Can a One-Minute-A-Day App Help You Go on More Adventures? I Gave It a Go

During the busiest time of the year we convinced Tim that he needed to take a minute, literally, with a locally-designed app that focuses on maximising the tools you have available to take care of your mental health.

‘You work at We Are Explorers? Sounds like a dream job! So do you just go on adventures all the time?’

Well yes, and no. As much as it’s a massive privilege to spend all day inspiring people to get outside, there’s also a lot of pretty familiar stuff. Spreadsheets, staffing issues, budgets, and way too much computer time, rear their ugly head pretty frequently. Rolling through October and November, I was feeling pretty worn out.

I was also spending a bit less time in nature than usual. I’d been sick, spent time recovering from an ultramarathon, and had been doing late calls with We Are Explorers Founder Henry, who’s moved to the UK. If anything, I needed more time in nature, not less.

Needed way more moments like this in my life

When I was initially offered the chance to document my experience with Take a minute, my initial response was ‘Nup, too busy!’. But after a minute (ha) of reflection, I realised that it might be exactly what I need.

The app has a series of ‘challenges’ that help people to think about the resources they have to maintain and boost their mental health. You get notifications to jump in and answer questions, upload photos, or even take new ones.

I downloaded the app and dove straight into the seven minute challenge, which I quickly realised would actually only take one minute each day.

Getting Into It

I’m a writer. I’d say ‘by trade’ but I feel like that falsely equates what I do with manual labour. 

Despite my way with words, I’ve never journalled, ever! I’m not sure if that’s because it feels like work, or because I hate writing with a pen these days. Maybe it’s because I don’t really write about my feelings. In any case, Take a minute was asking me to spend a mere 60 seconds each day doing this on my phone. It couldn’t be easier, yet I still found it a challenge in the beginning.

I had the choice of an individual or group challenge. As mentioned, feelings are yucky, so I chose ‘individual’ to keep it to myself. I like that group is an option though, you can do it with a bunch of mates or colleagues to learn more about how to support each other.

Take a minute challenges can be tackled individually or as a group

I then did a quick four question survey that sussed out where I was at mentally, and how well I knew how to take care of my mental health. I generally know what to do, but don’t always follow my own advice, especially when I’m not training for a big event that gets me out the door and into the bush. Doomscroll and black coffee on an empty stomach? Sounds like breakfast!

Anyway, I let the app know I kind of knew what to do, despite usually just toughing it out instead, and I made it to day one’s prompt.

Discover What Matters

That’s what it said, and to be honest, it caught me off guard. I was getting ready to spill my guts and purge my demons.

Instead I added this photo from my phone library, from a kayak camp with my colleagues the weekend before, and simply wrote ‘Moments like this slow life down and help me prioritise’.

Need way more moments like this in my life

I was underwhelmed. Not exactly Sylvia Plath am I? What if someone finds this phone in an attic and publishes that in my memoirs? I put the phone away without the peaceful kick I normally get from meditating, or a cheeky bushwalk, and went back to my day.

*ding*

It was the next day at 4pm and Take a minute was ready for round two. The prompt? ‘Embrace growth’.

Interestingly, the app had this locked until now, forcing me to engage in a more habit-forming drip-fed kind of way. This time I uploaded a selfie of myself at a charity trail running event and wrote ‘Forward progress, fitness, structure, ability to deal with hardship’. I didn’t even include a full stop.

Sure, I enjoyed this event, but Take a minute made me consider why

I kind of hate writing on my phone, but I kept doing it, every day.

The responses got a little longer. The focus moved from the outdoors to loved ones, friends, and my other hobbies beyond the outdoors. I started thinking about ‘taking a minute’ as a broader concept, and found myself on a frightfully relaxing sunset bushwalk – no running, bikes, music, or camera in sight.

On day three I shared a concert I went to instead of something outdoors, and it inspired me to go to another gig two weeks later

My Pause Statement

I had a moment a few months ago when I got home from a big day; the sun was streaming through the trees and into my loungeroom, the house was clean, our kitten was running around, and birds were singing in the sunset. I felt outrageously content.

Twenty minutes later, after scrolling my phone on the couch, I was convinced that I was wasting my life in the suburbs. Bliss was melting into ennui. I hadn’t even summited a mountain today. Ugh!

It was such a clear example of the dangers of overcomparison that it stuck with me, and the Pause Statement generated by Take a minute at the end of seven days reminded me of that moment.

It reads like an affirmation. A week of somewhat average phrases became a paragraph that reminded me, holistically, of the value of my life and my priorities. I’ve come back to it a bunch of times since.

Sometimes we don’t do what’s best for us, even when we know what it is. As a We Are Explorers reader, you probably know how getting outside – whether it’s to challenge yourself or reset amongst the trees – can positively affect your mental health, but are you doing it enough?

If you’re finding it hard to make it a priority, I reckon Take a minute will help.

Feature photo by @im.baebi