5 Easy Ways to Incorporate Exercise into a Busy Schedule - Tips from a Physiotherapist

Do you often find yourself caught in the whirlwind of daily life, struggling to fit in some much-needed exercise?

This is a problem that the modern lifestyle promotes. We find ourselves with endless opportunities and even more distractions. But with our days full to the brim with work, commuting, and family time on top of that, is it even possible to find the time to fit exercise in as well? (The answer is yes).

Here are my 5 surprisingly simple strategies that help me fit exercise into my already busy schedule.

But why should you listen to me?

I work as a full-time physiotherapist, with a caseload of 50 clients each week**.** I am also the founder of The Physio MVMT, which involves a wide variety of tasks such as content planning and creation, and product development. On top of both of these roles, I am currently in the middle of a hectic training block for the upcoming Noosa Triathlon, training between 7-10 hours each week.

As you can see, it is possible to fit exercise into an already busy schedule.

So now it’s time to work out how you can too!

1. Time Blocking

If it’s not in my diary, it won’t happen.

Time blocking is one the most tried and tested methods for improving time management. Essentially, you block out time on your diary or schedule for your chosen exercise activity. I use time blocking to outline what I want to do with my time during the week.

Picking a time to fit exercise into your day ahead of time allows you to go about your day without the worry of when you will fit in your exercise. Time blocking allows you to become more productive during the rest of your day because you have already reduced the decision fatigue that comes with having to choose when to fit exercise in.

So get out your physical or virtual calendar, pick a time, and schedule your exercise into your day.

BONUS TIP: Picking the same time to exercise every day will reduce even more decision fatigue, making it easier to stick to your exercise habit.

2. Exercise while boiling the kettle

Exercise does not have to be a 30-60 minute block.

For the majority of my clients, finding bits of time throughout their busy schedules is far easier than carving out a big chunk of time. If you can fit regular little chunks of movement throughout your day, it adds up.

A simple hack I tell my clients is to use the time when they are boiling the kettle, or brewing their morning coffee. Instead of waiting around checking your phone, fit a set or 2 of your exercises into the time it takes to wait. This way you don’t have to take time away from other commitments in your day. This will make it less of an obstacle to find time for exercise in your day.

This is only one of the many tasks throughout the day that this will work for. Tasks like brushing your teeth, waiting at the stop lights while driving, and even waiting for the last 2 minutes on the washing machine. If you can add exercise to these ordinary tasks, by the end of the day you will have close to 30 minutes.

So if making time for 30 minutes of exercise seems like an impossible task, find as many 2-minute periods in your day where you can squeeze exercise in.

3. Set regular reminders

A reminder is a personal accountability coach that goes with you anywhere.

Far too often my clients tell me that they sit for upwards of 8 hours every single day. During that time they may get up for lunch, or they might go to the bathroom, or get a drink of water. They also seem surprised when I say that upwards of 8 hours of sitting a day is not good for their body.

Lucky for them, the solution I propose is not over the top. I recommend that they set a reminder every hour for them to do some form of movement for 30-60 seconds. Sounds simple right? That’s because it is!

30-60 seconds every hour does not sound like much, but it is for someone who is barely getting out of their chair at all. This simple shift provides much more movement in their sedentary day. The best thing is that the brain functions better after movement and exercise. So instead of being fatigued and flat during your work, you get a little boost of energy to keep you going every hour.

You don’t need to do 60 minutes of exercise a day to make a difference in your life.

60 seconds will make a big difference if you do it regularly.

4. Have your exercise gear in a convenient location

The act of starting exercise is often harder than the exercise itself.

How often have you found yourself putting off doing something for the longest time? Then you do the thing and it wasn’t as bad as you thought, right? Most mornings I wake up with the sudden urge never to exercise again. But after I finish I am always glad I got up out of bed and exercised.

So what happened in between to make this possible? I prepare the exercise gear I’m going to need the night before and stack it up neatly so it’s easy for me to get ready. It’s that simple. The hardest part about anything difficult is starting. Removing as much friction as possible to start something hard makes it so much easier to get it done.

Something as simple as stacking my running gear on the dresser, or keeping my foam roller next to the couch has made doing the thing (exercise or recovery) so much easier.

Think of what you need to start your exercise, and then think about how can remove as much friction as possible.

Finding ways of making the first 2 minutes of exercise easy (or anything difficult in life) will change your life.

5. Instead of winding down on your phone, stretch instead

Have you ever found yourself down a random rabbit hole on social media when you are meant to be winding down for bed?

It’s funny how most people will choose to get their brains ready for bed by spending time on a device that is designed to increase brain activity. This step will not only help you fit more exercise into your day, it will help get the most out of your next day.

Stretching is a great way to reduce your sympathetic nervous system activity. Think fight or flight. By focusing on your breathing while stretching you will help to reduce both muscle tension and brain activity. This will allow you to feel better physically, as well as improve your sleep.

This simple switch has been game-changing for me.

Try it over a week and watch your energy levels improve.

Fitting exercise into your day does not have to be difficult.

You should be able to see from these 5 simple strategies that making time for exercise is about being smarter with your time. You don’t have to use all of these tips at once. Find the one that works best for you. And most importantly, be consistent with it.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day, how much exercise you fit in all depends on how you choose to use yours.