Do you want to spend more time outside?
In this age of electronics there’s a growing appreciation for all the amazing life benefits gained from spending lots of time outside.
Nature is a free source of fresh air & simple enjoyment that calms the mind & body, releases stress and improves happiness.
But even with this understanding of nature’s role for overall life satisfaction, I still commonly hear from folks who really struggle to spend time outside.
The fact is for most people life is just very busy!
If you want to more spend time outside, you need to have practical strategies that actually integrate with your busy lifestyle to make it easy.
So today I’m excited to give you a whole host of my favorite ideas to help you spend more time outside!
One of the main reasons I’ve been so successful with my own nature studies is because I use the exact tips in this article and make them part of my daily lifestyle.
So whether you live in a quiet countryside, or in the middle of a big urban city… and even if you work 50 hours per week while taking care of 3 kids at home during the evenings.
Here’s how to spend more time outside…
1. Make Nature A Priority
A big part of why many people struggle to find time outside is simply because they don’t make it enough of a priority.
Now I’m not saying you need to make your outside time more important than your family, or getting enough food and paying the bills.
But if you’re like most people then there are probably countless things you do every day that fall into the category of low priority.
Think about it… what are some of the lowest priority or time wasting things you do every day?
- How much time do you spend watching TV or Netflix?
- How much time do you spend surfing the internet for things that aren’t actually adding value to your life?
- What else do you do to waste your time on low priority things?
If you’re doing these low priority things, but you can’t find 10 minutes to get outside and do something you love, that means you’re not prioritizing being outside!
For me, a big part of making nature a priority simply comes from realizing how much of a positive effect even 5 or 10 minutes of quiet time outside can have on your life.
Spending time outside is a lot like having a meditation practice. It really does improve functioning in all areas of life!
So what if rather than enjoying nature as an occasional luxury, you start to view the outdoors as something essential to your everyday wellbeing like a vitamin?
Could you give up 10 minutes of television every day in order to gain 10 minutes of outdoor bliss?
This is a great way to start getting more time outside… simply make nature more of a priority!
2. Ask Yourself – What Do You Love About Nature?
- What do you love to do outside?
- Is there a certain way that nature makes you feel?
- What happens in your mind & body when you get close to wild animals or take in the peaceful vibe of a forest?
- What kinds of outdoor skills or activities are most rewarding for you personally to focus on?
The more honest you can be with yourself about your favorite things to do outside, the easier it will be to get your butt out the door!
Very often when people struggle to spend time outside, it’s because you’re doing it for someone else’s reasons rather than for your own joy.
Maybe you heard that spending time outside will make you a happier person, or help you think more clearly and make better decisions, or lead to improved empathy & success in your relationships.
And while these things are probably true… it’s much more important to focus on your own passions & interests, whatever these happen to be.
It’s all about doing what lights your personal fire because that will be infinitely more inspiring & motivating to you.
For some people, this might mean taking time to veg out under a big tree and listen to the birds & squirrels.
For others, it might mean getting your body moving as you investigate and explore new parts of the landscape.
Maybe there are particular skills you want to learn like animal tracking or plant identification, or shelter building!
This is your time to be outside and do whatever makes you happiest.
There’s no right or wrong answers, and the more clearly you can identify your personal passions, the more effortless & natural it will be to spend more time outside.
3. Make It Easy To Get Outside
What’s the easiest thing you could do to get yourself outside more often?
In my own work mentoring people to connect with nature through real life observation skills, one of the biggest mistakes I commonly see is that people make their outside time WAY too complicated.
Some people think the only way to spend time outside is by going on big retreats and camping trips into the wilderness, often requiring many hours driving in a car just to get to the starting point.
They turn nature into this big planning mission that requires hours of thought before they even get out the front door.
But this is actually just putting blocks in front of yourself.
It really doesn’t need to be so complicated.
I’ve witness many people develop incredibly rich and rewarding relationships with nature simply by making a personal commitment to spend 20 minutes in their backyard every single day.
I’ve met other folks doing the same thing from their apartment balcony, or a weekly visit to their local park!
In most cases, the easiest way to get outside is with a fun little activity called “The Sit Spot”.
This is where you choose a single place outside in nature that you visit as often as possible to practice conscious nature observation & sensory mindfulness exercises.
