Busy people: How do you Schedule time??

If it's important you can find the time. Calculate how many hours per week you spend watching tv or using the Internet, texting,social media etc. I get up at 5:30am to do my workouts. Sounds like you have a tough rota so I do sympathise.

I wake up early. I never have anything else to do at 4:30 am.

Well, almost nothing.

I spend all (and I mean all) of my free time on the internet. So I just close the laptop for 20 or 30 minutes a day and workout. It makes it easier because then I can just hop right back on here and crow to my online friends about my workout - instant gratification!

I put my gym bag in the car and go straight there after work. If I don't, I will go home and not work out. Good luck!

I do a minimum of 45 minutes every morning at 5. If I can fit it in on the weekends, I do am and pm workouts. When I've been pushed with school, I work on the computer and take 10 minute exercise breaks every 45 minutes: planks, jumping jacks, burpees, etc.

I know the week you speak of. I live it, and will most likely be living it for a long time to come.

My day starts at 0400. I leave for work at 0445. I finally make it to work at 0630. Eat breakfast at work, begin work. Have lunch at 1100. Off work from job 1 at 1530. Make it to the gym about 1625, work out for about an hour to an hour and a half, time crunch depending.

Home from job 1 about 1730. Then there is kids, housecleaning, laundry ( Good Grief I think 60 people live in my house judging solely by the laundry I do every week)

Then the unpaid job #2 this is variable and depends on their need and whether there is anyone else that can take the bullet for me. But job #2 is helping to take care of either my parents or my mother-in-law ( she has cancer, we do a lot of stuff for her).

Job #1 is typically a rotating schedule and can go into some freaky schedules and scary overtime, and typically involves multiple weeks that go longer than 7 days before a day off from there.

Job #3 is part time on the weekend nights not conflicting with job #1 and ability to sleep.

Job #3 typically means Friday nights involve zero sleep for me. Tonight is a rare exception. I am too physically exhausted to drag in to work. That job starts at 2000 and goes until 0330, both nights.

So how do you keep from losing your mind and get a workout in?

Well, when I figure out the how not to go insane I'll let ya know. The workout part is find a nice gym with people you don't mind being around or at least not want to strangle. Make it on the way to or from either of the places you go to a lot. Convience is really key. No weird wacky loop-backs on the interstates or it will be too much to fight in traffic.

I keep 3 gym bags full of workout gear in my trunk at all times, bring the dirty one in when you get home. You always have the gear to make a stop in this way. Pack non-perishable food in them too, that helps with the stress of the killer weeks.

Find that sweet spot of not tired, not kill people stressed, even if the days aren't the same, and go in then. Doesn't matter. When you work brutal hours, just getting into the gym is a victory. Just go. Give it all you have, forget about the set amount of X time, if all you have is 20 minutes for cardio, do it. And throw in a quick muscle group workout.

I'm gonna get bashed for this, but if you only have 40 minutes, do 20 cardio and as much on the muscle group of your choice in weights. But I am not talking leisurely cardio, I mean do it like zombies are chasing you cardio.

Anything is better than nothing.

Nap often. And know you are really not alone on the hamster wheel of death schedule.

Peace

I go the first chance I'm free of any kids or hubbies. (Or sancho's or admirers or stalkers. JK. )

But seriously the first free time I get in the day, I head directly to whatever workout I can get to the fastest. I also schedule workout time with other women so I know I can't flake out. I invite them over and would feel like a douche if I flaked out so I keep my word.

Can you take a 15 minute walk at work? Do some lunges when you take a bathroom break? Stand up and walk in place while talking on the phone?

I also have placed my treadmill in the middle of my living room. Easy access makes it hard to make excuses. I can place a board across my treadmill handles, place my computer on it and walk at a slow pace while surfing the net.

Get creative about working it into your day. Workouts don't have to only occur at a gym.

You mean people have free time?

I work full time (40hrs/week) and am a full time single mom with zero family around to help. So here's my day:

-Pretend I'm going to wake up early to work out...hit snooze on my alarm for an hour and crawl out of bed at 5:15/5:30.
-Rush around to get showered and get myself ready and get my daughter ready, out the door by 6/6:15.
-My schedule at work is pretty lenient as long as I get my 40 hours in. So I usually go to the gym over lunch (it's right across the street).
-I intentionally work an earlier shift so that I have time to work out right after work as well. I make sure my gym bag is ALWAYS with me. I pack it the night before and set it by the door. It is always in my office by my desk so that I have NO excuses.
-Work out after work from about 4-5/5:15.
-Pick up the kiddo, run around like a mad woman at home trying to cook dinner, clean up the house, bathe the kiddo, get her in bed, get her BACK in bed, rush back to the kitchen for a snack for the kiddo and tell her to get BACK in bed....I'm pretty sure this whole process burns about a bajillion calories in itself.
-Once the kiddo is asleep (usually by 8pm-ish), I turn on the TV and do some squats/crunches/lift my 8lb'ers while catching up on a little tv.
-If I'm lucky I may be able to squeeze in a shower right here.
-Then I crawl into bed by about 10 and do crunches until I can't move anymore. Then I pass out....then I wake up two hours later when my daughter starts crying from her room that she wants more milk or that there's a monster in her closet.
-hellonheels burned 93485 calories doing 10 minutes of "Slaying Closet Monsters" :bigsmile:
-rinse and repeat...every day....

Weekends? Those are a beast in themselves....:grumble:

Does anyone have some sleep I can borrow? :ohwell:

I also have placed my treadmill in the middle of my living room. Easy access makes it hard to make excuses. I can place a board across my treadmill handles, place my computer on it and walk at a slow pace while surfing the net.

I've head of a standing desk before.... but never a walking desk. LOVE IT.

You're giving me ideas :laugh:

Last time i checked, i don't have any more time in the day than anyone else. i make time.

I have 3 kids and work full time. I get up early at 5 and work out. Good luck

I should also add that I sold my car and bought a bicycle. My commute is about 10 minutes longer than it was when I was driving, so I'm able to spend an extra 20 minutes a day getting to and from work, but I get about 80 minutes of exercise for the 20 minute opportunity cost. That is a time-bargain!

Just do high intensity short workouts...Get a heart rate monitor. Get your heart rate up as high as you can a few times in a 20 minute span. They say those type of workouts are better then a workout where your heart rate is the same over a long period of time..Do that 3-5 times a week..