Hey there.
Do you struggle to find the time in your busy schedule to work out consistently?
If so, try this.
I want you to answer these 4 questions…
1. How Much Time Do You Want To Spend Working Out Per Week?
This would include weight training and cardio workouts, as well as any other form of exercise activity that doesn’t fall into either category.
For example, someone might answer this question by saying “I want to weight train 4 days per week for 90 minutes each workout. And I also want to do cardio 3 days a week for 30 minutes each workout.”
In this example, that’s 7.5 total hours per week that this nonexistent person wants to dedicate to working out.
Pretty simple.
Now you do the same and figure out how many total hours you want to work out per week.
2. How Much Time Do You Currently Have Available To Do So?
The key here is to be VERY realistic with your answer.
Think entirely in terms of how much time you are sure, without any doubt, that you could easily, conveniently, and consistently put towards working out each week if you wanted to start tomorrow.
This isn’t about how much time you hope to have or how much time you might be able to potentially have.
You want to be definitive.
Think about how much time you actually have each week to put towards working out.
For example, that same nonexistent person from before might answer this with “I definitely have 4 hours per week available.”
3. How Much Time Can You Make For This?
The previous question was about how much time you currently have available.
Now I want you to think about how much new time you can make in addition to that?
And like before, be VERY realistic with your answer.
Also note that this question requires you to take time away from something else in your life.
You can’t make new time for working out without taking that time away from something else. So think about where in your life that time can come from.
But, There’s A Catch
The caveat is that it can’t come from something of equal or higher importance to the workouts you’re trying to make time for.
For example, it can’t be sleep.
You can’t say “I’ll sleep 6 hours a night instead of 7 to make this extra time.” That wouldn’t be acceptable.
Sleep is too important to take time away from.
Chances are you have other areas of your life (work, school, family, friends, etc.) that you wouldn’t be willing or able to take time away from either.
That’s totally fine. So don’t try to.
Instead, think about areas where you’re currently spending time (or wasting it) that would be better spent working out AND you’d be willing to take time away from.
And be specific about it.
For example, our nonexistent person from before might say “3 days per week, I’m willing to spend 30 minutes less at night scrolling through social media and watching Netflix so I can go to bed 30 minutes earlier and wake up 30 minutes earlier to create an additional 30 minutes of time for working out on those 3 days.”
4. How Much Time Do You Truly Need?
Last but not least.
After going through the previous steps, you’ll have 3 things:
- The amount of time you want to spend working out per week.
- The amount of time you currently have available to do so.
- The amount of additional time you’ve been able to make (if any).
Now, add #2 and #3 together.
That’s the total amount of time you have for working out each week.
If this number is equal to (or higher) than the amount of time you wanted to spend working out (#1), then congrats!
You’re done. You found all the time you needed. Now go put it into action!
What If There’s Still Not Enough Time?
However, if this is not the case, and you still have less than the amount of time you wanted, you have one final step.
And that is, reduce the amount of time you initially wanted until it’s the sufficient amount you need.
You see, the amount of time you want to work out is probably based on what’s ideal for your goals.
This is the right idea. We all want to do what works best.
However, if you don’t have time for that ideal amount, it’s important to remember that less than this can still be perfectly sufficient to get the job done.
And that’s the amount you truly need.
For example, our nonexistent person wanted to do 4 weight training workouts per week that were 90 minutes long. They could cut that down to 3 workouts instead. Or keep it at 4 workouts but shorten them down to 60 minutes.
It’s less than they wanted, and that may sometimes be less than ideal, but it would still be sufficient for most goals.
And that’s the part that matters most.
But wait, what’s that you say?
What If I Have To Cut It Too Low?
What if this last step requires you to reduce your total workout time per week so low that it may no longer be sufficient for your goals?
Well, when it comes to exercise, some is always better than none.
So if that happens, just do whatever amount of working out you’re able to do each week, and retry step #3 every month from that point on.
Your goal is to eventually find some additional time somewhere, and my guess is you probably will.
