The keys and the button

The line does nothing on its own. The default runs on the keys being on the hook by the door and the button being in front of you, and the method is to put a step in front of each.

Keys with a step in them. Not on the hook by the door. In a drawer in the kitchen, or a bag, or upstairs. The point is that picking them up becomes a thing you go and do, and going and doing is a decision, and a decision is where the line gets applied. If the keys are on the hook, the hand takes them on the way past and the line never gets a look in.

Shoes by the door. The pair you can walk a mile in, where the keys used to be. When you go to leave, the first thing you see is the shoes. This is small and it's most of the method.

The bag. A backpack or a shoulder bag on the peg with the coat, empty, ready. Chapter 8's answer to the shopping objection is a bag that's already there.

The stair rule. In any building where you know where the stairs are, the stairs for anything under three floors, and the lift only above. In a building where you don't know where the stairs are, find them once. They're usually through the door beside the lift and they're never locked, because they're a fire escape.

The parking rule. For trips outside the line that still need the car, park at the far end of the car park and walk. First space you see, not the nearest to the door. This ends the parking dance, which was costing you time as well as distance, and it puts two hundred yards of walking into every trip that couldn't be walked.

Walk part of the longer journey. The NHS's first suggestion for walking more is to walk part of the journey to work. If the commute is too far to walk, it may not be too far to park a mile off and walk the last of it, or to get off the bus a stop early. The line applies to the last mile of a long trip as well as to the whole of a short one.

The school run on foot, twice a week. Not every day yet. Pick two mornings, the ones with the least in them, and walk. Once it's two, it'll become three on its own.

The week's list, kept going. Keep the list from chapter 1 for a second week, and a third. Watch the column change. The list is how you'll know the line is being kept, and it's also how you'll catch the trips that slipped through, which the next chapter but one is about.