Walking works - but how you do them matters

Good morning,

You ever looked up from your phone from a walk and think, how the hell did I get here? This literally happened to me last week and is part of the inspiration for today’s newsletter. Doing walks right, without a digital device, can make a difference in your creativity and productivity.

Today we’re looking at:

• 🚶‍♂️Why you should walk often, in nature, without your phone

• ❌ Some tips for to make it a habit

• ❓️ And whether the internet has gotten tired

Let’s get to it!

— Geoff Sharpe, co-founder

Walking breaks work - but how you do them matters

Earlier this week Kian discussed the benefits of taking a break. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to check it out. One thing that really resonated with me is the idea of taking a break and going for a walk outside.

As a dog owner, walks are part of my life. With an older dog, the walks may not be as long, but they’re still consistent. Every day it has to happen, rain or shine.

One thing I’ve noticed, both with my own and watching other people, is there are two types of walks — connected and disconnected. And the one you choose will greatly impact your health.

You can spot the connected walker. Earbuds in, focused, listening to music or a podcast, they tend to be oblivious to the world and those around them; many times, their head is down, looking at their phone. They’re concentrating, either on learning, being entertained or just needing some ambient noise.

A disconnected walker is, well, disconnected. They’re observant, ears free, phone away, focused on their dog, their partner or what they’re seeing around them. It’s a time for deep thinking and contemplation, or a chance to turn everything off for a few minutes. If you think about it, they’re actually very connected — with the world, rather than their device.

The trend of disconnected walking is increasingly popular on TikTok. Called “silent walking” the idea is to ditch your device at home and head out for a walk.

The benefits of walking are clear. A study from PNAS showed that the brain generates less activity associated with mental illness when not on your phone. The caveat here is that it has to be done in nature, not necessarily urban environments.

Productivity is great, but we tend to discount creativity when it comes to work. One Standford study showed that walking had a huge impact on creativity, increasing it by around 60% for walkers.

While leaving your phone at home has real benefits, the opposite is also true. Walking with your phone physically changes you. According to experts, using a phone while walking breaks your stride and increases the load placed on your neck and back.

More importantly, it can kill the benefits of a walk by changing your mood. Walking while using your phone is shown to increase stress through rising cortisol. People who went on a walk without their phone were happier, while those with their phone weren’t.

The benefits of walking outdoors in nature also shape your work. One study showed that a 15-minute walk outside improved attention and working memory. Like Kian said, a break helps you re-focus. Adding an outdoor element may make it even better.

For parents, bringing kids outside and leaving the phones at home is a valuable exercise in breaking screen time at its source. It’s hard for kids to spend all day watching YouTube if you keep dragging them out for walks!

In my own life, one such walk sticks out to me. Either intentionally or unintentionally, I left my phone at home. I became more aware of my surroundings, discovering a new path I hadn’t taken. Before I knew it, I was at a large pond, surrounded by spring trees, and I couldn’t hear a single thing except the rustling of the leaves. With my phone, I never would’ve discovered it. It was a lesson in unexpected pleasures made possible without a screen.

I’ve also found my creativity levels spikes during walks. As an entrepreneurial person, these ah-ha moments are a critical part of my job, allowing me to think more creatively about problem-solving.

Walks in nature won’t change everything. But they can be a valuable part of your work day and weekend, to break up screen time and spark more creativity in your life.

TIPS & TRICKS

Go for a phone-less walk

With the weekend approaching, now is a perfect time to try this out. Here are a few ways I approach disconnected walks:

1. Find a place in nature. It could be a path in the forest or a local park. Whatever it is, try to have some grass and trees, ideally away from a busy highway or roadway. Most cities have these!

2. Leave your phone. Store it in your car, or throw it in your backpack. You want to make it either impossible, or very difficult to get it. Another idea is swapping phones with your partner for the walk.

3. Be present. If you’ve walked a route before, look for something you don’t normally notice. What are the colours of the trees, and their texture? Any new flowers? Who are the people that walk by? Any garbage on the ground? Mentally note it, then move on, but keep an eye out around you. You’ll be surprised what you see.

4. Note how you feel afterwards. Do you feel relaxed? How’s your motivation? What do you want to do afterwards? If you’re working, think about a hard task you want to accomplish, and focus on that. If it’s the weekend, maybe it’s time to read that book you’ve been putting off, or make a nice meal.

5. Contrast it with a connected walk. Remember this feeling the next time you walk with your phone, and see how it compares.

RESOURCE & RECOMMENDATIONS

• Popular health expert Andrew Huberman has started using two phones, one for social media and another for everything else. I wonder if this trend will catch on…

• We know it’s healthier for kids not to have phones. But for parents, that’s a challenge. They always want to reach the kids, and may in fact demand they have one. But it turns out, getting rid of kids phones may also be good for parents.

• One Reddit user shared their experience of going three years without social media. They say their life was transformed.

• If you’re trying to discover trails near your home, AllTrails is a great resource (not an ad, I’m just a fan!).

• Turns out you might be better biking outdoors than taking a spin class. Reserach shows it’s better to exercise outside than inside.

COMMUNITY CORNER

Has the internet gotten tired?

I stumbled upon this thread that really spoke to me and wanted to get all your opinion on it:

Lately I’ve been feeling that the internet has grown tired. What does that mean? It means that every time I log into social media, whether Facebook, IG, or Tik Tok, everything feels like it is more of the same.

For context, I am 24 years old and have grown up in “the internet age.” I was in high school when IG went up, and until now, I felt that social media was rather captivating. Now I feel exhausted by it.

While stimulating, this super saturation of content feels somehow passé and outdated, similar to how it may feel to peruse a bin of 500 similar, but ever so slightly different, argyle sweaters. In every post you see, it’s the same trend, same audio, or some other 24 hour life-cycle content pattern. I feel fatigued by this seemingly infinite storage house of information that is different, but somehow all feels the same.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Personally, this is something I agree with. I recently put TikTok back on my phone for a day to watch a video for work. It had only been a few months since I got rid of it. I fell back into the algorithm, but ended up quitting after five minutes — it was the same cooking videos, the same dances, the same recommendations. I’d describe it as flat.

What do you think? Vote below, then share your thoughts after voting.