1000 hours outside
1000 hours outside
How many hours did you spend outside in the last year? Our Happiness Ambassador knows the precise answer to that question, and what it means for our wellbeing.
In September 2023 I set myself the challenge to count how many hours I spent out of doors in a year – a leap year, so 366 days. The aim was to spend 1000 hours outside and I assumed I’d cover that easily in 366 days. I guessed I was averaging 2 hours a day and with a bit of effort I thought I could bring that up to 3.
My data collecting ran from 21st September 2023 to 20th September 2024, when I was disappointed to find I’d reached a total of only 787.5 hours outside. This was a daily average of 2hours and 9 mins a day; 35 minutes a day short of my 1000 hour target. That didn’t seem like a big deal at first. Two hours every single day is quite an achievement in our climate, and it’s exactly the figure I’d always guessed – so why did having that measured and confirmed bother me?
I’ll get to that bit in a minute.
I remained in the land of no surprises when August came out as the month with the most time spent outside (4 hours and 9 minutes a day), and January the least (just 48 minutes a day). I could be pleased to spend at least 48 minutes a day outdoors in the most dreary month of the year. Except that was only the average. There were 12 whole days in January in which I spent no time at all outside. Worse, there were 87 days across the year in which I spent no time at all outside.
I’m horrified at this.
For close to three months, almost a quarter of the year, I spent the whole day indoors.
That’s not to say I didn’t leave the house – I did – but any less than 30 consecutive minutes spent in open hour, I counted as 0 for that day.
I’ve attempted to blame the British weather but that would be disingenuous. Ours is a relatively recent dislocation from open air and the natural world. For most of the history of humanity it would have seemed an alien thing to exist behind a door and beneath a roof for the majority of the time you are alive. Modern life is what’s tripping us up here.
A 2023 study by BUPA found that 2 in 5 adults spent less than an hour a day outside, with the main barriers to getting outdoors being not having enough free time (15%) and having a busy job (13%).
Perhaps our first approach is to stop thinking about being outside as something we do only when we are at leisure.
I’m exceptionally fortunate that I get to work flexibly and usually from home. I’m lucky to have a garden when I can set up office for the day. WFG (Working from Garden) and even WFH (Working from Hammock) has contributed significantly to the 41 days in which I spent 6 or more hours outdoors in 2023-2024. Although my farmer friends would laugh at this, I think that’s certainly higher than average amongst my peers – even the ones who have dogs to walk.
I’m used to colleagues in online meetings exclaiming “Amy are you outside? I wish I could work outside!”
The past version of me that would stick her head out of the window in a central Manchester office and complain that she needed be outside would be proud of this development – athough even back then, my commute to the train station meant I was walking outside for at least 90 minutes a day.
Research abounds about the benefits of being out of doors. A state of “blue mind” (proximity to water) and “green mind” (proximity to greenery) has been scientifically measured. By being outside, we bring ourselves closer to our natural state of being. We regulate our nervous system, improve our sleep, boost our health and wellbeing, ease our bodies and brains… yet we treat ourselves so sparingly to this beneficent resource. No wonder we’re all a bit stressed and tense. No wonder we’re all a bit disconnected from nature. No wonder our children have vitamin D deficiencies.
I’ve concluded that some time outside in daylight each day – whatever the weather – is better than long stretches outside followed by nothing. I’m going to see how long it takes me to get up to 1000 hours (through to spring I expect) but this year I’m concentrating my efforts on spending at least 30 consecutive minutes outside every. single. day.
Written from my couch, as I stare at the rain outside.
Amy X
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