How to Plan Your Walking Routes: Set Up Three Routes in One Weekend Afternoon and Stop Deciding Every Weekday

The scenario in this article is adapted from everyday situations, and the name used is a pseudonym. The content is only a reference for one way to arrange your daily routine, so please adjust it to fit your own situation.

You want to go for a walk, but every day you get stuck on "where should I walk today"

Xiao Wei works an office job and lives in a neighborhood a ten-minute walk from an MRT station. This year she set herself a very simple plan: on weekday evenings, after clearing the dinner table, she heads out for a walk. She was clear about it. She wasn't chasing distance or setting goals. She just wanted a stretch of the evening away from screens.

For the first two weeks, Xiao Wei's plan often stopped at the front door. She would put on her shoes, stand in the entryway and think: should I head toward the park, or along the riverbank? Is the park route too short? Are there enough streetlights by the river at night? While she was thinking, she would scroll on her phone and ten minutes would go by. In the end she took her shoes off and told herself she'd do it tomorrow.

Later Xiao Wei tried a different approach. Instead of pushing herself to have more willpower, she picked a weekend afternoon, sat down at her desk and sorted the walkable routes near her home into three, then went out and actually walked two of them. From then on, she only had to answer one question before heading out: which route am I taking today?

Why what gets in the way of walking is often not the walking, but the deciding

Many people think they can't keep up walking because they're lazy or busy. Looking closely at Xiao Wei's situation, what actually held her back was the number of decisions she had to make before leaving. Every time she went out, she had to start from scratch: thinking about the route, the time, the weather. All those small decisions added up and were more tiring than the walk itself.

When walking routes aren't planned ahead, three things tend to happen:

• Misjudging the time: You wander out on a whim and only realize when you turn back that you're too far from home, so the next day you don't really feel like taking that route again.
• Canceling as soon as the weather changes: When it rains or gets too hot and you have no backup, you end up staying home all evening.
• Getting bored: Walking the same loop every day, the novelty wears off, and the urge to go out fades along with it.

So what this article sets out to do is simple: answer the question of "where to walk" once, ahead of time, on the weekend. On weekdays you just pick one from your list, with no need to plan from scratch every day.

Follow along: sort out three regular routes in one weekend afternoon

The setup comes in two parts. The first part is sitting at your desk and planning with a map app on your phone, which takes about half an hour. The second part is going out to test the short and standard routes, which takes about an hour in total. The rainy day route doesn't need to be squeezed into the same day. Just test it the next time it rains. Set aside one afternoon for the whole thing and you'll have plenty of time.

Part one: plan at your desk (about half an hour)

1. Start by marking out the area around your home: Open the map app on your phone, center it on your home, and see what places you can reach within a twenty-minute walk, such as a neighborhood park, a riverside path, the covered arcades in a shopping area, or the sidewalks around an MRT station.
2. Lay out three routes: One each for short, standard, and rainy day. Set both the start and end point at your front door. A loop or an out-and-back both work.
3. Write down three things for each route: About how long it takes, whether there are streetlights and people around along the way, and whether there's a point partway through where you can turn back early.
4. Give each route a name: For example, "Park Loop," "Riverside Out-and-Back," or "Arcade Route." A route with a name is easier to choose before heading out, and easier to remember.

Part two: go out and test them (about an hour)

1. Walk the short route first, then the standard one: The short route is about twenty minutes and the standard route is about forty minutes. Compare the time as you walk with what you wrote down, and if it's off, correct it on the spot.
2. Note your turnaround points: On each of the two routes, find an easy-to-recognize landmark about a five-minute walk from home, such as the front of a convenience store or a bus stop sign. On days when you're short on time, walk to that point and turn back.
3. Check what it looks like at night while you're at it: If you plan to walk in the evenings on weekdays, pay attention during your test walk to which stretches are darker and which intersections have heavy traffic. When you get home, change the parts that aren't suitable for walking at night.

Once your three routes are set, you can put them into a small table and save it in the notes app on your phone:

How to choose before heading out: ask yourself three things

1. How much time do I have left today? If it's less than half an hour, take the short route.
2. What's the weather like outside? If it's raining or too hot, take the rainy day route.
3. Is tomorrow's schedule tight? If you need to get up early tomorrow, choose the short route and get home early to prepare.

Once you've answered those three questions, your route is chosen, and the time you spend standing in the entryway goes from ten minutes to a few seconds.

Common sticking points: no time, forgetting, too much hassle, getting bored

No time

For the weekdays when you're truly busy, the short route is made for exactly those days. If you can't even find twenty minutes, you can walk to the turnaround point and come back, which takes about ten minutes in total. What matters is keeping the habit of heading out going, and letting each day's circumstances decide how far you go.

Forgetting

At first Xiao Wei often forgot too. Once she sat down on the sofa after dinner, she didn't want to move. Later she tied her walk to a fixed action: once the dishes are done, she puts on her shoes right away. You can also set a reminder on your phone for a fixed time, and write the route name directly in the reminder, such as "Riverside Out-and-Back today." That makes it easier to get up than a reminder that just says "go for a walk."

Too much hassle

Having to find your shoes, keys, and earphones before going out can make you want to give up just from the getting ready. You can keep a small basket in the entryway with your keys, earphones, and a light jacket together, and always leave a pair of comfortable walking shoes by the door. The fewer steps it takes to get ready, the less there is holding you back from going out.

Getting bored

After walking the same three routes for a while, it's natural for them to start feeling monotonous. You can pick one weekend each month and swap out one of the routes, for example changing the Riverside Out-and-Back to a loop around a different neighborhood park. You can also walk the same route in the opposite direction, and the shops and street scenes you see along the way will look quite different.

Next step: subscribe to our everyday routine guides

Once your walking routes are set, you can handle other parts of your daily routine the same way: take the things you have to decide again every day and think them through once, ahead of time, on the weekend. We'll keep putting together small everyday steps like how to order when eating out, how to arrange your daily schedule, and how to plan your weekends, and every article is a checklist you can follow directly. If this "plan it first, then pick from the list" approach sounds useful to you, you're welcome to subscribe to our everyday routine guides so you'll be the first to know when new articles go live.

Frequently asked questions

Q: How many walking routes should I plan?
Three is an easy number to start with: one each for short, standard, and rainy day, which match the three situations of not enough time, normal time, and bad weather. If you plan too many routes, you'll end up back in the state of not knowing which one to pick. Once you know your three routes well, you can gradually swap them out.

Q: How much time does it take to sort out the routes?
Planning at your desk takes about half an hour, and going out to test the short and standard routes takes about an hour. The rainy day route can wait until it rains. If you only have bits of spare time on the weekend, you can also do the planning at your desk first and then test the routes one at a time on weekday evenings.

Q: What should I keep in mind when walking at night?
Try to choose stretches with streetlights and people around, and avoid roads with no sidewalk. Remember to bring your phone and wear a brightly colored jacket. You can also let a roommate or family member know which route you're taking that day.

Q: What if there's no park or riverbank near my home?
A route doesn't need any special sights. Neighborhood lanes, the covered arcades in a shopping area, and the sidewalks between MRT stations can all be put together into a route. As long as the start and end point are at your front door and the time estimate is accurate, it's a route that works well.