Stand up reminder on a Mac: three ways to set one up
Three ways to get a stand up reminder on a Mac: an Apple Watch, a repeating reminder in Reminders, or one that waits until you have sat for about an hour.
The quickest stand up reminder on a Mac is a reminder in the Reminders app set to repeat every hour. It works, but it goes by the clock, so it fires whether you have been sitting for an hour or just got back from lunch; an Apple Watch, or a reminder that counts your time at the Mac, does a better job.
macOS has no stand up setting of its own. This post walks through the three ways to get one, what each can and can't notice, and what to actually do in the minute you are on your feet.
How often should a stand up reminder go off?
About once an hour is a sensible target for most people. Health guidance, including the World Health Organization's guidelines on physical activity, says to limit sitting and break up long stretches of it, but it doesn't set an exact interval. There is no official "stand up every 30 minutes" rule, however often you see one quoted. Once an hour fits the way meetings and focus blocks already cut up a day, and it is often enough to stop a whole morning disappearing into one chair.
How often should you get up from your desk goes through the guidance in more detail. If standing up makes you dizzy, or standing or walking hurts, tell a doctor or physiotherapist before you build a habit around it.
Option 1: an hourly reminder in the Reminders app
This takes about a minute and uses only what is already on your Mac.
- Open Reminders and pick a list, or make a new one called Desk.
- Add a reminder called "Stand up and move".
- Click the small "i" beside it, switch on a date and a time, and set the time to an hour after you usually start work, such as 10 AM.
- Set Repeat to Hourly, if your Mac offers it. Recent versions of macOS do.
An hourly repeat has no sense of a working day and carries on through the evening, so you may prefer a few separate reminders instead (10 AM, 11 AM, 2 PM, 3 PM and 4 PM, say), each set to repeat on Weekdays. The details panel looks slightly different from one macOS version to the next; the date, time and repeat options are always in it.
The Clock app is the other built-in route: start a 50 minute timer when you sit down, stand up when it rings, and start it again when you sit back down. That tracks your actual sitting better than a fixed reminder, but only as long as you remember to restart it.
Good at: being quick and needing nothing new. Weak at: knowing anything. A Reminders alert fires at 11 AM if you are in the kitchen, in the middle of a video call or have only just sat down, and it arrives as the same banner as every other notification you have dismissed that day.
Option 2: Apple Watch stand reminders
If you wear an Apple Watch, it may already be doing this. The Stand ring counts the hours in which you stood and moved for at least a minute. With stand reminders on, the watch taps your wrist shortly before the hour, usually at ten to, if you haven't stood yet in that hour.
To switch them on, open the Watch app on your iPhone and look under Activity for Stand Reminders, or on the watch itself in Settings under Activity. The exact place has moved between versions of watchOS, so it may sit under a slightly different heading on yours.
Good at: knowing whether you actually stood, because the watch can feel it. Weak at: long sits that cross the hour. The watch thinks in clock hours. Stand up at 10:05 and that hour is done, so the next tap won't come until about 11:50, nearly an hour and three quarters later. It also knows nothing about your Mac, so it taps you during calls just the same, and it does nothing for you if you don't wear one.
Option 3: a reminder that knows you have been sitting
What most people actually want is simpler to describe than to build: a reminder that counts unbroken time at the keyboard, ignores the time you were away from the desk, and comes once you have been at it for about an hour.
That is the idea behind Stand up in Notchpals, where each character in your crew looks after one habit from the notch at the top of your screen. The Movement character in your crew keeps count of your unbroken time at the keyboard, and five minutes short of the hour it slides down (any time between 8 AM and 10 PM). With Nick, a fluffy white spitz who knows exactly when it's time for a walk, it looks like this:
NickYou've been sitting a long time. Me too. Let's both get up.
A few details make it fit a real day:
- It counts time at the Mac. If the keyboard and mouse sit untouched for 2 minutes, Notchpals marks you as away and stops the count. A proper break away from the Mac starts the count again, so the reminder doesn't greet you the moment you sit back down after lunch.
- It holds back on calls. If your mic or camera is on, it waits.
- It has company. The same Movement character asks for the odd stretch through the day and suggests one short walk in the early afternoon.
Later is a real answer, too. Mid-sentence? Press Later and Nick tries again twenty minutes on, if you are still sitting. A second Later lets it go, and not answering counts as Later. Nick takes it well:
NickI'll wait. I'm very good at waiting. Ask anyone.
It is honest about what it can't know. Notchpals has no idea whether you actually stood up; it trusts your Done. It keeps no stats or streaks, and the 55 minutes is fixed rather than something you set. To get it, Movement needs to be in your crew: Coach Flex, Bizzy, Honk and Nick all look after it (Chintu too, as an add-on), and "Try in notch" in the Browse window lets you see any of them in your own notch first. Nick's page has the rest of Nick's lines.
What to do when the reminder comes
A stand up reminder only helps if standing up is easy. Have a few ready-made answers so you don't have to think:
- Refill your water. It gets you to the kitchen and back, and it covers two habits at once.
- Walk to a window. Look at something far away for twenty seconds while you are there, and your eyes get a break too.
- Take the next call standing. If a call is about to start, stand for the first few minutes, or for all of it if it is audio only.
- Stretch where you are. Reach both arms overhead, circle your shoulders backward a few times, then rise onto your toes and lower slowly. Two-minute desk stretches has a fuller routine.
- Go somewhere on purpose. Use the bathroom on another floor, or deliver a message in person instead of typing it.
A minute or two is enough. The point is to break the run of sitting, not to fit in a workout.
Which stand up reminder should you use?
| Method | Knows if you stood | Knows you are at the Mac | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reminders, repeating | No | No | About a minute |
| Clock app timer | No | Only if you restart it | Every time you sit down |
| Apple Watch stand reminders | Yes | No | Switch on once |
| Notchpals Stand up | No, it trusts your Done | Yes | A Movement character in your crew |
If you already wear an Apple Watch, switch its stand reminders on and see how a week goes. If the hour boundaries let you slip, or you don't wear one, a reminder that counts your time at the Mac is the closest match to what "you have been sitting too long" actually means. And if you only need a nudge on the busiest days, a few Reminders alerts at set times will do.
More on using notchpals
Using NotchpalsWhat Notchpals knows about you, and what it never seesNo account and no analytics. What Notchpals reads on your Mac to time a reminder, why it needs each thing, and the only reasons it ever goes online.
Using NotchpalsWhy a character in the notch beats another notificationReminders fail when they look like every other banner. Why a character in the notch, with its own voice and better timing, gets noticed, not swiped away.
Using NotchpalsYour first day with Notchpals: setup, the trial and what to expectNotchpals sets itself up in the notch, guided by Blip. Each step of setup, the sample reminder, the menu bar, Browse, and what happens when the trial ends.