Using a sit spot makes it easy to get outside because it removes all the planning and decision-making, giving you a fun outdoor routine close to home.
I know people who have been visiting the same backyard sit spot every day for 10, 20 even 30 years!
The cool thing is as you develop an ongoing relationship with your sit spot, you’ll find yourself enjoying nature more and more with each passing day.
You’ll succeed at connecting with nature not because you live in unbroken wilderness, but because you focus on what makes it easy.
4. Make Nature Part Of Your Lifestyle
There was once a time when all people lived side by side with nature.
We slept more or less outside. We ate outside. We hunted and gathered our food outside.
Everything in our culture was based around nature, and this is true for all people if you go back far enough in history.
In the original nature based cultures it would be unheard of for someone to struggle with spending time outside because our lifestyle was integrated with nature.
Now obviously a lot has changed in modern times, resulting in new opportunities and also challenges.
But with a bit of creativity, you can still connect even a modern lifestyle with the outdoors, making it much more natural to spend more time outside.
A good way to do this is to ask yourself: What am I currently doing inside, that could just as easily be done outside?
If you think about it, there’s a lot of things that you currently do inside, that could just as easily be done outside (at least some of the time).
Activities like eating meals or having tea with friends, reading & relaxing at the end of a day… these are all great ways to spend more time outside without changing a single thing in your schedule!
In fact, some of these things you might already be doing, but the difference is now you can focus on doing it more consciously.
As you’ll see in the next tip, the big challenge is very often not a lack of time or opportunities, it’s the quality of attention & awareness you bring to the moment.
5. Focus On Quality Not Quantity Of Time Outside
A big part of my outdoor philosophy is that quality of time is much more important than quantity of time.
You could spend your entire life in the forest blasting music, talking loudly on your cellphone, jogging around in heavy boots and never have a single meaningful outdoor experience.
And likewise, if you truly take the time to slow down and really be present with your surroundings, you can gain amazing benefits and experiences with as little as 5 or 10 minutes in a city park.
This is because it’s not about how much time you spend outside, it’s about the quality of awareness and attention you bring to whatever time you do have.
Most people vastly overestimate the amount of time required to develop a meaningful personal relationship with the outdoors.
They also vastly underestimate the incredible advantage of applying conscious awareness & mindful observation for even just a few short minutes every day.
Improving the quality of time you spend outside is easy. All you have to do is focus on sensory awareness and having real life experiences that you can see, hear, feel & sense.
If you want to spend quality time outside, you don’t want to be up in your head, all distracted, and thinking about other things…
Instead, you take the time to really watch and listen, observe, feel the ground beneath your feet, and the sunshine on your face.
Sensory awareness will bring you into the moment and help you get so much more from your time outside.
Having quality experiences is something you can always focus on whether you have hours to explore outside, or just a few minutes in the morning before heading off to work.
6. Give Yourself Small Challenges
One of the best ways to build a habit of spending more time outside is to give yourself small challenges that bring easy success.
This is a great way to enlist extra motivation and push yourself past the initial burst of energy required to get momentum started.
The key to giving yourself effective nature challenges is to choose something that stretches you without causing discouragement.
Always remember challenges are relative to you as an individual, so you shouldn’t compare yourself to what anyone else is doing.
For one person, a great challenge could be to spend 20 minutes just sitting quietly in a nice outdoor spot practicing nature awareness techniques.
For someone a bit more seasoned in the woods, you might challenge yourself to go 60 minutes and really let yourself soak it all in.
If you do this around dusk you’ll get to watch some really dramatic changes happen right before your eyes.
But again – Don’t confuse length of time with quality!
As you become more advanced you can also challenge yourself to see if you can pack 60 minutes worth of observation into 20 minutes of actual time.
And if you really want to become more consistent and make nature a daily habit, try giving yourself a 7 day challenge to spend 20 minutes outside every day for 7 days.
When you get 7 days in a row, try going for a month!
Always pay attention to how you feel as you do this.
Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew, because that just leads to discouragement.
Remember, everyone develops at their own pace and it really doesn’t mean anything about you personally.
It might just be you have more demands on your time, and that’s okay! You’ll still get there if you just keep at it.
