CHAPTER 8
Managing Your Time
YOU REALLY DO HAVE TIME TO EXERCISE
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A personal note Guilt is a big part of the reason women don’t run or walk. We feel guilty about taking time for it and we feel guilty if we don’t take the time. I finally decided I was not going to feel guilty about exercise time. That thirty minutes to one hour a day I spend walking or running is not only the best hour of the day, it’s the most important. Running has given me everything—my career, my husband, my sense of self. The minute I start to think that I should skip my run or walk and do some more work—when it’s already well after six or seven o’clock—I tell myself that’s crazy, and I hit the road. |
Time is perhaps the greatest gift and cruelest curse of our lives. We worry about how to use it wisely. We try to save it. We see it moving too quickly. And we very often feel we don’t have enough of it. Running and walking can sometimes feel like just one more item to add to your list of things to do.
Time is an important issue for all women, particularly for a woman over forty. Turning forty is one of life’s major markers. It means we are at the threshold of middle age and, on many levels, it’s the beginning of a long series of transitions to come.
For many women, it’s a time to evaluate your place in the world and your connection to those things most important to you. Work, family and relationships may be in a state of flux as you’re getting older.
Whether you are new to the workplace or have always balanced a career with a more traditional woman’s role, your forties introduces a period of intense job obligations and potential rewards. You may be just hitting your professional stride. Or if you are beginning a career or have recently returned to the workplace, you face pressure to prove your capabilities.
At the same time, family responsibilities remain constant. If you had children in your twenties, now they are teenagers whose needs are still an important consideration in allocating your time. For those who delayed childbearing, there are young children needing your attention. You may also be a key caregiver for elderly parents, who are living longer and need your assistance in handling the demands of their lives.
And let’s not forget romance. Married, single, or divorced, relationships require time and attention, just like everything else in your life.
When you were younger, it seemed you could juggle all of these roles—plus others—more easily. If you had to get a little less sleep one night, you’d make up for it the next. Today, experts who study sleeping and its role in our health agree that we need about eight hours a night. If you ‘lose’ sleep during the week, the experts say you can’t make it up by sleeping later on weekends. (But darn, it sure helps!)
The point the experts are trying to make is that everyone needs regular rest. The body functions best on a routine of solid sleep. As you get older, it becomes an even greater issue because sleep patterns change and it is sometimes more difficult to get to sleep and to sleep deeply through the night. The onset of menopause is often marked by broken sleep. Fortunately, regular exercise can be a lifesaver in promoting sound sleep.
So how can you get the sleep you need and also fit running or walking into your busy life? You can’t expand the hours in a day, but you can change how you view time and the priorities you set for various activities. Just like an investor in the stock market who’s looking for the greatest return on his or her money, exercise is an investment of time and effort that can be judged by its return on assets spent. This is an investment in yourself.
Running and Walking: Indulgence or Investment?
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A personal note In 1977, I stopped running competitively and began to channel that energy into my career. At the time, I was commuting from a suburb north of New York City to a job in Manhattan, a couple of wasted hours a day. I decided to move into Manhattan and take an apartment that allowed me to walk to work. The rent was enormous by the standards of the time, but I looked on it as an investment in myself and my future. Living just a few blocks from the office meant I could get in earlier, work later, and get in several runs a week. My career took off as I found myself better organized and more rested than I had been in my commuting days. And I got fit again. It was an investment that paid huge dividends. |
Webster’s dictionary defines indulgence as the gratification of a desire, while it describes investment as using time, talent, and emotional energy to achieve something. That’s a nearly perfect description of what it takes to begin and maintain a running or walking program. So if you’re feeling the least bit selfish about taking a run or walk before performing some chore at home, keep this definition in mind. What you are doing is not an indulgence but an investment—even though you will get a lot of pleasure out of your workout.
Running and walking programs offer immediate and long-term benefits for the investment of time you put into them. You will look and feel better. You’ll have more strength and stamina and feel less winded.
