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Something else that people tell me regularly, that I will help them question, is that they are “too busy”.
I completely get that
Not denying that they are busy.
But I might help them question if they actually are ‘too busy’.
A powerful question I sometimes ask is “How busy too busy?”
Which normally draws a blank look.
“What do you mean?” people might say.
“You said you were too busy. How busy are you and how much time would you need for this?”
“I’m just too busy. I’ve got a lot on” they might reply.
Like some of the things we’ve referenced over the last few days, it’s a bit vague isn’t it?
Wouldn’t go down well with a boss as a justification would it?.
They’d want something more precise around how we’re currently assigning our time and how much time is actually required for this thing.
And we can do that with our health and fitness, which we all agree I’m sure, is what then drives our productivity in other areas.
How much time is genuinely needed for the thing that we’re looking to do?
For the minimum effective dose.
Let’s not get hung up on how much time it takes to exercise like an athlete or eat like a nutritionist.
Let’s look at how much time needs to be assigned to exercise in a way that will improve our health and fitness over time……..
And to eat in a way that will help us lose or maintain body fat and assist with the above.
In the vast majority of cases, the latter can be done with zero additional time.
There is no version of reality where it takes more to time to just carry on eating exactly the same as we are but reduce portion size in order to create a calorie deficit.
Is that a perfect approach?
No.
Is it a better approach that will lead us in the direction that we want to go in than what we’re currently doing?
Yes.
There will be tactical swaps we can make with our eating that will improve the results we get that take no additional time.
Just eating some different things that are equally available and have the same amount of sourcing and / or prep time?
If we’re not willing to do that then that’s not a ‘busyness thing’, that’s just a choice.
Any exercise will produce better results than none.
Sure, all else been equal, even more exercise will be more beneficial.
But the amount of time needed to make better forward progress than zero is probably less than we’re telling ourselves.
A couple of hours out of the 168 a week for exercise and some tactical adjustments to food that require no time is enough to make reasonable progress.
It won’t get it in the Olympics, sure.
But it’s better than going backwards isn’t it?
And then, once we’ve got a clear definition of how much time we need to assign, we can look at how we’re currently assigning it.
I’ve never had anyone check their screen time on their phone and not been able to immediately identify where that couple of hours could come from (myself included).
And that’s before they check out their Netflix (other streaming services are available) usage and various other non-essential uses of time.
Again, we can just choose not to do that.
Who would I be to tell someone how they should assign their time?
But choosing to assign our time to something else isn’t a ‘busyness thing’, it’s just a choice.
Ultimately, until we can accurately answer “How busy too busy?”, we’re just going to stay stuck.
Much love,
Jon ‘doing nothing, working the whole day through’ Hall
P.S. For time efficient and enjoyable exercise (with like minded people in an intimidation free atmosphere) and help and support with relatively easy and maintainable food changes, check out our risk free 4 week trial at www.myrise.co.uk/apply
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
