1,000 Hours Outside - Revisited

Last year I wrote a post about finding the 1,000 Hours Outside initiative and my attempt to achieve 1,00 hours outside in a single year. The last post can be found here. This year, I was committed to taking on the challenge again but I wasn't sure if tracking the hours directly was the best option for me. Last year, my tracking was a bit all over the place and sometimes it felt just like another thing to-do.  I think we got close to the 1,000 hours but it would be hard to tell.

This year, I was going back and forth with how to track and ultimately decided not to track at all. But I kept thinking, maybe I should get the app and actually time the hours. As a person motivated by this gamify type of app, I felt like it would keep me motivated and honest. I almost got the app.. it was only $3.99 but I kept wondering if I would really use it and if that would really be the best for my mental health - instead of having this fun initiative turning it into this stressful, mandatory, to-do list.

So.. what to do!?

I eventually decided not to purchase the app and instead just track the time by taking one simple photo of our time outside. I also put my own rules around it and just tried to capture one moment rather than continually having my phone out taking picture after picture.

After doing this for one week, here are the photos I captured:

It is a fun and simple reminder to get outside, to track our daily activities, and to remember the small and simple moments. This idea of tracking time by photos instead of tracking hours felt like such a big revelation to me. I am sure others have thought of it but felt like it could be an alternative for others looking for a different way to track!

Happy trails to you!