Per cent of your life out of doors.

[Neil]

Reality check:
I once saw a Nike ad that said the average person spends less than 2% of their life outside. What per cent of your life do you spend out of doors? Sleeping in a LT or tent counts. So does walking to work, mowing the lawn etc.

 

[patrickbrusil]

Funny thing is as much as I try to get outside, hike, and enjoy the outdoors in general I bet I'm close to 2% of my life being spent outside. Probably 10% is spent in my car.

 

[spaddock]

Hmmm.... 2% is only 28.8 minutes per day. I'm playing ultimate tonight for 2 hours.

Working at home has definitely driven down my percentage though.

I'd hope my percentage was at least 10% but even then, that means 90% of my time is indoors. Thanks for depressing me Neil....

I'm gonna go outside and go for a walk right now!


-Shayne

 

[dave.m]

I saw another add that gave the number of weekends available to adults based on life expentancy averages. That number was pretty darn low!!

 

[MattC]

168 hours per week X .02 = 3.36 hours per week. I'd say the odds are good that most people on this board are outside more than 3 and a half hours per week. Hey! We're above average, people!

Matt

 

[Jim lombard]

2% seems incredibly low to me except maybe in winter. I'm at close to 10% during the week and well over that on the weekends.

 

[NewHampshire]

Goodness, I dunno. Its kinda hard to say because I do so much outdoors. There is obviously the hiking. Im averaging about 3 hikes a month, on average they are about 4 hours in length. I spend every Saturday afternoon in the late spring to early fall fishing, say an average of 4 to 6 hours a trip. Then there is hunting season. I can spend upwards of 10 to 12 hours, at least twice a week for a month and a ahlf (well actualy three months now that I will be bow hunting.) Then there is ice fishing, I bought a bike to ride around the neighborhood on the weekdays (figured it would be good cardio training for hiking), if not biking then walking. So I would say its impossible for me to quantify, but Ill just say its more than 2 percent
Brian

 

[TonyF]

i spend most of my time outdoors, like some others here, i work outside everyday for at least 8hrs. then i try to spend at least 2 weekends a month hiking/packpacking/canoeing. i walk or run for exercise which is also done outside. i'd guess that i'm way above that 2%. on days like today though when it's so %@#* humid and hot i'd rather be indoors, or snowshoeing

 

[mavs00]

Good question. I'll look into it...............

Okay, Here's what I got. I really only counted Hiking (mountains), running, cycling or lowland (training stuff) and not mowing the lawn, general walking about an such.

I just passed 100 hours for Mountain Hiking since Jan. 1 (pretty damn good given the 275 miles (each way) I gotta drive to get there. And addding another 75 hrs on lowland training hikes, plus the 4-6 hours each weeks I spend running (or cycling) outdoors each weeks. I come up with about 8.6 hours a weeks for "outside recreation" or 5.11 %.

Better than average.

 

[sapblatt]

I am in the same ballpark as Mavs...I try to hike 8-10 hours per week and also try to walk a bit every day.
It is still no way near enough!

 

[arghman]

not enough.

I figure I've gone on 21 long day hikes (or other outdoor activities) this year, averaging 8hrs each, maybe the same number of 2-3 hr short hikes, that adds up to about 200 hrs for Jan-July (about 5100hrs total so far this year) = about 4%. Maybe another 1% if you add up all those in-between outside moments snow shoveling or gardening or whatever.

 

[bubba]

Cottage ownership -- has pluses and minuses, but certainly a huge plus is that we are never indoors unless it is raining, and even then we may not be! I sleep outside when I can. Get up early, breakfast on the porch then outside caring for things, out for a bike ride, golf round or walk before putting in to the water for the remaiinder of the day and sitting by a campfire in the evening. This past weekend (Santanoni) put 65+ hours of steady outdoor time on my clock -- my mother has told me that her goal every day when I was a kid was to "get you outside" -- and I must be one of those emotionally damaged people -- I knew I was out ot stay!

I don't know of the percentage, but I do know that it's every chance I get!

 

[Pete_Hickey]

2% seems incredibly low to me except maybe in winter.

How much credence do you give to 'facts' told on a Nike ad? This sounds to me like the things urban legends are made of. Hey, you know, in a SPAM I received, it said that the average length of... oh never mind.

I'm doing twice that just comuting to work.

 

[kennancow]

alright so ive figured it out for myself this summer. right now im at 47% because i spent 1/2 my summer on a trip but i bet im usually about 2-5% as sad as that sounds. 2% on weekends and the rest from biking to work or school every day and i usually snowboard 3 times a week in the winter.

 

[forestgnome]

2% is about 1/2 hour per day/3.5 hours per week?...sounds like prison

kILL YOUR TV! That will help. I did about 6 years ago.

I'd guess I'm outdoors about 50% to 60% when I have outside work, and around 25% when I have indoor work.

Weekends, I'm around 70%

 

[arghman]

kILL YOUR TV! That will help. I did about 6 years ago.

I second that! I'm 9 years TV-free (at home). Seeing TV commercials freaks me out now, too much visual stuff.

Unfortunately we have the internet and VFTT to fill in the TV hole...

 

[spaddock]

After playing ultimate last night we went out and since I had just read this thread I decided to opt for the patio. Add a couple more hours to this weeks total....

-Shayne

 

[KayakDan]

The operative word here is "AVERAGE".
I will never consider myself average-that would be way too depressing!

I don't think we have a whole lot of average people on VFTT,either.You ask most people what they did last weekend,and you get"ahh,not much..went to a movie etc"
Would you have the same answer? No Way!
If we were average,we would be discussing pizza toppings and reality TV shows.

If I ever sink to the point of being average,I'm gonna ask Dr. Phil to cure me!

 

[newjeep123]

so how close to the window do I have to sleep to be considered sleeping outdoors

 

[bobmak]

Interesting..... If I only count active time spent outdoors, skipping stuff like mowing the lawn, walking to get the mail, painting the house etc. I come up with my average summer week:

60 minutes walking the dogs each day = 7 hrs
2 mid week bike rides @ 2 hrs each = 4 hrs
Saturdays, 3 hours (cycling, kayaking, etc) = 3 hrs
Sundays, 4-5 hours cycling = 4.5 hrs
total = 18.5 hrs
(18.5/168)*100 = 11%

Hey, not bad for a slacker!!!! I guess I owe it all to the pups!

It probably evens out during the year.... as the days get shorter I lose my midweek bike rides, but in the fall & winter I spend more of the weekends outdoors due to hiking and skiing.