Staying Physically Active When You’re at a Loss for Time
Apply these timesaving tricks to get the most exercise into your jam-packed day!
Time. You can feel empowered by it or imprisoned by it. It’s your choice. If you’re the type of person who habitually keeps a busy schedule, it may be hard to fit one more activity into your day. That being said, there is nothing more important than your health and wellness. Without either, there’s no point in ‘slaying lists’ and ‘making the most out of every minute of the day’. Eventually, your health suffers, and you’re left wondering why you didn’t make physical fitness a priority.
Making the Most of a Jam-Packed Daily and Weekly Schedule
Rather than add one more thing to your plate, how about rearranging your current schedule? What if doing so afforded you more free time without interfering with your ability to get things done? You’re not being forced to stop doing the things you’re doing. Instead, you’re doing them in a more efficient way so you can continue to exercise and focus on your health and wellness.
Here are some tips that help you stay physically active when you’re at a loss for time:
- Find ways to combine two activities at once. If you’re good at handling multiple tasks at once, chunking is a great way to get more done in less time. For example, if you take your kid to soccer practice, you can spend time walking around the perimeter of the field as a way to burn extra calories. You can take the stairs rather than wait for the elevator when you’re going to work. Doing a few extra laps around the grocery store and parking as far away from the door as possible gives you the opportunity to sneak in exercise. You won’t spend a lot of extra time doing it and likely have accounted for the time required to complete an activity such as shopping by giving yourself extra time for traveling and standing in line. Do some spinning exercise while watching or reading something.
- Automate your digital life as much as possible. Use apps to automatically schedule tasks, meetings, and appointments so that they’re going on in the background while you focus on working out. You’ll be able to hit the gym and know that the things needing to be tended to online are being taken care of through the apps you use and the automation options that you’ve chosen to utilize. The IFTTT app is available for Android and iOS devices for free. It simplifies life and even works with the smart devices you have in your home.
- Conduct walking meetings. If you’ve got to have meetings at work, suggest that they be done while walking. It gives you the opportunity to get outdoors to see the sunlight and it also provides you with a chance to move your body after sitting down for a long period of time. Stress is easily combatted by an increase in endorphins, the brain’s feel good chemicals, which are released during physical activity. It’s nice to see a change of scenery when you’re confined to a cubicle or a small room for a majority of the day.
- Find a gym that is close to where you live or work. You can come and go more easily. You’re able to squeeze in a few extra minutes of working out in because you’re in close proximity to your home or workplace. If you get off of work early, you can go to the gym without much thought before calling it a day and driving to your residence. You’ll have more drive to go to the gym if it isn’t in a location that is out of the way for you to get to. This is especially true if you rely on public transportation to get around. If it’s a quick bus or subway ride to the gym, you can get there without any real effort.
- Take five minute breaks to move and stretch your body. No matter how demanding your schedule may be, you can easily let yourself off the hook for short increments of time. Use your breaks to get up and walk. Stretch your legs and arms (have a look at leg stretching machine review). Do a few head rolls and lunges. If the majority of your day is spent in the seated position, find excuses to get up and move. The more you do it, the quicker it becomes a habit. You won’t think twice about the movement breaks you’re taking because you’re so caught up in the actual action.
Learning to recognize timesaving opportunities and seize them is a great way to make sure that you’re still getting a good amount of exercise in each day despite being busy. You’ll be able to tend to your scheduled obligations with greater ease and feel more energetic throughout the day because of the exercise you’re getting. You’ll also find that your stress management skills improve because you took the time to move your body in a way that felt good and allowed you to focus on something positive rather than the thing troubling you.
Be Physically Active Instead of Just Busy
You can be the busiest person in the world and still find ways to remain physically active. It’s a matter of squeezing exercise into your day and applying timesaving tricks to all areas of your life so that you have more free time to devote to fitness. Approach the upcoming week with a fresh perspective by applying some of the things you’ve learned today about freeing up your schedule so you can continue to move your body more and be the best version of yourself you can possibly be.
The more you tweak your schedule, the better it becomes. You’ll identify more efficient ways to handle things so that you’re able to prioritize fitness. You won’t feel like you’re cheating other areas of your life by fitting in more exercise. Instead, you’ll realize that with regular physical activity, you’re able to achieve more. You have greater speed, stamina, and endurance which helps you power through the toughest tasks and most trying days.
