How to Exercise with a Busy Schedule
I referred to my workout in a conversation with a group of friends, to which an acquaintance replied, “how do you have time for that? I don’t have time…you must have more time than me.” She must have caught me in one of my less polite moments because I answered back that, “the last time I checked we all have 24 hours in a day. So, unless you operate in a different time system, I’m pretty sure we have the same amount of time.” This made for an awkward end to our conversation…but is a great segue into the art of making time for exercise.
To start, I won’t give you some over simplified time saving tips like, do jumping jacks during commercials. If you’re going to live a life in line with your values (I assume you value exercise if you’re reading this article), time management is much more radical than finding scraps of time here and there to do a few toe touches.
Busyness as a Status Symbol
In our culture, busyness is worn like a badge, but it’s really just bragging masked as complaining. “Do I have time to exercise?” says the busy colleague, “No, I wish I had as much leisure time as those exercisers, but my time is on high demand…”
In fact, time is reported as the leading reason that people do not exercise. At the same time, physical inactivity and poor nutrition are the second leading behavioral cause of death in the United States. As a culture, we allow the belief that we don’t have enough time to exercise steal not only years from our lives, but life in our years.
Therefore, let’s dispel the belief that we are too time poor to exercise with the following time-management strategies:
#1. Recognize that we have an abundance of time.
It was just 100 years ago that most people grew and harvested their own food, washed their clothes by hand, among other tedious tasks. Today, we pick our food up at the grocery store or have it delivered right to our house. We do our laundry by pushing a button… the list goes on.
Technology advancements have eliminated much of the physical exertion and time-intensive energy involved with activities of daily living. Yet, in our technology rich society, many people live under the illusion that we are busy. Truly, we have more leisure time than any other generation in the scope of human kind.
#2. Distinguish between busyness and productivity.
Busy means we are doing something. Productive means we are achieving measurable results that matter. I don’t want to minimize time-intensive responsibilities that some people have like caring for young children or aging parents. However, for the vast majority, busyness is a form of procrastination of what’s important. There are a lot of good things that we can do with our time. But as the saying goes, “good is often the enemy of great.” We can do a lot of good things that essentially steal time from the best things.
“Lay down what’s good and find what’s best.”
#3. Put first thing’s first.
Time is a fixed pie. If we put something in, that means something else has to leave. So, put first things first. Go about scheduling your weeks and days so that you use your time first for what you value most, whether it’s spending time with your children, exercising, or volunteering.
#4. Say no.
Time is not something that we find. Instead, we make time for things that are important to us by saying no to anything less than what we value most. Name your values out loud. Then, have the courage to smilingly, non-apologetically say “no,” to other things. We are always saying no to something. If it isn’t to the obvious, pressing things, it is probably to the highly important things.
We have enough time for what matters most. So, let’s make a plan and fill our time with what deserves to be there.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
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