Ever wish there were more hours in a day? We are so busy just trying to stay afloat in life, what happens when we just can’t fit everything in? We tend to put our own needs last in order to meet everyone else’s, which wears us down in the long run and makes keeping up that much harder. We found an article over at Men’s Health that had some great ideas and we’ve chosen a few of our favorites to share with you here.
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- Turn Off the TV. Nearly every expert we asked gave the same resounding answer. “It’s so easy to lose track of time while watching TV because that’s exactly what it’s designed to do,” says Todd Durkin, C.S.C.S., renowned strength coach to professional athletes, and owner of FitnessQuest 10 in San Diego. Of course, a little relaxation is healthy, so you don’t have to ditch the boob tube entirely. “Limit yourself to 30 minutes a day, or just weekends,” Durkin suggests. “You’ll find more hours, instead of just minutes.”
- Plan Out Your Week. Sure, it will take some time now, but pay dividends later. “Every Sunday I focus on my wins, losses, and ‘a-ha’ moments, as well as my goals for the upcoming week,” says Durkin. “This gives me clarity to think about how I can prioritize and maximize my time.”Having a concrete plan for the week can help you stay on task and be efficient. “Without a strategy, you waste more time wondering what you should be doing than actually doing it,” Durkin says.
- Train Whenever You Can. Whether you have 45 minutes or only 5, you can still fit a quick workout in, says Jeremy Shore, lead educator at Dynamax Medicine Balls. “When I’m ultra busy, I train in short bursts of 3 to 5 minutes throughout the day until I can add them all up into one full workout,” he says.Worried about sweating your way through the day? Your mini-workouts don’t have to be high-intensity. Take 5 minutes in the morning for mobility work, for example. Add 5 more in the afternoon for foam rolling. By the time you get to the gym—even if you only have 15 minutes to exercise—you’re already half way done.
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- Be Your Own Drill Sergeant. If you allow yourself 5-minute breaks here and there, they add up over the course of the day. So be a strict timekeeper: “If you have 30 minutes to allow yourself some downtime, make sure it’s just 30 minutes,” says Ballantyne. “If you want to be in bed by a certain hour, make sure you do it.”
- Limit Your Emails. How often do you start a task only to be derailed by an incoming email? Set specific times to check your messages, suggests Craig Ballantyne, C.S.C.S., M.S., author of Turbulence Training.Though he has managed to only open his email once or twice a day—lucky guy!—focus on hitting a more modest goal at first, like once every half hour. The limit will help you concentrate on what you’re doing so you can be faster and more efficient with the time you spend on work, he says.
Number 5 is a good one. I think we all have been thrown off task by random emails or texts. It’s so easy to loose a large chunk of time while replying to emails or texts. Hopefully you found these helpful and maybe you’ll try out a few. Who knows what you can do with a little more time on your hands!
Curated article from:
Men’s Health
