My last article was about creating an effective exercise plan but a plan is only as good as your ability to adhere to it. Life doesn’t stop so you can implement your fabulous plan! My clients who exercise regularly tend to be people who are well organized with their weekly schedule and productive in their daily routine.
Steven Covey, author of "First Things First", recommends putting the "Big Rocks" in first and scheduling other activities around them. Exercise is definitely a "Big Rock" – we know it’s important but it never really becomes urgent. Finding the right place in the schedule for exercise usually happens via process of elimination. One of my clients is the managing director of a large IT company. When we looked at his schedule we realized that 7am was the only time of the day he could realistically exercise if he was also to meet his goal of being home from work early enough to spend time with his young children. We scheduled exercise into his Outlook calendar every weekday at 7am, knowing that realistically he’d end up having to go to meetings on two of the five days leaving three days for exercise.
Getting the appointment to exercise into your diary is the first step, the next step is to keep the appointment. An efficient daily routine helps you get everywhere on time as scheduled. Productivity guru Tim Ferris recommends having a personal system where the first 80-90 minutes of each day vary as little as possible. You know what needs to be done last thing at night and first thing in the morning for the day to get off to the right start. Everyone is different, for example I find my best "thinking" work is done early in the morning so I get up before my daughters so I can get a head start on my projects before I shift into "Mummy Mode" for a couple of hours. I prefer to save exercise, domestic jobs and general administrivia for later in the day.
Managing the urgent is another great way of making sure you stay on schedule and get to the gym. I don’t enjoy the last minute so I try to make sure things don’t become urgent. One of my daily mid-morning jobs is to confirm all appointments 24 to 48 hours in advance and prepare everything that’s needed from client programs to kids school uniforms to exercise gear. I also look at today one week away and today one fortnight away to see if there’s anything upcoming that I need to be prepared for. You can’t plan for everything but when the unexpected happens, as it so often does for a working parent, it’s good to have a bit of a buffer.
When you are balancing a variety of roles and goals it can be difficult to stay on track with your exercise. But with a well organized weekly schedule and daily routine you can accomplish your goals and be relaxed as you do it.
Steven Covey, author of "First Things First", recommends putting the "Big Rocks" in first and scheduling other activities around them. Exercise is definitely a "Big Rock" – we know it’s important but it never really becomes urgent. Finding the right place in the schedule for exercise usually happens via process of elimination. One of my clients is the managing director of a large IT company. When we looked at his schedule we realized that 7am was the only time of the day he could realistically exercise if he was also to meet his goal of being home from work early enough to spend time with his young children. We scheduled exercise into his Outlook calendar every weekday at 7am, knowing that realistically he’d end up having to go to meetings on two of the five days leaving three days for exercise.
Getting the appointment to exercise into your diary is the first step, the next step is to keep the appointment. An efficient daily routine helps you get everywhere on time as scheduled. Productivity guru Tim Ferris recommends having a personal system where the first 80-90 minutes of each day vary as little as possible. You know what needs to be done last thing at night and first thing in the morning for the day to get off to the right start. Everyone is different, for example I find my best "thinking" work is done early in the morning so I get up before my daughters so I can get a head start on my projects before I shift into "Mummy Mode" for a couple of hours. I prefer to save exercise, domestic jobs and general administrivia for later in the day.
Managing the urgent is another great way of making sure you stay on schedule and get to the gym. I don’t enjoy the last minute so I try to make sure things don’t become urgent. One of my daily mid-morning jobs is to confirm all appointments 24 to 48 hours in advance and prepare everything that’s needed from client programs to kids school uniforms to exercise gear. I also look at today one week away and today one fortnight away to see if there’s anything upcoming that I need to be prepared for. You can’t plan for everything but when the unexpected happens, as it so often does for a working parent, it’s good to have a bit of a buffer.
When you are balancing a variety of roles and goals it can be difficult to stay on track with your exercise. But with a well organized weekly schedule and daily routine you can accomplish your goals and be relaxed as you do it.
RSS Feed