Things to do outside in winter

The short-day problem, solved by the clock

In midwinter the day is a narrow window, so the first trick is to treat the clock as part of the plan rather than an obstacle. Decide which slice of daylight is yours and defend it.

1. Catch the day starting late Be outside between seven and nine in the morning. The sun is only just getting up, and you'll see the town waking in a light that summer never produces.
2. Winter sundown In the darkest weeks the sun sets while most people are still at their desks. Find a spot with an open western view and be there for the last fifteen minutes, on the way home if that's when it happens.
3. Your longest shadow of the year Photograph your own shadow at noon. In December the midday sun is as low as it gets, so this is the longest your noon shadow will be in the entire year.
4. The lit street between four and six When it gets dark early, walk a loop on streets you know, with streetlights, shops still open and people still about. Twenty minutes at dusk is still time outside; it doesn't have to be a forest. Bring someone if you'd rather.

Ideas that need no snow at all

Most winters in most places are gray and wet rather than white. These work on an ordinary cold Tuesday.

1. A hot drink, outside, until the cup is empty Make coffee, tea or cocoa, take it to a bench or the front step and stay out until you've finished it. Fifteen minutes, and you'll be surprised how little the cold matters once you're holding something warm.
2. Follow the woodsmoke On a still winter afternoon you can often smell a wood fire before you see it. Find the smell and track it to the chimney.
3. Look through a hedge A hedge that has lost its leaves shows you what it hid all summer: the garden behind it, the field, the back of a house. Photograph the view through the twigs.
4. Three thousand steps in gloves Not a long walk, about a mile and a half, but done with a hat on and hands in pockets it feels like an expedition. Count it with your phone's step counter.
5. Lights in a bare tree From late November onward, somebody near you has wound a string of lights through a leafless tree. Find the best one on your street.
6. The bird feeder tour Walk a route past gardens and look for feeders and suet cakes hanging out. Stop at each for one minute and see who turns up.
7. Ice before it melts On the first morning after a hard frost, find ice forming on standing water: a puddle, a pond edge, a birdbath. Photograph the patterns from directly above. Don't test it; look at it.
8. Frost on one edge Get close to a leaf or a blade of grass with frost on its edge, before the sun reaches it. The window is about an hour.
9. A bare branch against the sky A single leafless branch, nothing else in the frame. Winter is the only season this photo is possible.
10. The salt bin Where it snows, there are bins of salt and sand at the roadside that nobody notices until January. Count how many you pass on one walk.

When it does snow

Snow rearranges the rules for a day or two. Go out while it's falling if you can; the first hour is the best.

1. Look back at your own line Walk a mile through falling snow, then turn around and look at the track you've left. In an hour it will be gone.
2. Four new streets before it melts Pick four streets you've never walked down and do them while the snow is still fresh. Everything you know looks unfamiliar under it.
3. Build a snowman with someone It's a legitimate adult activity if there's a second person. Photograph the result before the sun gets it.
4. Snow day, daytime Simply being outside in daylight while there's snow on the ground is the task. Half an hour, anywhere, counts.

Cold without complaint: what actually helps

A small quest every winter morning

The real obstacle in winter isn't the weather; it's that nothing is pulling you out. RLQuest was built for that gap. Each morning it picks three to ten quests from a library of more than 2,700, and it knows the season and the forecast: on a cold day you might get the hot drink until the cup is empty, three thousand steps in gloves, or two map tiles you've never set foot in. The app checks the recorded route, your steps, the new hexagons on your map or the photo itself, and every walk fills in a bit more of that map, including the parts of town you only ever see in the dark.

It's free to download for iPhone and Android; a Premium subscription adds more quests per day. Everything above works without it. The app is for the mornings when the window is gray and you need one more reason.