Things to do outside when you're bored

On your own

1. Pick a compass direction and stick to it North if in doubt. Walk two or three kilometers keeping as close to that heading as the streets allow, and see where you end up.
2. Count the doors of one color Choose a color and count every front door in that shade on your route. Compare neighborhoods on different days.
3. Find the oldest date Look for the oldest year cast or carved into anything nearby: a cornerstone, a manhole cover, a bridge plate, a bench dedication. Then try to beat it next time.
4. Photograph a shadow that beats its object Find a shadow more interesting than whatever is casting it. Late afternoon makes this easy.
5. Walk to the nearest water Pond, river, canal, fountain, anything. Sit for a minute when you get there.
6. One kilometer in silence No podcast, no calls, no music. A kilometer without a word, yours or anyone else's.

With a friend

Walking side by side makes conversation easier than sitting across a table. These give the walk a little structure without turning it into a competition.

1. Two directions, fifteen minutes Split at a corner, each of you walks a different way for fifteen minutes, photographs the oddest thing found, and you meet back to compare.
2. Same object, two photos Both of you photograph the same bench, gate or tree from wherever you like. Two people never frame the same thing the same way.
3. Green, together Find a subject that is at least a third green and both agree that it qualifies. Harder in the city than it sounds.
4. Bench relay Take turns choosing the next bench you can see from the current one. Whoever runs out of benches buys the coffee.
5. A road that ends Find a street or path that simply stops. Discuss why.

For free

Everything on this page costs nothing, but these are the ones where the lack of money is almost the point.

1. Climb the highest public point nearby A hill, a park mound, a public viewing platform, the top deck of a parking structure open to walkers. Look for your own street.
2. Read every plaque within half a mile Historical markers, memorial benches, foundation stones, the little brass plates on old buildings. Most people have never read the ones on their own block.
3. Find the sky in the water Photograph the sky reflected in a puddle, a pond or a window. It makes a dull sky useful.
4. Something that grows where nobody planted it A weed in a gutter, a sapling in a wall, moss on a step. Find the most unlikely one.
5. An unhurried hour Spend a full hour outside and deliberately don't get far. Two hundred meters is a fine result.

When it's raining

Rain is not the end of the outdoors. It changes what's worth looking at, and it empties the places that are normally full.

1. Go out the minute it stops Wet ground, clean air, nobody around. Walk a couple of kilometers while everything is still shining.
2. Rain on glass Photograph raindrops on a window, a bus shelter or a car roof, close enough that the drops are the subject.
3. The black mirror Wet sidewalk is darker than dry sidewalk and reflects everything above it. Find the best reflection you can.
4. Follow the water to the drain Pick a rivulet running down the street and track it to wherever it disappears.
5. Something green while the ground is wet Leaves, moss and painted things all look more saturated after rain. Find the greenest thing on your street.

Pick by how much time you've got

When you'd rather be told what to do

Lists like this one have a shelf life. After a couple of weeks you've done the ones you like and skipped the rest, and boredom comes back. That gap is what RLQuest was made for: each morning it picks three to ten quests for you from a library of more than 2,700, matched to your age, interests, the weather and the time you've said you've got. You go and do them, and the app checks the recorded route, your steps, the new tiles on your map or the photo itself. Every walk fills in a bit more of a hexagon map of where you've actually been.

It's free to download for iPhone and Android; a Premium subscription adds more quests per day. The ideas above work without it. The app just keeps the supply going.