“I Don’t Have Time To Workout”

If there was one thing people cite as their main rationale for not working on themselves is, “I don’t have time.”

Between your kids and their activities, your full-time job, being a spouse, your own hobbies, maintaining your home, and everything else you do to take care of other people… well, it certainly seems like you’ve got no time but where do your priorities lie?

Let’s take a look at 3 potential solutions for you.


1 – The Dreaded Time Audit

Let’s be frank for a second:  nobody likes to audit their time.  Nobody wants to admit that they waste lots of time during the day doing mindless things like time on social media, streaming your favorite shows, or playing video games or computer games.  That is a painful admission, after all.

But performing a week-long time audit can help illustrate that you have one less excuse to use.  You likely do have time.  Or, as I like to think about it, show me your time audit and I’ll show you where your priorities lie.

A sample time audit from my own life:

  • 3:30am – 3:45am:  wake up + get ready for the day
  • 3:45am – 4:15am:  morning rituals (planning, meditation, reading, etc.)
  • 4:15am – 4:30am:  prep my bags, workout gear, and food
  • 4:30am – 5:00am:  drive + prep gym for coaching class
  • 5:00am – 6:00am:  coach CrossFit class
  • 6:00am – 7:00am:  personal training session
  • 7:00am – 9:00am:  business building + administrative time
  • Etc. but my workout is usually at 10:00am or 11:30am for 30 to 60 minutes

Notice that a 30 minute workout is a thing.  Nobody said a training session needs to be 90 minutes or 2 hours.

TASK 1:  Perform a week-long time audit on your own time.  Really scrutinize your schedule and see for yourself if you actually have time or if you don’t.

Can’t find a window to workout?  Send me your time audit and I’ll help you work it out (see what I did there?).  Email me HERE.


2 – Activation Energy

What if I told you that you have likely made starting the process of working out harder for yourself?

What I mean is this:  how many steps do you need to take to get a workout going?

  • Pause whatever you’re doing
  • Get your workout gear together
  • Get in the car
  • Drive to the gym
  • Figure out what you’re doing at the gym
  • Then, and only then, are you beginning to actually workout

Seems pretty typical, huh?  What if we eliminated some steps?

  • Pause whatever you’re doing
  • Get in the car
  • Drive to the gym
  • Workout

Without those other steps, things just got a little easier.  Where did they go, you ask?

Well, instead of getting your workout gear all prepped you had it prepared from the night before and sitting in your car.  Instead of figuring out what you were going to be doing during your workout, you had that figured out ahead of time, you were planning to take a class, or you signed up to work with a personal trainer.

The point is the more steps you put in front of you in the process of starting your workout, the harder it is going to be to take that first step.

Here are some tactics you can utilize today to lower your activation energy:

  • Get all your workout gear ready the night before and put it in your car
    • If the only time you can workout is in the morning, here’s one better… sleep in your workout clothes.  Weird but effective!
  • Don’t go home before going to workout.  As soon as your butt hits that couch, it’s not coming back up
  • Have a plan ahead of time so you aren’t deciding what you’re doing as you’re trying to do it
  • Schedule your workout around an already scheduled fitness class
  • Find a gym close to work or home
  • Workout first thing in the morning
    • If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “eat the frog.”  Do the challenging thing first thing in the morning.  The day gets easier after that
  • Hire a personal trainer.  We’ve got some good ones you can talk to HERE

Give yourself a chance and make it easier to take the first step!

TASK 2: Find something that is unnecessarily interfering with your starting the workout process and remove it.


3 – “What If I Actually Don’t Have Time?”

You did your time audit.  Check!

You aren’t wasting time, you aren’t procrastinating things, but you legitimately don’t have time anywhere.  Well, “what do I do now, genius?”

Here is my first thought:  you should probably differentiate between “working out” and “activity.”  Perhaps “activity” is all you have time for.  Maybe while your child plays soccer you’re walking around the field?  Perhaps you’re doing some squats and some pushups while they’re practicing?

Maybe you can find a way to make things [physically] more challenging out of the things you’re already doing?  Brainstorm a bit and see what you can come up with!

Here’s my second thought:  who said workouts have to be longer than 5 minutes?  Some of the hardest workouts I’ve ever done have been less than 5 or 6 minutes.

Check these out…

  1. 2 minutes of as many burpees as possible
  2. Perform 20 seconds of air squats followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds
    • 3 minutes and 50 seconds for those doing the math
  3. Perform a max effort set of pushups every time you walk into a certain room in your house.  For example the kitchen!
  4. Perform 10 to 1 of pushups and squats
    • 10 pushups, 10 squats, 9 pushups, 9 squats, 8 pushups, 8 squats, etc. until you get to 1 pushup and 1 squat

Be creative and go for it!  And while this might not be the ideal way to get to your goals [in the long run], you are building the habit and taking action.  When time does allow, that habitual action can turn into big results!

My last thought nobody wants to hear:  wake up earlier.  Get up 30 minutes earlier and go to the basement to get a little workout in.  Simple but as you probably know, not easy.  But once you develop the habit, and gain momentum, you’ll go a long way!

TASK 3: Start the process no matter how small. Pick something and go.


Take Action!

Don’t wish you’d have more time.  Stop hoping you’ll figure it out when you’ve got the time.  Don’t wait until something is over before you decide to go for it.  Pick something and take action.

What’s that saying again?  “Wish in one hand, sh** in the other.  See which one fills up first.”

Take action on something. If you do want a little extra help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us and ask for help.  This is what we do!  Set up your free consult HERE.

Schedule your free intro

Talk with a coach about your goals, make a plan to achieve them.

Fill out the form below to get started

Take the first step towards getting the results that you want

By providing your phone number, you agree to receive text messages from Iron Hero CrossFit