A daily walking habit you see every time you check the time

Do you really need 10,000 steps?

The famous 10,000 figure is often traced back to a 1960s Japanese pedometer called the manpo-kei, literally "10,000-step meter". It was a catchy round number, not a medical threshold. Several large studies since then suggest that the benefits of walking start well below 10,000 steps and tend to level off somewhere in the high thousands, depending on your age.

Many health bodies phrase it in time instead: around 150 minutes of moderate activity a week for adults, which is about 30 minutes on five days. A brisk walk counts. That's why DailyWall lets you measure either way. If you track steps with your watch or phone, set a step goal; if you'd rather just go out for half an hour, set minutes. If you have a heart, joint or other health condition, ask your doctor what's right for you before raising your target.

How to walk more without "finding time"

Most extra steps don't come from dedicated walks. They come from small changes to things you already do:

Tick the steps as you go

1. Walk the first or last stop. Get off the bus or train one stop early, or park at the far end of the car park.
2. Take calls on foot. Phone calls and voice notes are perfect walking time; ten minutes of pacing adds up quickly.
3. Walk after a meal. A short stroll after lunch or dinner is one of the easiest walks to keep, and it breaks up a long sitting day.
4. Use stairs as a default, at least for one or two floors.
5. Make it social. A walk with a friend, a partner or the dog is much harder to cancel than a walk alone.
6. Have a 10-minute fallback. On busy days, a ten-minute loop around the block still beats nothing.

Set up your walking habit in DailyWall

DailyWall doesn't count your steps for you, and it doesn't read Apple Health. You glance at your watch or step counter and fill the paper yourself. That sounds like a drawback, but it's the point: the tap is a tiny moment of noticing what you've done, which is exactly what builds a habit.

Tick the steps as you go

1. Open DailyWall, tap + and choose Set up a habit.
2. In the Movement category, choose Walk / steps.
3. Under How should we measure it? pick Steps or Duration.
4. For steps, set How many steps? from 1,000 to 30,000 in 500-step increments (8,000 by default). For duration, set How many minutes? from 10 to 180 (30 by default).
5. Choose how much each tap adds under In how many steps?: for a step goal +500, +1,000, +2,000 or +5,000 steps, or All at once; for minutes +5, +10 or +15 minutes, or all at once.
6. Pick the days (every day by default), a time of day, whether you want a reminder, a paper look and an optional end date for a 30-day challenge.

Choosing your tap size

If you just want a yes/no for the day, choose All at once: one tap when you hit your target. If you'd like to see progress through the day, split it. With 8,000 steps at +1,000 per tap, the paper has eight dots, and at 3pm you can see at a glance that you're at five out of eight. With 30 minutes at +5, a short walk to the shop fills one dot and the evening loop fills the rest.

Splitting works especially well for people who walk in bits: the school run, the lunch break, the walk home.

On your Lock Screen, with a bit of the outdoors

Your DailyWall wall is your Lock Screen wallpaper, so the walking paper sits under the clock all day. After you tap +, close the app and the Shortcuts automation refreshes the wallpaper. If you haven't set that up yet, see how to put notes on your iPhone Lock Screen.

The paper has its own three washi tapes (rolling hills with trees, footprints with autumn leaves, and an autumn forest) and three stickers: a happy dog on a lead, hiking boots and a trail signpost. They appear only on habit papers, so your walk stands out on the wall.

Rainy day? Nothing breaks

Some days it pours, you're ill or the day simply runs away. In DailyWall, an unfinished walking paper isn't carried over to tomorrow and there's no streak to lose. It stays faded on its own day, and tomorrow a fresh one is waiting.

If you keep missing on certain days, set the habit only for the days you can realistically walk, or lower the target. Walking four days a week, every week, beats a seven-day plan you abandon in March.

A 7-day walking starter plan

Tick the steps as you go

1. Day 1: Check your usual daily steps on your phone or watch. Set your goal about 1,000 above that, with +1,000 per tap.
2. Day 2: Walk for ten minutes after lunch or dinner.
3. Day 3: Get off one stop early, or park further away.
4. Day 4: Take one phone call on foot.
5. Day 5: Look at your Lock Screen at 4pm. If you're two dots short, take a short loop now.
6. Day 6: Plan a longer weekend walk with someone.
7. Day 7: Look back at your week. If it felt easy, add 1,000 steps; if not, keep the goal and enjoy hitting it.