If you fail a nature challenge, don’t be upset. As long as the challenge helped you get outside a little bit more than before, that’s what we call success!
Use the feedback of missing a mark to learn from what happened and either create a new challenge, or try again with the benefit of your new experience!
Keep pushing your edges and soon you’ll be hitting your goals.
7. Post Reminders In Your Home
For some people, the hardest thing about getting outside is remembering to fit it into your busy schedule.
If your life is very busy, you might start the day with every intention of getting outside, but then 10PM arrives and somehow the entire day passed without any break!
This is particularly common for people who are always on the go, or if the desire to spend more time outside is very new for you.
In this case, it can be extremely useful to post reminders of your goals & interests around your home.
This can be as simple as a sticky note on your bathroom mirror with a question like, “What’s happening outside today?” or “How many birds can you watch today?”
You can get really creative and post reminders next to your front door, or even on your shoes to trigger yourself every time you head out the door (more about awareness triggers in a later tip).
You can also fill your space with natural artwork, or little nature mysteries you’ve collected on your outdoor adventures.
If there are particular skills or interests you want to develop, try to use a decoration scheme that reminds you of these things, or buy some inspirational books and leave them out on the coffee table.
The more you fill your space with things that remind you what you want to do and experience outside, the more likely you will be to remember and plan your day according to these things.
8. Get Outside First Thing In The Morning
Another tip if your life is very busy… sometimes the best way to guarantee you spend time outside is to do it first thing in the morning.
First thing in the morning your mind is most clear & capable of making positive decisions that are good for you.
Normally as the day goes on, your plate gets more and more full of other people’s priorities, and reacting to unplanned events that need attention.
So by starting your day with nature, you can get it done and move through your day with the satisfaction knowing that you already accomplished your nature goal for the day!
Early in the morning is also one of the best times to be outside anyways…
There’s less noise pollution, the birds & animals are more active, and it gives you those few precious minutes of reflection & solitude to connect with yourself in a distraction free environment.
You might even find the rest of your day goes much better because you give yourself space for sensory awareness and meditation outside before moving on with other things.
9. Start A Garden
If you have space for a garden at home, one of the simplest ways to help yourself spend more time outside is by starting a garden.
Growing even a small amount of your own food is yet another way of integrating your life with nature.
This gives you a great excuse to step outside and gather up some fresh herbs & edibles.
And while you’re out there, you can use this opportunity to appreciate the beauty of nature, listen to some birds in the distance and check in with the natural world.
This can even be done on an apartment balcony inside a plant box.
As far as deciding what to grow… I personally recommend starting with some perennial edible plants.
These are plants that you put in the ground once, and they continue to grow year after year with minimal maintenance, other than a bit of mulching & harvesting.
Perennial plants with edible qualities are the simplest way to get the maximum amount of benefit for the least amount of effort.
Starting your garden will continually pull you outside to harvest fresh food, and it also creates habitat for interesting animals you can observe.
10. Use A Nature Awareness ‘Trigger‘
Here’s an important key to making the most of your time outside…
Anything that reminds you to engage a deeper state of awareness & attention with your surroundings will expand the benefits you gain from each moment outside.
As I mentioned earlier, a big part of why people feel disconnected from the outdoors isn’t because there’s not enough time outside… It’s because you have a low quality of attention & awareness!
Think about it… how much time are you already spending outside that you don’t count simply because your awareness isn’t truly present?
Every time you step outside, whether you realize it or not, you’re surrounded by opportunities to get tuned in more deeply.
Even walking from the car to your front door or place of work, there are birds chirping, little dandelions & plants growing in the cracks of the sidewalk.
Nature is always around us, but you won’t see it unless your mind is open!
Most people walk around in a state of semi-conscious blindness to their surroundings.
But if you can simply remind yourself to wake up and pay attention, suddenly you can use all these incidental moments to get tuned in!
So a nature awareness trigger is simply any feature of your environment that reminds you to slow down and pay attention.
Here’s a great example:
My favorite nature awareness trigger is the front door of my home.
Anytime I step through that front door, I’ve trained myself to use this as a conscious reminder to slow down and take a few moments to open my senses.
Sometimes it’s just 30 seconds of listening & watching, or other times I might stand completely still for 3 or 4 minutes, attuning myself to the landscape before moving on.
