It’s probably unsurprising that one of the most common issues with exercise is finding the time to do it. When you have to get up early, go to work, run errands, make dinner, and clean up afterward, that doesn’t leave much time to unwind. You may even try to squeeze in more downtime before bed and stay up late to have more time for yourself.
How do you exercise when there doesn’t seem to be any time to spare? It certainly is challenging, but it can be done. Typical advice includes making it a priority, scheduling workouts, starting small, making it easy to do, and exercising with friends. It’s easy to say, but how does that work in reality?
Finding Me Time
Although exercise is vital to your long-term health and well-being, it adds to your already busy day. Over time, you have taken on more responsibilities and developed habits that shape your daily routine. It’s part of your typical day, and your brain tells you these things have to get done.
What if you didn’t have to do all those things? You’re likely moving through your daily grind and doing things you may not have to do anymore. Finding more time for yourself, whether to exercise or not, will leave more time to do activities you enjoy.
It’s time to be more self-aware and scrutinize everything you do throughout your day. There are likely tasks you can stop doing, and no one will be the wiser. There may be free time in your schedule, but it doesn’t seem like it because you’re experiencing burnout. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re not putting your best foot forward.
Your best bet is to start writing down everything you do during the day. Tracking your daily activities will show you how you’re spending your time, and you may discover you’re doing things that aren’t necessary anymore. There may be tasks that can save time if combined or planned out. Freeing up your time will give you more time to do activities you enjoy. When you have time for yourself, you’re likely to have more energy and procrastinate less.
Fitting In Exercise
Monitoring your daily routine is something you should do regularly to identify time-wasters and reclaim that time for yourself. Finding the time to fit in exercise may seem challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. You know exercise has many benefits, but you may not know how to start.
If you’re new to exercise or trying to get back into it, start by simply walking. Walking is a powerful exercise that many people often overlook. However, it can be your catalyst toward a consistent exercise routine, and walking is easy. You may not know what exercises to do, and until you figure it out, walking can improve your fitness, burn calories, and increase your energy. Try to block off 15 minutes in your day, for example, during lunch or after work, to take those 15 minutes for yourself and walk at a brisk pace.
If you can’t walk for 15 minutes at a time, you can find other ways to move, such as parking farther away, taking the stairs, and walking around the house or office every hour to get up and stretch your legs. If you need motivation, a fitness tracker can help you track your steps.
Finding Time To Stay Consistent
It might be easy to fit in a 15-minute workout on one day, but finding the time to exercise consistently most days of the week is another challenge. This may not be easy at first, but sticking to an exercise like walking can make it easier to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Add a block of exercise to your calendar to help make it a priority. For example, you can schedule exercise in the morning, during lunch, or in the evening to help you stay consistent.
As walking becomes easier, increase your time a little bit each week until you’re walking for 30 minutes straight. After consistently doing that for a few weeks, you’ve acquired enough fitness to set new goals and try new activities like running, biking, yoga, or exercising at the gym. However, don’t force yourself to do exercises you won’t enjoy, no matter how many calories you burn. Also, don’t do specific exercises you were told will achieve the best results in the least amount of time. If you don’t like the exercises you’re doing, you’ll loathe your workouts and eventually stop.
Finding activities you enjoy helps you consistently exercise and maintain your quality of life as you age. You may keep walking, replace it with another activity, or alternate between different workouts. It’s all up to you where you go from here. When you like to exercise, you’ll look forward to your workouts, stay engaged longer, and find the time to exercise.
Be Mindful Of How You Feel
Life is busy, and you have a lot to do, but when you’re exercising consistently, you will have more energy to get things done. Yet, you will still have days when you feel run down. You may not feel mentally up for your workout. In those cases, it may help to do a light workout instead. On the other hand, you may need a break if you’re feeling anything physical, such as soreness that isn’t going away on its own after a few days. It’s okay to take a day off or do a rest day workout to give your mind and body time to recover.
If you push through, you may injure yourself, forcing you to stop exercising. As a result, you’ll start to detrain while you recover. An injury will also make it harder to fulfill your other obligations. Thankfully, taking a day or two off to rest and recharge won’t erase all your hard work. Instead of exercising, do something else, such as a hobby, to give yourself the self-care you need to unwind and disconnect from the day.
The Takeaway
Finding the time to exercise may be difficult, but it can be done. Shift into a fitness mindset and find efficient ways to get through your day through planning, pruning, and rearranging. Start by scheduling short bouts of exercise. Then, slowly increase your time exercising and explore other activities that help you look forward to working out.
Exercise or not, it’s best to find time to engage in activities you enjoy. Consistent exercise will not only help improve your fitness but also improve your mood and increase your energy to tackle your day.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
