Check Your Six

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

Check your six is military jargon for "look behind you", and checking to see what might be coming up behind you is a good habit to cultivate as part of maintaining situational awareness. However, if like me you didn't spend time in the service, ingraining that habit can be difficult. 

I had the idea for a smartphone app which would chime and/or vibrate on a regular basis -- between 30 seconds and five minutes -- as a reminder to look behind you. Unfortunately, I have no experience with programming apps. 

Fortunately, I had it pointed out to me that something like this already exists, and they are called interval timers. Used in both sports and exercise, these apps will chime and/or vibrate on a regular basis. Set accordingly, they can be used to remind you check behind you. 

One word of warning: while some of these apps have set durations, others do not. If you keep them running constantly then your phone will experience a significant battery drain as it will be unable to sleep while the notifications are being issued. It therefore falls to you to remember to turn off the timer once you're back from your walk or similar outing.