How to keep Hubstaff activity above 80% without touching the mouse

What Hubstaff counts as activity

Hubstaff splits your time into 10-minute intervals and, in each one, checks whether there was mouse movement and keystrokes. The activity percentage is the share of those intervals — more precisely, the seconds inside them — that contain input. It does not care what you were doing; it only sees that input happened, not what it meant.

Which leads to a simple conclusion: to hold the number you need steady, "alive" input across the whole interval, not one sharp burst at the start.

Why aim for 80%, not 100%

A flat 100% is a red flag. A real person always pauses — to think, to read, to step away for coffee. A report pinned to 100% for months looks unnatural and is the first thing to draw attention.

• 60–85% is the range most teams read as normal, productive work.
• Small dips and rises look natural — that is exactly how a person works.
• The goal is not "maximum" but "steady and believable".

What actually raises the number

Any input counts, but not equally. Short actions spread across the whole interval help more than one long burst.

• Keystrokes — arrow-key navigation, Tab, page scrolling.
• Mouse movement across the screen and the occasional click.
• Switching between windows and tabs.

Why "just wiggling the mouse" fails

The first idea that comes to mind is to nudge the mouse now and then, or rest something vibrating on it. In practice it solves the problem poorly.

Monotonous wiggling along one path is exactly the pattern that stands out from a human: identical intervals, identical motion, zero pauses. And most of all — you are still chained to the desk: step away and the activity stops.

The reliable way: simulate presence

It is far more dependable when a separate presence app handles the input and imitates a person while you are away. That is exactly what Reaction does: it moves the mouse along smooth curves, types safe navigation keys in a living rhythm, and occasionally scrolls and switches windows — with pauses, like a real person.

The key difference from a jiggler is variety, and that the process is not tied to you. Reaction runs only when the computer is truly idle, and hands control back instantly the moment you touch the mouse or a key.

• Smooth cursor motion along curves, not jerks along one line.
• Only safe keys — arrows and navigation, never your documents.
• Natural pauses and varying speed, so the percentage is not perfectly flat.

Settings that hold 80% naturally

A couple of options are enough to keep activity believable:

• Set an activity band of roughly 65–80%, not 100%.
• Turn on hidden mode so the window stays out of the way.
• Keep idle-only activation on — while you work yourself, the app stays quiet.
• Keep the pause hotkey (Ctrl+1) handy to stop the simulation instantly.

Use it responsibly

Reaction is a presence utility, not a way to cheat your employer. Use it in line with your agreements: it gives you back the right to normal breaks — it does not license you to skip the work.