I just moved to a new city, and I live and die by my phone’s GPS. But as a result, I’ve realized that I still don’t know anything about how the city is laid out, nor can I make a simple drive to my friend’s house—where I’ve been many times—without my GPS navigating me. If your sense of direction is similarly lacking and you want a more intuitive understanding of your city, here are a few things you can do to rid yourself off that GPS dependency and actually learn your way around.
Blast from the past is a weekly feature at Lifehacker in which we revive old, but still relevant, posts for your reading and hacking pleasure. Today, we’re getting ourselves lost in the big city.
Buy a Paper Map
Seriously, go find a paper map of your city and keep it in your glove box at all times. You don’t need to go out and buy an atlas or anything, just a simple fold-out map of the freeways and downtown area can do you wonders. Not only can you learn how the freeways are set up, which is a big step in knowing your way around, but it never runs out of batteries—meaning no matter what’s happening with your phone, your carrier’s service, or Google, you’ll always be able to at least look at your map and say “This is the freeway I need to get home”.
Memorize Directions
Instead of just punching addresses into your GPS, make an effort to get directions and try to memorize them. Whether you get them on your phone and read them or print them out from your computer, driving directions will actually get you thinking about each step in the process. When you navigate, all you’re thinking is “left turn here”, “merge here”, and so on—you don’t necessarily think about where you’re going. By printing out actual directions you’ll remember street names, freeways, and other landmarks to help you remember where to go. It also helps to review these directions before and after each trip, to help them stick in your mind. After one or two trips, you probably won’t need them anymore. Photo by Chris Lawrence.
Ask for Directions
From the “yeah, duh” files: don’t be afraid to ask people for directions. This is near impossible when you’re lost in a city and have no idea how you got there, but now that you have a paper map (right?) and a general idea of where you’re going, asking for directions becomes a viable option again, so take advantage! That gas station attendant probably can’t tell you how to get back to your house, but he can certainly tell you how to get to the freeway that’ll take you there, and with your paper map, you’ll know exactly which freeway that is.
Use Your Surroundings
If all else fails and you get lost anyway—without a GPS to save you—you can always use your surroundings to at least figure out where north, south, east, and west are to get yourself out of there. Whether it’s observing the direction of satellite dishes or using a stick and a piece of tape to find north, you’re never truly lost—though you still may need to ask for directions to find out where you are.
Some of these tips may seem simple or obvious, but without a conscious decision to wean yourself off turn-by-turn navigation, they become a lot less useful (after all, how can you ask for directions if you don’t even know which freeway takes you home?). So fire up Google Maps, print out those directions, and start finding your way.
Title image remixed from originals by cristovao/Shutterstock and Christoff/Shutterstock.