Follow these tips to shave 15 minutes off daily activities, and you won’t be too busy to hit the gym.
The secret to finding time for a workout is really about one simple strategy: ditching the stuff that’s wasting your valuable time. Here are 15 easy ways to shave 15 extra minutes out of your day–and put them toward your fitness goals.
1. Sign Out Facebook. People average seven hours a month on the social site. Do the math and it works out to 105 minutes each week, or 15 minutes every single day. You don’t have to banish FB, but limit it to two short sessions a day.
2. Say No! When someone (not your boss) asks you to do something you don’t have time for, say, “I’m sorry, I can’t”–and feel the freedom wash over you.
3. Plan Your Day. Schedule your biggest task of the day for when you’re most focused and productive. You’ll get it done more quickly than if you try to tackle it during a natural low point.
4. Resist Multitasking. Trying to do too many things at once often means getting nothing done. Pick an item from your to-do list, and do it and only it. Each task will get done faster when it gets your full attention.
5. Record Your Shows. An hour-long TV show contains just 40 to 42 minutes of real content–the rest is commercials. Invest in a digital TV recorder so you can free up time to pursue more healthful activities, like 15-minute workouts.
6. Don’t Be A Neatnik. Is it really all that important that your apartment is spotless? Stop wasting precious potential gym time polishing picture frames.
7. Buy Time. Pay for services that suck up tons of time. Before you pooh-pooh the idea of hiring a cleaning service, sit down and do a little math. When you think of the few hundred bucks you blew on shoes and all the time you’ve spent scrubbing the tub, you may want to reconsider your expenditures.
8. Put It In Ink. You find time for everything on your calendar because it’s there in black and white. Block out your workouts as you would work appointments.
9. Set A Timer. All the little things you plan to do for just a few minutes–surfing the Web, cleaning the fridge–can suck away hours. Keep a kitchen timer nearby. When you start a task, set it for 15 minutes. Then stop when the bell rings.
10. Touch It Once. When a paper comes across your desk or an e-mail hits your inbox, deal with it right away. Piled-up paper and messages create distracting clutter, and you waste time revisiting each issue again (and again).
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