I’ve just eaten some Ryvita with almond butter and banana, and flicked on the kettle in my shed to make an Aeropress coffee. In other words, I’m ready for action!

And, with that unnecessary introduction, let us begin.

For beginning is often the hardest thing to do. We tend to faff around a lot.

So far, I’ve mostly written about problems in nature and the outdoors. But we all actually want to be out there doing stuff! So why aren’t we? Why am I typing these words in my shed for a future you to read on your commute / lunch break / toilet? Why aren’t we both out there cycling through the warm spring rain?

A few reasons, I suspect:

1. Time
2. Money
3. Health
4. Procrastination

(Number 3 is a reminder to not waste too much of 1 chasing 2, and that 4 is very foolish.)

Today I’m going to try to help all of us get outdoors into nature more often. Even if you’re in hospital [wishing you a speedy recovery], looking out of the window at nature will hasten your recuperation.

Let me tell you about my most important piece of adventure equipment…

Is it a tent? Is it a shiveringly expensive raincoat? Is it a nerdy knife with lots of clever functions?

No.

My most important piece of adventure equipment is Google Calendar.

If I do not schedule adventure and getting outdoors into my calendar then it frankly doesn’t happen nearly often enough.

I’ve used my calendar for years to motivate me to make the most of my time. The grimly fascinating Deathclock website calculates your estimated date of death. I’ve put that date into my calendar: the ultimate deadline! If I want to do something on this earth, then I have until that day to get it done. Try it yourself.

We are all busy. Stuff happens. Life’s little stuff gets in the way. It becomes too easy to nudge exercise and fresh air down the priority list.

When I decided to spend a year exploring my local map, I knew that I needed to make it a weekly commitment rather than just vaguely saying, “this year I’m going to explore lots of places.” I would have been dead keen for a week or two, and then it would have fizzled out.

I enjoyed the way it helped me measure my year. To think about what had occurred in the past month and what my hopes for the weeks ahead were. All in all: it was a delightful experience. But it only happened because my calendar pinged on the first Wednesday of every month and told me that this was at least as important a use of 30 minutes as the rest of the morning’s Zoom calls.

Don’t just trundle mindlessly to your local Costa to meet your friend: have coffee in the woods, after a bike ride, under a tree in the rain – wherever you want, just be sure to schedule it into your diary.

I collaborated for a year with a fabulous papercut artist, Anna Brones, to come up with a tiny excuse for a monthly adventure based around our shared fondness for coffee and the great outdoors.

And so now we come to the crux: what will you put in your diary, RIGHT NOW, and commit to doing? Hit reply and let me know.

Because, in the end, if you’re too busy to spend a few minutes sitting on a log in the woods, then you definitely need to spend a lot of minutes sitting on a log in the woods…