Enjoying the pungent aroma of a fellow Tube rider’s sweaty armpit thrust across your face. Sat in static traffic so long that the radio starts repeating songs you heard earlier. Watching your breath as you shiver waiting for a bus that should have been here, ooh, a good half hour ago now.

Commuting is a drag.

Not only do you have to endure all of the above but you’re not even trying to get somewhere you want to go. It’s not like fighting crowds to escape Brighton having cycled there from London or a sleepless night in a coach on your way to the ski slopes. No, you’re going to work.

Getting to and fro your job can be tiresome but not this month, soldiers. Not in the month of March, in the year of 2010. This month, on the streets of the UK, across Europe and the world over, we march purposefully on our way to offices. This month, loyal troops, we race excitedly to our workplaces. This month, we commute with gusto!

Some ideas:

• Take a new route – Dig out a map and plot a novel course (or just go blind) ; follow a sat nav (even if you’re walking/cycling); try a different bus/train/Tube combination
• Walk/run/cycle to work – Whatever you’re not used to, try that (and if you do all of them, use motorized transport for the novelty). Too far? You don’t have to do it every day, just give it a go once. Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, or an hour, or four hours if you have to.
• Slow down, go sightseeing – What interesting places do you pass on your way to work? Or, more to the point, what interesting places do you miss every single day as you pass by in an early morning mental fug? Take it easy. Take it slow. Look around you and see life from the other side of the street. Leave earlier and embrace your journey as an experience not a chore.
• Make it fun – Do it with a friend. Treat yourself to a new book/album on the MP3 player/coffee on the way. Put your jacket and wellies on and splash in the puddles (rather than whinge about the weather). Treat the journey as if you were going somewhere new or on holiday and maybe it’ll set your day off to a better start.

Some answers to your excuses:

• I know the best way already – Boo for you! Is life really about efficiency? This is the very thing we are trying to address this month – turning the commute from a necessity to a pleasure. Just once.
• I don’t have time – Yes you do, you’re just sleeping when it goes by. Sure, it’s already a traumatic experience when the alarm goes off at the normal time but who ever achieved anything great without first putting in a little hard work? It’s a one off. Get out of bed and get to it.
• There’s only one bus/train/road/cycle lane – Oh, come now, is that the best you can do? Get off the bus a stop early. Walk to the next railway station from home. Deliberately drive the wrong way and see where you end up. Ride your bike on the road, run it along the pavement, find a dirt track or a field to cross. Use your imagination!

You know the drill by now. Stop reading this and get a map out. Plan your adventure and report back to me on the comments form below or on the Facebook page within the month.

Now, what are you waiting for…? Go have an adventure!

This is an Everyday Adventure…

…and it is here for you to try.

There are no rules, constraints or conditions. Treat this as a spark for your imagination. Use it as an injection of excitement into your daily routine.

Please spread the word, email a link to this page or share it on Twitter and Facebook with the buttons at the bottom right. There’ll be a new idea for each month of 2010 along with another fantastic image courtesy of David Tett Photography.

I’m quite excited about my plan for this evening’s Everyday Adventure. I wish I could tell you what it is but I can’t. Not just just yet, anyway. If I pull it off then I promise to add it in the comments box tomorrow morning. But anyway, this isn’t about me. It’s about you…

How did you sleep this month?

Back at the start of February I gave you a brief: to camp in your living room, sleep with the windows and curtains open, wake beneath the stars, swap your duvet for a sleeping bag and generally recreate a bit of child-like excitement when it came to your night’s sleep.

I’ll be honest, in comparison to the great response I got after the Lunchtime Jailbreak in January, this month has been comparatively quiet. Did you not give this one a go? Or were you just a bit shy about telling me what you got up at bed time? Comments below or on the Facebook page please!

I did, however, hear of a tent pitched in a back garden on a school night and the promise of a living room fort all the way from South Korea. I had a few interesting bedroom spots on my £100 adventure last week (see the photos here) but set out specifically for an Everyday Adventure the night before my first school talk. Wanting to put my money where my mouth was before preaching to a hall full of young people, I shunned my cosy bedroom in favour of a bivi bag and some bushes just up the road from my house.

Monday will see another Mission Possible for your daily life uploaded here. That means you have three more nights to squeeze in an overnight adventure and let me know what you got up to.

Right, I’m off to have an adventure…

If work is a prison then let the lunch hour be your escape.

Like your job, hate your job, love it or just tolerate it, that one hour slot at lunch is your chance to break free. Your mission this month, should you choose to accept it, is to capitalise on your lunchbreak, escape your workplace and cram in as much as possible.

Here are some ideas:

• See how far away from your office you can get in the allocated time (walk, run, bus, cycle)
• Visit that exhibition, park, new shop or museum you’d never considered an opportunity for a lunch break (is it really too far away?)
• Meet up with that friend who works nearby but you never actually find the time to see (go somewhere exciting!)
• Eat somewhere different, trek to a new area with your sandwiches, mission it on public transport to that cafe you were recommended

The specifics don’t matter. Just get out there and maximise your time.

If you are thinking:

• “I have too much work to take a lunchbreak” then consider that you only need to do this ONCE in the next month.
• “I only get 45 / 30 / X minutes, there’s not enough time” that doesn’t matter. A 15 minute power walk is still a power walk; 20 minutes snatched with a friend is still time well spent.
• “I won’t have time to eat / check my emails / go to the gym” then go hungry, get behind on your emails and skip a day’s training. This is a one off excuse to do something different, novel and exciting. Life can wait an hour.

I want you to go out on your adventure and I want you to report back.

How far did you get? Did you make it to the exhibition or did you get completely lost? Was that bagel shop worth the rush to get there? Did you make it back in time or did you have to sneak in without being noticed?

Go have your adventures and let me know how you get on with the comments form below.

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This is an everyday adventure and it is here for you to try.

There are no rules, constraints or conditions. Treat this as a spark for your imagination. Use it as an injection of excitement into your daily routine.

Please spread the word, email a link to this page or share it on Twitter and Facebook with the buttons at the bottom right. There’ll be a new idea for each month of 2010.

Now, what are you waiting for…? Go have an adventure!

9am January 1st 2010 and I am giving you your New Year’s Resolution:

Have. An. Adventure.

Each month of 2010, these pages will bring you a new idea for an Everyday Adventure.

You won’t have to climb a mountain or even break a sweat (unless you want to). There will be no need to take time off work, leave your friends/family/life behind or “train”. Bravery is not a prerequisite and expertise are not required.

Au contraire! These are adventures that you can fit into your lunch break, squeeze out of your commute or manage on the weekend. These are adventures for everyone and the everyday.

That’s enough for now. But, tomorrow we will have the concept introduced more eloquently by my friend Laura Tomlinson and on Monday we’ll have January’s adventure online.

Until then, I’m heading into the snow to work off last night’s indulgences. Happy New Year!