“I hate going to the gym”, “I hate running”, “Exercise is so boring”. The more I speak to people who exercise the more negative responses I get. So let me get this straight people intentionally spend 30 minutes, 60 minutes or more daily torturing themselves. Isn’t there a better way?
Actually there are three better ways:
1. Find fun ways to exercise. If you enjoy playing basketball, then basketball isn’t exercise it’s fun time. Simple enough.
2. Replace exercise time with other productive physical activities. See: How Avoiding Exercise Can Make You Fit and Productive
3. Don’t be Lazy. During the day there are plenty of opportunities to be active- embrace them. Read: Exercise is for Lazy People
1. Capture– Get all your to dos into inboxes. e.g. mail goes in one spot, verbal to dos go in your notebook etc.
2. Process– Go through all your inboxes and empty out anything in your head onto a to do list. Here’s how to filter your list:
Delete- If you wont need it, get rid of it.
File- file away anything you’ll need later- but dont need now
Delegate- if someone else should be doing it- let them know. keep a to do item to follow up
Defer- Is this task not important enough to be done soon? Put it on a “someday/maybe” list. Review the list weekly.
Do now- Is it a task that will take 2 minutes or less? Do it. That includes putting appointments in your calender, adding addresses to your contact list etc.
3. Do– Do your to do list.
4. Weekly review– Be on top of your to do list.
Of course there’s much more but if you start with this then you’re already ahead of most people.
You can find inspiration anywhere. Steve Pavlina, in his Skill article writes “During my first six months as a blogger, I earned a whopping $167. That’s about 17 cents per hour…But about a year and a half later, my blog’s income was passing $10K/month…” (his unreleased book has cracked Amazon’s Top 100 books). Not everyone is as successful as Steve but it’s goes to show that perseverance pays. photo credit: dearbarbie.
People throw out the term productivity all the time so it has earned a negative connotation.
Productivity is a process- do it better, faster, cheaper, with more quality. Success is a result- when your efforts work out well.
You can be successful without being productive- think of digging a large hole with a spoon. You can be productive without being successful- think of digging efficiently with a shovel for a treasure, but in the wrong spot.
To maximize your machine you must identify success and get there in the most productive way possible.
Ultimately success is most important (as evidenced by the name of this blog)- because if you aren’t succeeding you aren’t getting anywhere.
Do you ever wonder why people of the 17th century didn’t need to waste their time exercising? It’s because they exercised in their everyday tasks. Nowadays we’ve become too lazy- so we need to set aside time to exercise instead. In other words we’ve become too lazy to be active, so instead we torture ourselves with exercise. The solution of course is to stop being lazy and get our exercize in small bursts throughout the day.
Here’s some examples of how you can stop being lazy in everyday tasks and eliminate the need for exercise:
When you drive don’t waste time looking for a parking spot closest to your destination. Just park at the first decent spot and use the time you saved to walk to your destination.
Take the stairs
Walk (don’t drive) to your neighborhood grocery store or anywhere else in your neighborhood. (have you seen the prices of gas lately?!?)
Volunteer to go to the next room (or upstairs) to help someone in your family or a coworker retrieve something. (you’re so nice)
If you’re going to have a long discussion with your friend/significant other get up and walk around the neighborhood. (The change in scenery can make stressful discussions more calm.)
If you stop being lazy you’ll discover an interesting phenomenon- you’re a lot more productive.
There’s plenty of opportunities to stop being lazy- don’t be lazy too look for them.
What other everyday opportunities do you see to exercise?
