The jar decides. You two just have to go.
Your mission
The Sunday Draw
Fill a jar with 52 missions, then draw one with your partner every Sunday and go do it that week. Two spare slips cover the weeks life gets in the way. Finish with a three-hour finale you design together.
Bonus challenge: Invent a silly award and hand it to whoever had the better mission that month.
Want a year that looks different? Grab a friend, fill a jar with 52 small missions you both actually want to try, then draw one together every Sunday. One to three hours a week, a photo traded back and forth, and a wall chart that slowly fills with checkmarks.
Two people, a jar of folded paper slips, and the fun of not knowing what you are doing this week until Sunday. Your first draw might be a park you have never walked, a bridge you have only driven over, or that workshop you keep meaning to visit. You and your partner draw the same slip, do it sometime that week, then send each other one photo or three sentences as proof. Week one is a 45-minute walk, so the starting bar is genuinely low. Your mission: keep the jar going and throw a finale together at the end.
Wanting a more interesting year is easy. Starting one on a random Tuesday is hard. The jar makes the choice so you do not have to, and a friend waiting on your photo is what actually gets you out the door. The best weeks are the ones you would never have picked yourself.
Top gear to make this quest great.
Pull it off
Holds all 52 folded slips and makes the Sunday draw feel like a small ceremony.
Get on Amazon · $17.99 — Wide-mouth jar with lid
The checkmarks need to live somewhere you both walk past every day.
Pocket-sized with tough pages, so your three-sentence notes survive a rainy walk.
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Setup is one cozy evening with snacks and a pen. Essentials: a wide-mouth jar, paper slips for 52 missions, a printed 50-week tracker or a checklist app, a wall or fridge for the chart, and comfortable walking shoes. Handy extras: a pocket notebook (3.5 x 5.5 inches) for your three-sentence notes, and a collapsible water bottle that clips to your bag for the longer walks. Check park hours before you set out, and ask the owner first on private land.
A good quest stays a good story. These are general notes; your gear's manual, the venue's rules and local law come first.
Start before you plan anything. Pick a spot about 15 minutes from home that you have somehow never visited, and walk there. Put your phone away and just look around for 30 minutes. Then take one photo of a single detail, or write three sentences about it. Week one is already done and it cost you less than an hour.
Send that first photo to the friend most likely to say yes, and tell them what you are cooking up. The deal is easy: you both draw the same slip each Sunday, you both go that week, you both send proof. Pick the app you will send it in so nothing gets buried.
The best part of the whole year, honestly. Write 52 missions on slips together: parks, waterways, trails, maker spaces, streets you have only ever driven. Fifty to do and two spares for the week you get the flu. Read them all out loud, and pencil the snow-and-swimming ones into the right months on your chart.
Sunday is draw day and it takes a quarter of an hour. Pull a slip, text your partner what you both got, then check the practical bits: opening times, permission, weather, anything you need to book. Block your mission hour on the calendar. If the weather ruins it, fold that slip back in and pull another.
Go do the thing, then document it the same day while it is still fresh: one photo or three sentences, and that is plenty. Send it to your partner, look at theirs, mark the box on the chart. Once a month, grab ten minutes to compare charts and pick each other's best mission so far.
Save the biggest one for last. In week 51, sit down with your partner and build a single three-hour mission out of your favorite pieces of the year: the best park, the best water, the walk you both loved. Scout it so you know it works. Then run it together in week 52 and bring other people along.
You and a friend just turned a jar of paper slips into a year of Sundays worth looking forward to. Hand the idea to the next pair and tell them to start with the walk.
You bring the curiosity. We've found the tools.
Pull it off
Holds all 52 folded slips and makes the Sunday draw feel like a small ceremony.
Get on Amazon · $17.99 — Wide-mouth jar with liddetails & deals →
Your wall scoreboard for the year, with room for all 50 mission names and dates.
Digital or physical 50-week checklist with space for quest titles, completion dates, notes, and photo attachments
what to look for & our pick →
The checkmarks need to live somewhere you both walk past every day.
Get on Amazon · $12.89 — Large wall year plannerdetails & deals →
Pocket-sized with tough pages, so your three-sentence notes survive a rainy walk.
Compact notebook with weather-resistant pages, designed for outdoor use with grid or dot layouts
Get on Amazon · $9.85 — Waterproof Field Journalwhat to look for & our pick →
Clips to your bag so you never set off on a long walk thirsty.
Foldable silicone water bottle that compresses when empty and clips to bags or belt loops
Get on Amazon · $15.99 — Collapsible Water Bottle with Carabinerwhat to look for & our pick →RELATED GEAR GUIDE
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