10 Best Ways to Find Quality Time to Workout

According to Jillian Michaels, 30 minutes is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to workout.

The question is, how does one find said 30 minutes to workout?

And equally importantly, how can we ensure that these 30 minutes are of good quality?

These are great questions with equally great answers below.

How to find time to workout

1. Leave Your Hair Alone

This one is a biggie for us Nigerian girls.

Washing, conditioning, detangling, deep conditioning, steaming, twisting *phew!*

Our hair is beautiful and we love to take care of it. However, it’s worth considering leaving it alone once in a while.

Try putting it in a protective style for 3 weeks at a time to reduce time spent on it.

Or maybe find a stylist that can help.

I’ll be honest. I don’t feel 100% myself when my hair is not done – so I understand the struggle and I don’t want to tell you what to do with your hair.

I would say though that hair is one of the biggest time suckers for many of us. If you can cut some time there, it could be helpful for finding time to workout.

2.  Take a Walk While Working

One of my favorite inventions ever is the treadmill desk!

I LOVE being able to take a leisurely stroll while doing the stuff that makes me money. It’s the perfect win-win.

I can’t even add anything else to this tip. Treadmill desks are everything.

3. Create a Repeatable Daily Routine

This is possibly the most important tip on this list. Without this, everything else will not work. Seriously.

A routine is soooo important because it removes the need to think or make decisions.

If you just know that 9am is workout time, there’s no opportunity to debate with yourself or psych yourself out.

Once 9 o clock hits, you know what to do. Grab your workout clothes, put on your shoes, and get moving.

For me, I workout 4 days a week during my son’s morning nap.

There’s no negotiating it with myself.

Once he goes down for his nap, I’m getting those squats, or burpees, or whatever I have planned for that day…

…which brings us to the next point

4. Find a Fitness Program

Once you’re on a set routine, you’re on the right track to finding time to workout.

The next step is to further eliminate any need to think or make decisions.

A really good way to do this is to find a workout program that works for you.

The fitness program that currently works for me is from Darebee.

I am currently on Day 28 of their 30 Days of HIIT and it is the best $0 i’ve ever spent!

Yup it’s free – and they have programs for almost any fitness goals that could possibly exist.

5. Workout at Home

You don’t have to go to the gym to be fit.

You can buy affordable weights, an exercise mat, and achieve wonderful results at home.

So don’t put so much pressure on yourself to go to the gym to prove how serious you are about fitness.

Think of all the time you would spend picking out a cute outfit for the gym, packing a gym bag, driving to the gym, figuring out which equipment to use, and then driving back home.

That’s a lot of time.

Save that time and go hard at home if it works for you.

6. Leave the Dishes Alone

For most people, it takes at least 20 – 30 minutes to do a sink full of dishes.

Why not skip the dishes once in a while and get some crunches in instead?

This one was a hard one for me to learn but I’m a pro at it now.

Dishes stay getting stacked up in the sink while I merrily do jump squats and walk right by.

7. Squeeze Your Butt

Yes, you read that right.

I read this tip in a Cosmo mag 10 years ago and it remains one of the best fitness tips I’ve ever read.

If one of your fitness goals is to have a nicer butt, you can exercise your butt muscles (glutes) while sitting down at your computer at work.

Step 2 of this article has precise instructions for doing butt squeezes.

8. Ask for Help with Grocery Shopping

This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to find time to workout.

As much as you can help it, ask for help with your grocery shopping.

I don’t know about you, but one trip to Walmart takes me at least 45 minutes in the store plus 20 minutes driving back and forth.

That is precious time that could be spent sweating out yesterday’s donuts on the treadmill.

If you have a partner that supports your fitness goals, I’m sure they’ll be glad to help out.

Just be sure to give the person a detailed list so that they get the correct groceries!

Also, bonus tip: if you have a small baby, ask friends and family to do your grocery shopping.

People tend to be extra nice when they know you have a new life form constantly grabbing at your body parts for food.

9. Wake Up 10 Min Early (or Stay Up 10 Min Late)

If you’re an early bird (like me), set your alarm 10 minutes earlier so you can fit in a workout before starting the day.

If you’re a night owl, plan to stay up late to workout when you’re most alert.

You might be wondering why I’m suggesting 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

The truth is, if you set your alarm a whole 30 minutes earlier than normal, you will hit the snooze button.

10 minutes is small enough that you can be motivated to give this technique a try.

You never know, you might surprise yourself and exercise for a lot more than the planned 10 minutes.

10. Use this Phrase: “it is not a priority”

This one is a little bit of tough love but it works, so I have to include it on this list.

Stop saying: “I don’t have time to workout today”

Instead, say: “It is not a priority for me to workout today”

Ouch!

I know!

But this won’t be Koboko Fitness if I gave you all of the sugar but none of the real meat and potatoes.

The toughest trainers out there will tell you the same thing. We have the ability to make time for the things that we believe are high priority.

Phrasing the situation as a priory issue – not a time issue – opens us up to think of how to re-prioritize and make time to workout.

In Conclusion

I sincerely hope that these 10 tips have been intensely useful to you. I had a lot of fun creating this post for you and highlighting the tips that have worked magically for me.

Do you have any tips to add? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to share this article everywhere that articles are shared on the interwebs.