If you’ve fought throughout your life to manage your weight, exercise will give you a way to seize the upper hand in that battle once and for all. It can liberate your mind from the cycle of hunger and negative body image and your pocketbook from the expense of diet books and diet foods. Walking and running give you a realistic way of achieving your goals.
Running and walking also provide you with some private time. You can use this space to reflect on the day’s events, think through a problem, meditate, or just let your mind wander, while enjoying the feeling of movement itself.
If you run or walk with a partner or group, you can enjoy the camaraderie that comes from accomplishing shared goals and having fun.
But first you need to believe you deserve it. Yes, it’s something you are doing for yourself. And yes, you will need to take time from something—or someone—else to accomplish it. But don’t be sidetracked by guilt. If you don’t do it for yourself, who will do it for you?
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A personal note Letting my mind free-float during a walk or run is therapeutic for me; it’s another form of dreaming. The demons come out, the creative comes in. |
Running and Walking: Making it a Priority
A basic tenet of time management is to establish priorities. First you decide what’s important, then you establish where to place a particular activity or project on your to-do list. Very often when we say we don’t have time to do something, it means we don’t see that activity as a priority. This is especially true for women and exercise. We make time for those things that are important to us, so you need to decide how important running or walking is to you.
If running or walking becomes one of your must-do activities, then you’ll start to look at how you can create the time for it on your daily schedule. Rather than taking the time from just one place by totally eliminating something else, try to find ways to slice a little time from several things, until you have another thirty to thirty-five minutes during the day.
For example, one place to start may be meal preparation. Since it’s quicker to heat something frozen than to cook it from scratch, you may want to spend time on the weekend cooking and freezing meals for the following week. Or do what I do, and that is when I cook a dinner, I double it. So later in the week, you may have approximately the same menu, but that’s fine because you’ll do different veggies or salad. There are opportunities like this throughout your daily activities, like the time and method you take to dress, shop, do hair and make-up, and do emails. (Email is a massive time gobbler; get a grip on this and be brief.) Review everything for time efficiency and you’ll find your commitment time.
Get Full Value for the Time You Devote to Exercise
Look at time as a gift, even if it is only five, ten, or fifteen minutes, and do everything you can to make it work for you.
Running or walking are ideal exercises for many reasons, not the least of which is how much they give back in terms of time invested. If you choose swimming as your cardiovascular workout, you have to add time going to and from the pool, then changing and drying off to your basic thirty-minute workout. You may spend twice your actual workout time nonproductively, a heavy burden to add to your already difficult schedule. On the other hand, thirty minutes spent running or walking gives you just that amount of exercise. If you add fifteen minutes for cooling down and stretching, that’s forty-five minutes of productive time. Almost every moment you put into running or walking produces some training benefit.
In addition, running and walking can be done almost anywhere and at virtually any time. If you drive a lot, keep an extra pair of sneakers, a towel, a water bottle, a canister of baby wipes and a change of clothes in your car so you’re always ready to take advantage if an unexpected opportunity for a workout develops. Perhaps your last appointment of the day cancels. Now you have a free thirty minutes. If you have that full gym bag in the car, you can be out running or walking, or at the gym, without having to go home and get your things. You can wipe off with the baby wipes and be OK if you need to put your good clothes back on for some reason.
Be imaginative about carving out time for exercise in your everyday schedule. For example, although thirty to thirty-five minutes of running or walking three or four times a week is your goal, you don’t have to do it all at once. If you have ten or fifteen minutes of free time before your children get home, use it for a run or walk, either outdoors or on a treadmill. Then you can do the rest of your workout later.
Become More Time Efficient
Exercise not only makes you more aware of time, it also can teach you how to use it more efficiently. In order to accommodate your commitment to running or walking, you’re going to need to be more resourceful in organizing your time.
There are two keys—plan ahead and pay attention to details. For instance, if you run or walk in the morning, lay out your clothes the night before; do it before you leave for work if you run right after you get home.
Other ways to plan ahead and save time:
- Put your shoes, keys, pocket change, and any other small items you’ll need next to the door, so you don’t forget anything you need and have to come back once you’ve started your workout.
