Fitting Working Out Into a Busy Schedule

With a full work week, family and kids, running errands, and getting enough sleep, it can feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day to work out. Everyone has a different amount of time, and the less time you have, the easier it is to let exercise get pushed to tomorrow. However, pushing something to tomorrow every single day means it never actually gets done.

To make good progress in the gym, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to do that much. Let’s go over the three things you should 100% focus on to reach your fitness goals—and then how to fit those into your life.

The Three Non-Negotiables

1. Lift Weights

You probably hear this all the time. Most people who want to be healthy, lose a bit of weight, and gain some muscle can absolutely get by on 2–3 well-programmed lifting sessions per week.

2. Properly Manage Nutrition

Depending on your goals, this can be more or less complex. In general, most people should focus on:

• Hitting essential nutrients

• Eating enough protein

• Keeping calories in line with their goals

This usually means buying and/or preparing foods that somewhat align with your needs and having a basic nutrition protocol in place (e.g., eating mostly whole foods, calorie tracking, meal prepping, fasting, etc.).

3. General Movement

Most people simply don’t move enough. Ideally, you should move every day. This might look like:

• A daily step goal

• Using an exercise bike

• A lunchtime walk

• Any other form of movement

This is one of the best parts—it’s very open-ended and flexible.

How to Fit These Into Your Life

Make It Realistic

If you have a full-time job, two kids, and a long commute, it’s not realistic to track every calorie you eat and work out five times per week. People who say you need to do that either love working out and treat it as a hobby—or they don’t fully understand how limited time can be.

Create a plan you can actually succeed with. Maybe that means losing 0.5 lbs per week instead of 1.5 lbs. Who cares? That’s far better than constantly failing an overly aggressive plan and feeling frustrated.

Schedule Things In

Daily movement, weight training, and time for nutrition all need space in your schedule.

This might include:

• Meal prep time on the weekend

• Five minutes per day to track calories

• Time to grocery shop

Put these into your calendar and try not to move them. If you see them scheduled—and ideally treat them like meetings—you’ll be much more likely to follow through.

Schedule things when you actually have time. If you’re not a morning workout person, don’t force it. If evenings are hectic, try a lunchtime walk instead of an after-work one.

Set things up so they work for you and don’t feel like a constant chore.

Adjust and Autoregulate

If you’re struggling to get in three workouts per week, but two longer sessions feel more manageable—adjust. Don’t lock yourself into a rigid plan. Change things as you learn what works best for you and where you tend to fall short.

Hire a Professional

When you’re in the gym, you want that time to be as efficient as possible.

When you’re working on nutrition, you want to adjust the right variables for your goals.

When you’re focusing on daily movement, you want to make sure you’re not doing too much, too little, or wasting effort.

A coach is an investment, but if three months of coaching teaches you what you need to know, saves you hours each week, and helps you reach your goals faster, it’s a far better long-term option.

Kurtis Proksch