When we start our own personal journeys into eating healthily and exercising we first take account of the amount of time it will take up in our day and then calculate when and where we ca fit everything in around the every day 'stuff' that takes up an inordinate amount of time during the day before we even begin to fathom where we will fit the extra bits we're just about to add on. This is the same for everything 'extra' we want to fit into our day.
What we fail to consider, or should I say that the one thing I always forget to filter in to time restrictions, is the set up and dismantling and extras that aren't simply the things we want to do.
For instance, take this morning. I crawled out of bed at 7am, knowing I was then going to do an exercise video. The video itself is about 28 minutes from beginning to end but I also need to fit in the stretching I have been doing to make sure that I don't pull any muscles, each is 5 minutes long and i do one before I start the exercise video and one after. So altogether about 40 minutes...or so I thought. There were a number of things I had forgotten to take into consideration when I agreed to wake my wife at 8am, thinking I would be finished at 7.40am, leaving plenty of time to walk up the short stairs to wake her.
Having woken up at 7am, I then had to find my shorts and T-shirt, socks and trainers and get dressed into my workout gear. Then I had to get myself a drink, which meant I also had to hunt around for a bottle and then fill it, take it into the front room and find a place for it to go that wasn't too far away from where I would be exercising. Then I had to find a towel, an essential element when you sweat as much as I do, so that meant walking back upstairs and into the airing cupboard and rifling through to find one.
After that I then had to grab my laptop, set it up in the front room and then switch it on so that the TV mirrored it so that I could see it clearly on the television (technology is ace), then bring up Team Body Project and find the right video, then bring up YouTube and find the right stretch video. Next, I had to roll up the rug and get out the Yoga mat and roll it out so that it didn't want to instantly roll back again. Then I did the stretches, stop and put it back onto the TBP video, go through that, then switch again. Once I had finished I had to put disconnect the laptop from the television, put the laptop away, put the rug back, put the bottle (now empty) into the kitchen and put the towel back into the washing. So my 7.40am finish was now 8.20am and I still hadn't even had a shower yet.
So hence the 'time, and then some' title. Everything you do will always take the time it takes, but you always have to make sure that you are organised enough to figure into anything you are doing the setting up and winding down parts to it. Even running requires you to change clothes and then have a shower afterwards, all of which takes time. Everything eats into the small amount of time you have each day. Even healthy eating takes time to prepare and shopping will also take longer because you are, more than likely, finding ingredients for a meal and then cooking means following a recipe...time, and then some.
Don't get me wrong, everything I have said is do-able, you just have to prioritise, organise and remember that whenever you are going to do something, plan for the before and after into your time allotment. You simply have to remember that the 20 minute run won't simply take 20 minutes; that meal that takes 30 minutes to make won't really take only 30 minutes, sitting down to write a blog for 5 minutes is fairy tales!
There are ways to help yourself, of course: making sure the laptop is prepared (as well as everything else) the night before; preparing your running gear the prior evening and having it somewhere accessible, or even changing into your running gear at work; making more of one meal and then freezing the excess for another day.
There are lots of different life hacks that I am beginning to find, but if you have some I could use, then please leave a comment - anything useful is always welcome! I hope that this has also helped you to think about the organisation of your time too and to plan your day and healthy lifestyle without forgetting those little extras that can make you wonder where the time has gone. If you plan for it, you'll know that you've used your time wisely.
Therefore, until tomorrow, I hope that you al enjoy the 'time' you have! Stay strong, and stay healthy and be careful.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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