One of the biggest complaints that I hear from people getting started, or trying to get stated, in working out is:
“Where will I find the time to workout?”
We all lead busy days and often the time between the morning when we get up and the evening when we go to sleep goes by in a blur of work, family, preparing meals, finding and foraging for food and getting a little bit of downtime.
So where do we find that few minutes a day to workout? I think that I have a bit of an answer.
Get you priorities straight
First things first. Look at your day from the time that you awake until the time that you go to sleep. What are you doing in every 15 minute block?
You may think of this as micromanagement but really it is more important to look at your day and see little gaps and times when you are not batching your work.
Batching? Batching is where you get a bunch of things that are related and do them at once.
An easy example is that when you are cooking food, if you are cleaning dishes as you are waiting for the cooking to finish as well as emptying and then refilling the dishwasher then you can see how these related items done in the same place at the same time will save you a lot of time.
Besides batching, you may also find that you are spending time surfing on the internet looking at the same new stories over and over again during the day.
Get out of this habit and instead pick a time for news and surfing and do not go back to it unless it is part of the batching process.
How much time do you need
Everyone that does not workout a few times a week thinks that they have to find a couple of hours to workout. Everyone that works out efficiently knows that you can get a great workout in with only 30 minutes.
If you are looking for 2 hours to train then you will never find it but if you only need 30 minutes then it is easy to find the time.
30 minutes to workout is not enough for some people but as you care more about this part of your life you will use that time better and maybe let it creep up to an hour.
There is nearly no reason that any normal person not training for athletic events would need more than an hour to workout. In fact science says that even an hour may be too long.
Pick a downtime to workout
Either first thing in the morning or an hour after dinner are the best times to workout. Look at how early you are getting up. If you have a shower anyway in the morning why not have a workout as soon as you get up.
This is the best time to workout as you are not going to get distracted by life at 5:30, heck no one even knows that you are awake.
If you can not make it to workout first thing in the morning then you can try my method. I have dinner, clean up, hang with the kids for a few minutes, get the kids ready for bed and then I sneak downstairs for a workout.
My kids are terrible for going to sleep late so this way they have downtime, I get a workout in and then either shower and then fight with them to get ready for bed or else sit down and watch a movie.
Decide why you are working out
This may be the first thing on the list or else the thing that gets you working out harder. I always have another big fitness goal. These goals are not things like winning the Mr Olympia or anything but smaller ones that may be vane.
I was lifting hard in the Spring so that I would look better on the beach in Hawaii. I am working out hard now to make up for the fact I am not riding my bike enough.
The thing is as the time of year changes and as your prioirites change you can get in great shape all the time by shifiting the reasons and types of workouts.
So there you have my simple ideas for how to get time, prioirtize and get yourself on the road, into the gym or into the basement to get a heart pumping workout that will improve your health for today and into the future.
Hey, nice tips. Perhaps I’ll buy a glass of beer to that person from that chat who told me to visit your site 🙂