It was the middle of December, back in 2024, when I had an ambitious idea. What if I tried to set aside some time for a outdoor physical activity every day, for an entire year? Nothing too strenuous, I’m not running marathons or shattering world records – just set aside at least 10 minutes to do something active, and preferably outside – but it needs to be every day, and it needs to be tracked or recorded. No exceptions. No excuses.
To be fair, I’m already pretty active – walking, biking, hiking, and tracking myself either with Fitbit, or on Strava (not to mention gardening) – but it was nowhere near a daily routine. I think i had about 120-130 activities for 2024 in total by that time, so this would be quite a lift. Not only that, I would often lose the mobile signal when biking off-road, or would sometimes forget to stop the activity and hop back into the car, only to remember (and eventually discard that activity) a few minutes later. I was not consistent, and I knew it.
So I decided to build and maintain a couple of new habits: (1) doing the activity itself; (2) properly recording and validating it; (3) scheduling for it the next day. This would require re-balancing my work and life a bit. Heck, I may even learn to enjoy it. Data-driven progress. Also, for some stupid, traditional reason I decided to start this new endeavour on January 1st, 2025. I know, many of us (try to) start something new and challenging at the beginning of the year. And many – fail pretty early on. We’ve all been there… But guess what – it was relatively easy. Maple, Ontario (the town where I live) had a mild New Year’s Day in 2025, a high of -1C. And so a quick walk after the debauchery of New Year’s Eve was quite welcome. One down, three hundred sixty four more days to go.
I’m not going to list each and every day here, but will share a few weather insights from that winter: Jan.6-10 was double-digits below zero during the day; and Jan 20-22 dropped to below -15C. February was surprisingly milder, and March had more days above zero than below (also unusual for Canadian winters). I simply got lucky. We had a mild winter a year ago. It was easy to get into a daily routine, and although it was mostly walks and hikes (it’s too cold for me on a bike, although I do try sometimes), the habit was forming. I thought I had it. And then I missed March 4th (+4C, rain, Saturday, no excuse to stay indoors all day long), and again, I missed March 20th (+10C, cloudy, Thursday), but at least on that Thursday I had a good excuse: back-to-back meetings for work in the morning, teaching two classes at Seneca in the afternoon, and a lovely evening with Alan Cumming and Ari Shapiro at the Richmond Hill Theatre in the evening (with my wife). I just couldn’t find the time to walk outside, unless the 20 meters from the parking lot into the theatre lobby counts somehow :)
I did get better after this, but there were still a few more slip-ups later in the year. I missed five more days (or forgot, or was too lazy, or busy, or whatever excuse you want to insert here) – May 11, 28, July 24, August 15th and November 7th. After double-checking my activity logs, I missed seven days. 358 out of 365. I did not maintain the daily streak as planned. I failed in my own experiment…
…That’s one way to look at it – you beat yourself up, you stick to perfectionism, you give in to negative persistent thoughts. But no. I continued even after these slip-ups, and I still continue doing this in 2026. Why? Turns out I’ve been building other habits, and collecting other data points – which really add up to organic, positive reinforcement. Instead of asking myself “how are you going to find time for this today”, I gradually switched to “when are you going to be outside today”. Seems simple in retrospect, but going from “how” (strategy), to “when” (execution) did take time, and once that switched, I saw other scheduling benefits.
For instance, I noticed that my Winter activities are pretty randomly spread around the day, depending on my work schedule, but most of the summer hikes (or rides) are either first thing in the morning, or very late at night. Summers are getting hotter, even up here in Canada, and no amount of sunscreen, sunglasses or hats are going to help. We may THINK we like summers, but the amount of pleasant outdoor time – is less than in winter (at least according to my logs), so think about that for a minute.
I also started splitting my long activities into shorter intervals, and taking breaks. Not only to catch my breath, but to confirm that the app/tracker/signal is still working. Yes, they continue to randomly crap out, but at least I can catch it quickly and still salvage a portion of the distance/data, and not discard the entire activity altogether, like in the past. I also started doing more of these per day, once I got a hold of my schedule and was able to carve out a chunk of every day. So I ended up doing 3 or 4 activities per day. My (already active) vacations – became almost hourly logs of walking, hiking, biking, swimming, walking again (even if it was mostly to the resort bar). Sometimes I even caught myself walking to the furthest resort bar, just to get a few hundred extra meters into the app… it was becoming comical. But I got extra steps in, and strengthened those habits.
And another great side-effect – as I found more and more available time for these activities, I would deliberately take detours, or side-streets, to spend a little more time outside. I stopped thinking of ‘shortest distance is a straight line’ approach to my navigation. I deliberately started wandering in physical world, as my mind wandered more, and I explored more and more of the physical space around familiar hikes, trails, roads. I can’t tell you how many code errors I fixed in my head, how many design layouts I rearranged, how many marketing campaigns optimized – all without being anywhere near a screen or a device – all by letting the mind wander, and observing the world in a more active, participatory way. And just to be clear – I was already doing a lot of that before 2025. Work-life balance, gardening as technology-adjacent leisure, getting lost on bike rides, riding to niagara, taking my family on ‘Ride for Heart’ event. This ‘daily’ commitment just elevated a few things across the board.
It was a gradual change, but in many parameters – a change for the better. Tweaking the work/teaching schedule was not difficult. Adapting to weather – was a bit of an issue at first, but I solved it with creative clothing choices. Winter hikes only sound scary – the key word is ‘layering’. And always protect your ears.
Fast-forward to January 1st, 2026. It was -14C at midnight, and -10C later during the day. In fact this past winter has been colder, snowier, and lasted unusually long. And if I didn’t have that habit built up the year before – I don’t know how long I would last. Would I go out on Jan 1st (I did)? Would I go out when it was -25C (I did)? We had a few of those brutally cold days. But they seem different now. I went out, I layered, I tracked it, and came back alive without too much frost-bite :) Funny thing about habits – once you build them – you just intuitively do it, and add more, adjacent activities to them. For example, why just walk up and down the street, if I could shovel snow for a few extra minutes, and maybe go beyond the driveway, and shovel a portion of the street as well? And just for kicks, I’ll label the activity as ‘snow-walking’, because Strava shows it with a different icon? And if you’ve been in Toronto during this winter, it looks like a lot of times we all could have used actual snow-shoes.
I look forward to slightly warmer weather, because it’s not quite ready for biking. I tried it a few weeks ago, but it was too slippery, too cold, and even with my creative layering, and decent tires, I just didn’t feel safe on the road. Turned back, waiting for warmer (and drier) days. The first (long) bike ride is always so brutal on the body – I need to get it over with, and just get into the season.
Although I can trivialize it all and say ‘just go outside’, it’s a process. And it takes discipline. And starting ‘next Monday’, or ‘first day of the year’ sounds ambitious and exciting – it isn’t as easy – because we’re all creatures of habit. To repeat again – I was already pretty active, and this initiative was my own – no external pressure or need to do it – and still it was not perfect. And it looks easy in retrospect, mid-April, as I type this. Back in Jan-Feb – it was tough to get outside. I’m better at this now only because I’ve persisted. And I’m enjoying it a lot more – because at the end of the day, my family time, my work commitments, my teaching, house chores, personal projects, friends, other commitments – they’re still being done, they’re still balanced and happening.
See you outside? As more of us are chained to devices, we may need to make a better effort.