights stay quiet.)
5. Choose your interval — how often you're reminded: every 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.

That's it. The app automatically works out how many "slots" fit into your chosen window, and you'll see them as a progress bar on the Spark's card.

The golden rule: choose an interval that suits you

Here's the most important tip for enjoying this feature rather than being overwhelmed by it: pick an interval that fits the habit and your day.

A reminder every 30 minutes is a lot — that's the right choice only for something you genuinely want to do very frequently. For most habits, a gentler interval works far better:

• Every 90 minutes or 2 hours is perfect for a "stand up and move" or "take a screen break" reminder — frequent enough to help, gentle enough that it never feels like nagging.
• Every hour suits hydration nicely for many people.
• Every 30-45 minutes is best reserved for short bursts or specific goals where you really do want frequent prompts.

You're completely in control here, and you can adjust the interval any time. If a Spark ever feels like too much, simply widen the interval or narrow the active hours — the feature is built to flex around you, not the other way round. This is very much in the spirit of HabitSpark AI: reminders should support you gently, never pester you.

A quick note on how slots are counted

One small thing that's helpful to know: the slot count is inclusive of both your start and end hour. So if you set a window from 05:00 to 06:00, that's counted as two slots — one reminder at 05:00 and one at 06:00 — not one. It's a small detail, but it explains why the number of slots might be one more than you'd first expect. Nothing to worry about; just handy to know when you're planning your day.

Logging your Hourly Sparks

Each time you complete the action, you log it on the Spark's card — and you'll watch the progress bar fill through the day (e.g. "1 of 10 today"). A couple of things worth knowing about how logging works:

• You can log each slot within its hour. You've got the whole hour to tap it off — so if your 2pm reminder comes and you get to your water at 2:20, you can still log it. No need to be exactly on the minute.
• Each tap logs the current hour only. You can't tap ahead to bank future hours — each slot is logged in its own time. This keeps your progress honest and meaningful: it reflects what you actually did, when you did it.

Hourly Sparks have their own section — and their own gentle scoring

You'll find your Hourly Sparks in a dedicated "Hourly Sparks" section on your home screen, below your daily and flexible Sparks. They live in their own space because they're scored a little differently — and deliberately kindly.

Here's the important part: missing an hour can never break a streak or fail your day. If you aim for ten glasses of water and manage seven, that's a good day — not a failure. Hourly Sparks track your progress and celebrate what you achieve, and a completed hourly day still counts toward your Total Sparks and can earn you badges. But they'll never punish you for a missed slot the way an all-or-nothing habit might. That's very much on purpose: this feature is here to help you build genuinely healthy patterns, without the guilt.

Turning it off (any time)

Changed your mind, or want a quieter day? You can switch Hourly Sparks off in Settings whenever you like — the same toggle you used to turn them on. It's entirely your call, always.

Little and often, gently reminded

Some of the most valuable things you can do for your health and wellbeing aren't grand once-a-day efforts — they're small actions repeated through the day, the kind that are easy to forget without a nudge. Hourly Sparks give you that nudge, on your terms: your habits, your hours, your interval, and scoring that celebrates progress instead of punishing misses. Set one up, choose an interval that feels supportive rather than pushy, and let those small, steady actions add up.

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Ready to try it?

Open HabitSpark AI, enable Hourly Sparks in Settings, and set up your first one — a glass of water every couple of hours is a perfect place to start. Little and often, gently reminded.