How I walk when I’m going for a walk because it’s good for me

I like walking, but it’s challenging to go for a short walk in the neighborhood without a destination. Without a practical reason to leave the house, such as for an errand or appointment, I used to go for one long walk late in the day, which meant no morning sunlight, and no breaking up long sedentary periods during the day.

This method has been working well for me since the walks are short (9-12 minutes), the route varies (I haven’t done the math to see how many walks are possible but I think I’ve only repeated a walk once in a few weeks) and, most importantly, I don’t have to make any decisions. I just roll the dice and go where they tell me.

Requirements:

• A geographical starting point with a street layout that allows you to walk at least three blocks in each of the four cardinal directions: north, east, south, and west
• An easy way of choosing random numbers from 1 to 4, 1 to 3, and 1 to 2. I use the Dice app.

How to do it:

1. Get the random numbers. I do this by opening the Dice app, which automatically rolls my green four-sided die, my blue three-sided die, and my purple two-sided die. The D3 and D2 are hard to tell apart visually, so I use rainbow order to distinguish them (basically anytime the D3 isn’t 3).
2. Get the route. For me the D4 numbers start at north and go clockwise: 1 is north, 2 is east, 3 is south, 4 is west. The D3 tells me how many blocks to go in that direction before turning in the direction the D2 tells me, 1 for left or 2 for right. After turning, I walk as many blocks as I need to so that I’ve walked four blocks in total.
3. Go home without retracing my steps, i.e. walk the other two sides of the rectangle.