Many direct integration methods are used for numerical analyses of dynamic motion. In these methods, the governing equations of a dynamic system are integrated successively using a step-by-step numerical integration procedure. Time derivatives in the equations are generally approximated using difference formulas involving one or more increments of the time. Time increment has closely relationship with the accuracy of the motion analysis. In this paper, a 4th order Houbolt direct integration method is derived. For a spring-mass system, the motion of the system are analyzed from the 3rd order Houbolt and the 4th order Houbolt approaches respectively. Finally the paper proposes the optimal time-increment based on the accuracy of numerical analyses.