Are You A Too-Busy Betty?

Betty says she would love to be healthier and get in shape but she just doesn’t have time.

Sound familiar?

She has a full-time job, 2 kids, and a household to run too. Her kids are in soccer, take piano lessons and, well, she’s convinced that there’s no room in her schedule to exercise or even think about cooking a healthy meal.

But is Betty as busy as she thinks she is?

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, maybe not.

The problem is, for most people, not that they don’t have enough time but how they use the time they have.

Two things come into play: wasting time and failing to use a calendar and plan in advance.

Here’s the deal. We all have exactly 168 hours per week to work with. Assuming the following…

• 8 hours per night of sleep (56 hours / week)
• 9 hours per day of work (45 hours / week)
• 2 hours per day commuting to and from work (10 hours per week)

…leaves you with 56 hours to do other things.

So, why can’t people fit in exercise then?

After all, you need only about 2 hours per week to meet the “minimum effective dose” for your health needs.

It’s from what I call Time Leaks. What happens is that we waste time in small chunks over the course of a day. For example, if you spend 5 minutes on social media 4 times per day, that adds up to 2.3 hours per week. Or chatting on the phone with a friend, or watching a YouTube video. It all adds up.

The other problem is not scheduling yourself in your calendar. Seriously. If you want to fit things into your week, you have to make an appointment, with yourself, and keep it. Honor the appointments with yourself just as seriously as any other appointment. This might be the one time when being “self-centered” is the right thing to do.

What to Do

The first thing to do is to track how you use ALL of your time for one week without making any changes in how you use it. One of the best tools for this is TOGGL.

TOGGL is a time tracker that is available as a desktop tool and as an app. You enter what you’re doing, click a button to start a timer, and click when you stop. At the end of the day or week, you will have an excellent, detailed look at where your time went.

You have to be honest though. If you sit down in the evening and watch television, you have to record it. If you surf the Internet or poke around on Facebook, you have to record it.

Once you know how you spend your time, you can make some decisions.

I look at my upcoming week usually on Sunday. I have certain things I know I want to get done. Some of those things are related to work, some are fitness, I have a budding music career that needs attention, and then there’s my new pup, Botti, and of course time with my wife Elle.

And, there may be meetings on the calendar, social events, friends / family, band rehearsals or shows. I’m probably as busy as anyone but likely not as busy as some people.

I’ve found that the ONLY way things get done is to schedule them and that’s what I do. It goes against my nature somewhat t so it’s taken awhile to get comfortable with it. I prefer things to be a little loose as opposed to rigidly scheduled but loose just doesn’t work so well.

A Parting Thought

Finally, as suggested in the Wall Street Journal article, instead of saying, “I don’t have time” when it comes to exercise, or fixing a healthy meal, or whatever it is you don’t have time for, try saying, “___________ is not a priority”.

“Exercise is not a priority”, “My health is not a priority”, “I’m sorry sweetie but your homework is not a priority”.

Feels different, right?

Yes, there are times and situations where your time must be used in a certain way. But that’s the way it is. It doesn’t change what is and is not a priority. If your father is in the hospital and you have to get over there to see him, well, that becomes a priority and exercise does not…unless you drop something else to fit exercise into your day.

Start your week by reviewing what your priorities are and then schedule those on your calendar and keep those appointments just as would if it was with someone else. You’re just as important.