AllTrails and Unyoked study finds time outdoors reduces burnout

A landmark new study from Australian nature stay startup Unyoked and outdoor adventure app AllTrails has found 95% of participants reported improved wellbeing after time spent outdoors.

As a rising tide of burnout affects more than six in ten of Australian workers, the study – featuring more than 400 survey participants internationally – sought to measure the impact of time spent outdoors on wellbeing, feelings of burnout and connectedness to nature.

How does time offline tackle burnout?

Most knowledge workers intrinsically understand that being connected to a screen for 40-plus hours a week is neither healthy nor natural.

Until a few decades ago we mostly left work at the office, before the late 20th century there were no computers in workplaces, and for hundreds of thousands of years before that humans spent all our time outdoors.

Study participants stayed in Unyoked’s remote cabins – typically situated an hour or two outside major cities – and were provided with AllTrails routes to walk or run.

Improvements to mental wellbeing, burnout, and connectedness to nature were found to be on par with or greater than the impact of well-established wellness interventions, with 95% of participants reporting improved wellbeing.

The study found that measured burnout decreased by 16.1%,...