Mar
31
Schedule Your Exercise
Filed Under Motivation, Time Management, Work Out
How many times have you canceled your workouts because you were going out? How many times have you cut them short because of some social appointment? Have you ever gotten in your car to drive to the gym and then decide that you simply have something else to do or somewhere else to be? If you have, then you’re not alone.
I used to do this on a regular basis. It was never intentional, I simply have a busy life and things would pile up. I had appointments, meetings, friends to see, family to have dinner with and in the middle of it all, my workouts were relegated to a lower priority. I knew that I needed to work out but when faced with the choice of going to the gym or going to hang out with friends, I always chose to avoid the gym.
Then I discovered a quick and simple method to avoid this problem, my calendar.
Schedule It!
I’ve been using calendars for years. I have one for work through Microsoft Outlook and one for personal activities on Google Calendar. Because I hate forgetting appointments, I put every single activity on these calendars. Meetings, dinners, conference calls, movies with friends, they all go on my calendars. That way I avoid scheduling conflicts where I accidentally book myself for two different events at the same time plus I can set reminders. These reminders pop up ahead of the event and remind me that I need to do something.
Unfortunately, even though I’ve been using calendars for years, I never thought to actually schedule my workouts. The gym was something I did in my spare time, right? So I just assumed I would find some time for it everyday. Well, guess what? I didn’t. Until that is, I started seeing the gym as an important activity that I shouldn’t avoid, and that’s when I started scheduling it.
Gym Appointments
If you don’t use any kind of calendar, I would recommend starting. It’s a very useful organizational tool that comes in quite handy in all areas of your life. I use Google Calendar which you can get a free account for right here. Because it’s online, I can see my schedule from any computer. Google Calendar also allows me to share my calendar with other people. So I can put appointments on it which my wife sees. For you readers out there in a relationship, giving each other visibility into our calendars has been one of the best relationship tools my wife and I found! But since this is a fitness blog and not a relationship blog, I’ll stick to telling you about my scheduled workouts. 
Schedule a recurring appointment. This is an appointment that occurs multiple times. Any calendar will let you do this. You can set something up like “every weekday between 3 and 4:30pm” or “every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between noon and 1pm.” Whateveryour gym schedule is, set it up with a specific time and day. Now just follow this schedule.
Stick To Your Schedule
You have no idea how much this little tip helped me. Putting my workouts on my calendar increased my success rate (the percentage of times I was supposed to be at the gym and actually went) from somewhere in the 50% to above 95%. I still miss the occasional workout but it’s usually due to serious issues.
Extra Tips
- Think about letting people know about your gym time - Some people will respect gym time and some will not. I have my gym time on my calendar as “Personal Quality Control”. My wife and friends know what this is and they respect that. I’m also honest with those coworkers who ask about it and I let them know that this time is important to me. I have no problem meeting with them during this time but they better wear their gym clothes to this meeting and be ready to sweat. Everyone else simply sees an appointment on my schedule and assumes that they shouldn’t schedule meetings for this time.
- Add others to your gym appointments - One of the best benefits of a gym partner is the extra incentive to actually show up. It’s easy to skip the occasional workout when it’s just you. It’s not so easy when someone else is counting on you to show up. So schedule you gym appointments and then see if anyone else wants to go with you.
- Don’t forget the commute time - Make sure your gym appointment includes enough time to get to and from the gym.
- Not too late - Late night workouts will sometimes cause sleep issues. Try to finish your workouts two to three hours before your bed time.
- Make it regular - Try not to change your workout schedule too often. A regular day and time really helps you get into the gym habit.
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Your workout time is just as important as any other meeting. In fact, it may be more important than most since I can’t think of too many conference calls I’ve attended lately that can prolong and improve my life. Why not treat it like the important appointment it is and get it on your schedule?
UPDATE - One of my readers sent me in a link to the schedule application they like to use. I looked at it and it seems like it has some neat features. So I figured I would add a link to it here.
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Comments
6 Responses to “Schedule Your Exercise”
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I have made many excuse for not doing exercise :). Thank you for writing this article…You remind me to be more discipline.
You’ve reminded me of a cartoon that showed a doctor asking a patient “Which would fit better into your schedule? To exercise for 1 hour a day or to be dead for 24?”
Good points in this article. The key to solid results is consistency, and in order to be consistent your workout has to be a part of your daily routine. Just like you get dressed, eat and sleep, your workout needs to be a regular part of your life.
If you make your workout a part of your lifestyle you will have a great chance of doing it.
I know that since I started riding my bike to work 5 years ago if have gone to great lengths to get that ride in. I hate taking the bus and just the idea of riding the bike instead is enough to get my biking in the dead of a cold Calgary winter
Since you exercise during the day how much time to you spend at the office? I don’t want to be at work from 8 - 7
How do you fit this in?
Hello Susan,
I usually get to the office at about 8:30 and stay until 6:30. My gym time is around 1 to 1.5 hours and my boss is aware of that. I try to maximize my time by using the gym time for work related activities. For example, I’ll go to the gym with a coworker and discuss a project we’re working on. At other times I’ll go to the gym with the purpose of planning through some project in my head. At times like that I take a notebook with me and jot ideas down as I work out.
Gal