How to Find Time to Exercise When Your Schedule Is Already in Place
It’s easy to feel motivated by the idea of training. Let’s all run marathons! And do a push-up! But for some reason, many of our plans do not leave the “ideological” stage. We’re all busy people, right? And it’s so hard to find the time.
“Find time” really means “find time”
When something really important comes up in our lives, we find a way to fit it into our schedule – whether it’s a new video game we’re looking forward to, or an appointment with a doctor about something that really bothers us.
Regular exercise may not be as compelling as these, but we each have complete control over what happens on our calendar. This is a rare person who literally cannot find time for sports.
If it’s hard to know when to schedule a workout, keep track of your time in a planner or an app like RescueTime. You may be struggling to fit into a 30 minute workout but find yourself easily wasting so much time, either lounging around or doing tasks that you can easily rearrange.
Some types of exercises can be combined with other tasks that you already need to do. For example, you can ride your bike or literally run for business. If you need to watch video lectures or listen to an audiobook, you can do so during your workout. And I have met people who are used to answering their phone calls on their afternoon walk.
To make an appointment
Once you find the right time for class, mark it on your calendar and save it as you would any other appointment.
To stay consistent, set aside this time in your daily life every day. Even if you only want to lift weights three times a week, stick to your schedule every day and use the weekend for another activity : maybe go for a walk, make a yoga video, or work on stretching or meditation. …
This consistency does not leave you in any doubt about whether today is a good day to exercise. If 8:00 is always workout time, you have one less thing to do and you can just let the routine do the right thing.
Reducing the time you spend DO NOT WORK
Even though finding a 30-minute chunk of time is easy, it’s not the same as fitting into a 30-minute workout. When I decided to develop the habit of running at lunchtime, my lunch breaks became very long: I had to change into my gym clothes, go to my favorite park, and after jogging, go back and take a shower.
I made it work by reducing the training overhead. I work from home, so I just started my day in sportswear. I also kept my favorite park for a few days when I had extra time to burn down, otherwise I was just running around the neighborhood.
Think about how you spend your time before and after training, and see if there are similar ways to shorten that time. If you live in an area where the weather is cold, then one of the huge benefits is that you can exercise outdoors without even breaking a sweat. This means you can safely skip a shower after your workout.
Another way to avoid wardrobe changes is to train in short bursts throughout the day. You don’t need brand new equipment just to do a few push-ups and squats, but if you do these exercises multiple times a day, they can add up to a significant workout.
Keep the kids busy
For those of us with children, finding childcare is a huge chunk of the time it takes to play sports. (This is why I try to do most of my exercises during the workday, when my children are in school and kindergarten.) The solution to this problem will depend on the age of your children, but here are a few things that helped me:
- Use the gym with a children’s room. It’s probably on your radar already if you love working out in the gym, but it’s a great option even if you prefer running or cycling on the open road. Replace a weekly run or two with a jogging run on a treadmill or even strength training at the gym. Then you only have a few non-gym activities.
- Determine where the children are. Make a video of the workout in the living room as they play in the bedrooms. Or take them to your backyard or park. There you can do strength exercises on the playground, or simply find a spot on the lawn to work out with your own weight .
- Place the tiny ones in the stroller. Take them for a walk in the park. You can even stop here and there for strength training. Want more than just walking? Consider purchasing a stroller .
Mix these strategies together to put together a workout for an entire week. If you have a partner or friend who is also a time-limited parent, consider moving away from childcare so that the two of you can take turns studying and supervising the children.
Make your workout fun to prioritize
All of this assumes that you want to play sports. If you are afraid of exercising, you will do whatever it takes to get it off your schedule. To make appointments with you, make sure you are motivated to exercise .
This can include adjusting your exercise and mindset so you don’t get frustrated or burned out by training too hard. Pat yourself on the back for any workout, even if it’s small or not impressive. Ten squats in your office is much better than zero.
But it’s best if you can make your workout a reward on its own. Maybe workout is when you meet your favorite buddy at the gym or listen to your favorite podcasts. Maybe you enjoy sharing your sweaty selfies with a note of what you accomplished that day. Maybe instead of doing a sport you don’t like, you join a team and take up your favorite sport .
Ultimately, because you take the time to exercise, you will only do the exercises that are worth it. Either it’s fun, you value the results you get, or both. When training has a place on your schedule and there is a reason to come back, then you have a habit to be proud of.