No Time to Work Out? How to Easily Fit It In

If you’ve ever used the excuse, “I have no time to work out” you may be pleased to know (or maybe annoyed to know) that virtually everyone has time for exercise. More often, people who say they have no time to work out just need to prioritize their time better. You may be spending a lot of time on activities that you don’t really have to do, and you can easily make time for exercise by cutting them out, or at least doing less of them.

Below are some unnecessary activities that can be reduced or eliminated to easily make time for exercise:

Reduce TV Time

Granted, most of us do enjoy watching our favorite television shows each week.  There’s nothing wrong with that, unless they add up to 6, 8, or 10 hours of television time a day.  Yes, some people do watch that much television!  Can you shut off the TV for 30 to 60 minutes a day?  Are there shows that you don’t really have to watch but you sit there and watch them anyway?  Give yourself permission to watch the shows you REALLY want to see, but dedicate at least half an hour to an hour for working out.

See: 10 Ways to Exercise While Watching TV

Stop Hitting the Snooze Button

What would happen if you got up even a half hour earlier each day and devoted that time to working out?  If you habitually pound the snooze button on your alarm clock to sneak in another 10-30 minutes each morning, start breaking that habit immediately.  Move the alarm clock across the room from your bed so you must get up to shut it off.  Wear your exercise clothes to bed at night, and leave your running shoes and water bottle right near your bed.  When the alarm sounds in the morning, get up and shut it off, then immediately put on your shoes, grab your water bottle and head out for a walk, run, or to your living room to pop in a workout DVD.

Ditch Unnecessary Obligations

Does your neighbor constantly talk you into watching her children without pay?  Did you agree to be on a committee that you don’t even care about?  Think about all of the “unnecessary” things you do each day, and consider whether any of them could be eliminated to make more time for yourself.  This can be challenging if you are a “people pleaser” and you do things to make other people like you, but you may be surprised how easy it is to start saying “no” more often.  The world will not end if you stop doing everything for everyone.  Make yourself a top priority!

Get Organized

Simply getting organized can free up a lot of time, some of which can be used for working out.  Are your mornings a blur of scattered chaos as everyone rushes around trying to locate books, jackets, keys, homework, make lunches, iron clothes, feed and water pets, and more?  Spend some time getting organized and you’ll suddenly realize how much more time you have available!  Spend an hour after dinner cleaning up and gathering everything you and your family needs for the next morning.  Lay out clothing, iron them if necessary and hang them up, set the table for breakfast, prepare lunches, and place everything you’ll need within easy reach.  In the morning, all you need to do is get up, do your workout, and get ready for the day.

See: How Getting Organized Can Help You Lose Weight

Choose Activities You Love

When you say, “I have no time to work out” you might really be saying, “I hate working out so I make sure I’m too busy to do it”.  If that’s the case, maybe you just need to find some activities that you don’t mind doing.  Maybe joining a dance class or a walking club, starting a garden or landscaping your yard, learning martial arts, entering a bodybuilding competition - choose activities that make you feel interested and inspired and suddenly “working out” becomes something you actually look forward to each day.  And the things you look forward to doing are things that you always make time for, right?

You have no time to work out?  Really?  We’ve just blasted that excuse into smithereens. Get cracking!

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