Another awareness trigger I use is the sound of birds… I’ve trained my senses to automatically trigger any time I hear a bird or other animal noises.
Even when I’m walking down a busy street surrounded by cars & buildings, if a bird makes a sound anywhere within earshot, it automatically reminds me to step outside my self absorbed thought bubble and connect with the larger world.
You can very easily build yourself an awareness trigger simply by practicing the behavior a few times.
- Choose something you frequently see/hear/encounter in your surroundings.
- Practice using that sight or sound as a trigger for slowing down and opening up your senses.
The first few times you do this will take some conscious attention, but pretty soon you’ll notice that the sight or sound of your chosen trigger starts to instantly remind you to perk up and get into the moment.
When a trigger is repeated several times per day, pretty soon it starts to add up and you start moving through life with a whole new level of attention during your little moments outside.
Doing this one simple exercise will cause a dramatic transformation in your appreciation of nature.
It will actually cause you to see birds, plants & trees in places that you formerly believed were completely absent of natural beauty.
Suddenly nature is at your fingertips anytime you step outside… simply because you’re actually paying attention!
11. Do An Outdoor Retreat
Normally I recommend people aim to integrate nature with your normal daily life because then you get the benefits of spending time outside every day.
However, this doesn’t mean an occasional retreat doesn’t also have it’s place.
Sometimes taking an entire weekend away to just be outside in a truly wild location can give you a great kick in the pants that lasts for many months after.
This is your time to forget everything about modern life, or work and paying bills, to simply rest your brain and recharge with big trees & bird songs.
Then when you return home after a few days in the woods, you might notice it’s easier to keep up with a shorter daily routine to maintain the connection without needing full 24/7 immersion.
12. Start A Nature Club
If you’re one of the many people who has trouble motivating yourself to get outside alone, then you might benefit from starting a local nature club.
All you have to do is find a small group of like minded friends to go exploring with.
Starting a nature club is an amazing way to spend more time outside for a few reasons.
First – you get the external motivation of having others around you, all sharing interest and knowledge of birds, plants, trees, etc.
Second – because you’re in a position of leadership or organization, it increases your engagement in the process. You HAVE TO show up and be at your best, because you’re the leader.
Third – everyone sees the world through unique eyes. We all have different knowledge, passions & interests. More people means more eyes and ears pointing things out and spreading excitement to you.
Your passions will feed the other participants, and their passions will also feed you. The result is everyone involved gets a lot more time outside!
13. Find A Nature Buddy
But what if you’re too shy to start a nature club? Or what if you can’t find enough people?
Well, as a scaled down version of starting a nature club, all you really have to do is find one individual person who shares your excitement for birds, plants, trees, insects, or whatever it is you love to do outside!
A nature buddy can provide most of the same benefits of starting a nature club, and it’s even more simple to get started!
14. Share Your Nature Stories & Inspiration
Sometimes the best way to inspire and motivate yourself to spend more time outside starts with a simple conversation.
Have you ever noticed what happens when you talk about your passions for the outdoors with a good listener?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shared a fun raccoon story, only to have 3 or 4 other raccoon stories emerge from the people I’m talking with.
Then before you know it 20 minutes have passed and everyone is feeling super inspired to go exploring for animals outside.
This isn’t an accident! In fact, humans have been sharing stories about nature since we first developed the communication skills to do it.
There’s a natural urge inside every person to talk about our nature encounters, or cool moments of discovery and adventure in the forest.
It’s a big part of how we learn & share knowledge of our land… but it also gets us primed and ready for our next adventure.
So ask yourself:
- What are some of your favorite memories of being outside?
- Who can you share your stories with?
- What are you inspired to explore for your next adventure?
Putting Together Your Outdoor Adventure Plan
If you want to spend more time outside, always remember there are creative solutions for every situation.
No matter what you might think is stopping you from having a truly rewarding relationship with nature, I hope you come away from this article realizing there are way more options than you probably ever realized.
Just look for every opportunity to spend even a few short minutes outside every day if possible, and always bring 100% of your focus and attention to being present.
The possibilities are limitless, and the rewards are tremendous… so get started today, and keep me posted on what you discover out there!
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