Schedule It!
So my sister brought up a pretty good point in her comment on my blog posting yesterday. I was talking about how I failed to do some sort of concerted physical activity every day in the month of August and my sister, in her great wisdom, reminded me of a conversation we’d just had a few days ago. Nancy is a college instructions and in addition to teaching her content area, she also teaches sessions on Time Management for first year students ((This may come as a shock to anyone who knows me, but my sister has many jobs and does many, many things. Not that I know anyone else like that.)). One of the things she teaches them about is the idea of taking your calendar and blocking out all the times that you are busy doing stuff. I mean, you probably already book in your meetings and classes and scheduled sports (like, say, hockey games). But then you block in other things that take up time that you don’t usually include in your calendar, and thus don’t appreciate how much time they are taking up, like eating, showering, and driving. And *then* you block in your guilty pleasures that you probably don’t even want to admit to spending so much time doing – surfing Facebook or reading blogs. Once you do all this, you can see how much time you actually have left for such things as exercise and getting work done.
“Of course!” I thought. Not sure why this didn’t occur to me sooner. I’m pretty good at getting my exercise when it’s scheduled in – following my training plan for the half marathon means I know that I have to run a certain distance on a certain day, so I schedule that in ((Though I’m being a total slacker and really only doing my long runs and *maybe* one other run during the week, instead of the 4-5 runs per week in the training plan.)); if I have a hockey game or a hike with friends scheduled, that goes into the calendar. So all I need to do is look at what days don’t have exercise booked in and then block off some time to do some – even if it’s just some pushups or crunches or a stint on the exercise bike while I read a textbook.
So, here’s my upcoming week, with time for exercise booked in orange ((Oh yeah, my Longest Game reunion is also in orange, because that’s the colour I use in my calendar for sports-related stuff, but I won’t actually be doing exercise during that time!)) , ((Note: I don’t have all my stuff booked in here yet.)) , ((Also note, “long walk on the beach” might be a joke. But I’ll definitely do something exercise-y during that time.)) , ((And another also note: I have *no idea* why my class schedule shows up in my Google Calendar twice. But I’m too afraid to delete one in case on is being updated and the other isn’t and I end up deleting the wrong one!)):
Thanks, Nance! Don’t know what I’d do without you and all your brilliant brain thoughts!
Comments |4|
Tags: calendars, exercise, Nerdery, physical activity, sister, sports, time management
Scheduling everything? That sounds nerdy. I think I might have to try that – especially given how busy the coming semester is going to be. Also, lots of training to do for the various races I’m supposed to be running. Nancy is brilliant!
I know! I’d say she takes after me, but she’s the older sister!
No more Saturday am Seawall walks 🙁 sniff sniff
I miss those Seawall walks too!