Time. Nobody ever seems to feel like they have enough.
People seem to be busier now than ever before. Going to work, going to school, activities with the kids, house work, running a business, social and civic activities, and trying to spend some leisure time having fun besides. With all this going on, how in the world do we find the time to schedule workouts?
We would all love to have a stronger, more muscular body, more energy, and less aches and pains. Not to mention the fact that we all know, in our heart of hearts, that we should be exercising regularly to improve our health. The problem remains: who’s got the time?
Those with full to the brim, hectic lives often throw up their hands in despair, lamenting:
“What’s the use? I don’t have the time, I don’t know exactly what to do, I know I won’t stick with it, I just can’t get into it even though I know I should. If only there was a way to do it that didn’t take much time, I could see results right away to keep me motivated, and it was simple to follow-now that’s something I could use, and stick with.”
Congratulations. You have come to the right place.
The nature of time
Time is our most precious resource. Time is inflexible; you only get a certain amount, and no more. In addition, no one can be certain when they will be ultimately out of time.
Time is indispensable; all achievement requires time. Time is irreplaceable; nothing can take the place of time. And time is perishable; it cannot be saved, preserved or stored. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. Your time is your life-and every second counts.
As with any valuable, limited resource, it makes sense to use time in the most efficient manner possible.
The Rock Solid Fitness training system was created with this principle in mind.
The value of planning and organization
The first step toward successful time management is planning and scheduling your time in advance. Planning and scheduling may sound boring and restrictive, but it’s not; doing so will actually increase your time freedom by cutting down on wasted time.
If you don’t use one already, you will need to get a planning and scheduling tool – Google calendar, Day Planner, PDA, some other app or computer program, whatever you’re comfortable with.
Once you have something to use, you simply plan out the next unit of time-month, week or day-at the end of that previous unit of time. For example, at the end of the current month, you write down your scheduled activities for the next month. At the end of the week, plan out the next week. And at the end of each day, write out your schedule for the next day. As the saying goes, you’re not ready to start your
day until it’s finished on paper.
Now, don’t turn your time planning into homework; just make a general outline of your day, with appointment times set for your high priority tasks-like working out.
Time management tricks of the trade
Now that you are prepared to plan and schedule your daily activities, your goal is to free up an extra ½ hour a day 2 days per week to schedule workouts, with a minimum of 2 days in between – for example, Monday and Thursday; Tuesday and Friday; Wednesday and Saturday; Sunday and Wednesday, etc.
How to free up an extra 1/2 hour a day:
- Get up a little earlier; go to bed a little later. Start with setting the alarm to go off 15 minutes earlier in the morning-you will hardly notice that amount of time-and gradually work your way up to 30 minutes over a few weeks.
- Manage your TV time. The television is both a blessing and a curse. It can provide you with vast amounts of information and entertainment, and can also put you in a hypnotic trance that enslaves you and robs you of your precious time. Treat your TV like an appliance-turn it on to use it for a specific, limited purpose, and turn it off when you are done. Mindlessly watching hours of trivial television programming is the number one way most people waste their time. Such a person can easily find 30 minutes 2 times a week that they can live without the TV.
- Manage your phone use. With the recent advances in cell phone technology, this one is right up there with TV as an alluring time waster. We all see people with a cell phone permanently glued to their head, or permanently glued to their hands for text messaging. Are you one of them? Put it down for 30 minutes and go workout. If somebody is trying to reach you, they can leave a message and wait 30 minutes for you to get back to them. Really-they can.
- Delegate low priority activities. As we have discussed, your most precious resource is your time. For most people, money is in second place; you can replace money, you can’t replace time. Sometimes you can give up a little bit of money to gain a lot of time, which is an excellent deal. Examples include hiring a lawn or pool service, hiring a maid service to clean your house, or using a car wash or oil change facility instead of doing it yourself. Always be on the lookout for things that other people can do for you rather cheaply that can free up some of your precious time.
Set an appointment (with yourself)
Now that you have freed up 30 minutes using some of the time management tricks of the trade, you go to your planner and determine where you can squeeze that workout into your day. Then, you simply write in your appointment – which is with yourself – to meet at the gym at the scheduled time.
You will need to schedule 2 appointments per week with a minimum of 2 days in between-for example, Monday and Thursday; Tuesday and Friday; Wednesday and Saturday; Sunday and Wednesday, etc.-whatever works best in your schedule. You need to allow at least 2 days between workouts for recovery (you can learn more about recovery in this blog post).
Scheduling these workouts is no different than scheduling any other high-priority task-dentist appointment, doctor appointment, parent-teacher conference, etc.except that your workouts will be scheduled 2 times a week instead of once in a while. You should assign the same importance to them and commit (there’s that word again) to making a habit of keeping those appointments.
Do it now!
- Get a planning and scheduling tool-Day Planner, PDA, computer program, etc.and start using it to plan and schedule workouts. Keep it simple so it is easy to use and keep using it.
- Review the time management tricks of the trade and determine how you can make time for a 30 minute workout, 2 days per week, with a minimum of 2 days in between.
- Go to your planning and scheduling tool and figure out where in your day you can put that 30 minute workout. Schedule your 2 workouts per week for at least the next 4 weeks.
- Once you have decided which gym is best for you, make the commitment and sign up!
HAVEN’T PICKED A GYM YET?
Rock Solid Fitness is Tampa Bay’s Premier personal training studio. Their unique data-driven fitness program helps their clients feel better, look better and function better, all in only 30 minutes twice a week. All workouts are supervised and monitored by expert, college educated Fitness Coaches. Rock Solid’s unique proven process gets results for people of all ages and stages of life, including those with physical challenges. Their program works, works for everybody, and works every time – and it will work for you!
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