- Buy enough socks, shorts, and T-shirts so that no matter how infrequently you do laundry, you always have clean clothes to wear.
- Avoid duplication of effort. Plan workouts for when you won’t have to redo hair and make-up after your shower.
Make everything associated with your workout as routine as possible. If you think out the details in advance, you’ll spend less time preparing and more time getting on with your program.
Soon the good habits you develop to accomplish your workouts will become a part of your everyday life. You’ll be more organized and efficient in your use of time. And that will make time seem more like a friend than an enemy.
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A personal note I talk to a lot of women who exclaim, ‘Go for a run or walk? Are you crazy, I don’t have the time!’ Yet you go to their homes and they have the TV set on all the time. They say they don’t watch it really, but it’s really wasting time. Turn it off! What these women don’t realize is that there is time to run or walk, if they manage their time better. |
Make Running and Walking Part of Your Routine
You wouldn’t walk out of the door without showering, brushing, your teeth or combing your hair, would you? Well, perhaps to pick up the mail or the morning newspaper. But otherwise, those things make up your daily routine. Each person has many others, as well. Taking your vitamins, a telephone call to children or parents, a check of the dog or cat’s water dish.
What’s routine? It’s those things you do without needing to think ‘Is this a necessity?’ or ‘Is this important?’ Running and walking should join that list. When you make it part of your routine, family, friends, and coworkers will recognize and respect your commitment. They’ll also be less likely to interfere with your workout time because they’ll know how important it is to you.
The time of day you exercise is a matter of personal choice. You may need to begin the day with exercise to get yourself going, or you may prefer to work out at night to leave behind the stresses and demands of the day. And, of course, you have to be flexible. Other demands may make a morning run necessary even though you’re an evening exercise person or force you to skip a day. Keep in mind that it’s more important that you run or walk at all than that you do it at a particular time. A change in routine can be refreshing. And if you miss a day, just make sure to get back to your program as soon as you can.
When the day feels incomplete without a run or walk, it means you’ve crossed a psychological barrier. Exercise is now a part of your life. It’s something you look forward to and need. And it’s something that will be there for you through the rest of your life.
Take heart in your quest to fit running or walking into your busy life. Every woman you see on the road, going into a gym, or power walking around your block has faced the same dilemma and overcome it. You can too! There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. These tips have worked for other women and will for you.
Time Management Tips
For all Runners or Walkers:
- Find a running or walking partner. A partner can be a godsend in terms of time management because they force you to show up. Agree on a time and place to meet and that if either is five minutes late, the other is free to start. The commitment is there, but no one has to be keep waiting too long. If you miss each other one day, you can just meet for your next scheduled run.
- Partners provide motivation, safety, companionship. It’s nice to share your achievements and work toward a goal together. And if you’re new to athletics, you can provide each other moral support as you venture out into this new world.
- Want a partner but don’t know anyone who wants to join with you? Check with your local running or walking club; many of them have a ‘matching service’ that helps runners and walkers find partners of similar pace to work out with at various times of the day. Some Ys, community centers and running shoe shops have groups and partner services. Also, www.runningbuddy.com is a reliable and safe online global matching service that is having great success.
- Turn chores into running or walking opportunities. If you need to go to the post office or the library, run or walk instead of taking your car. You can do the same thing for any number of small chores. Wear a running or walking backpack and you’ll have room for books or small purchases. If your dog trots along beside you, you don’t have to take it out for a separate walk.
- Join a predawn walking group at the mall and case the windows to speed shopping later.
- If all else fails, think about purchasing a treadmill. A treadmill in your bedroom, rumpus room, or basement can be the ultimate time-saving piece of equipment. It’s right there, all the time, waiting for you. (For details on the advantages and disadvantages of treadmills, see Chapter 7.)
For Mothers With Children:
- Take preteens or teenagers along on your workout. By making your run or walk a family activity, not only will you ensure that your kids are engaging in a healthful activity but you also get some quality time together. They can bike or rollerblade alongside, too. And don’t you wish someone had got you into the habit of exercising twenty-five years ago?
- Share child watching with your exercise partners. If you all have small children, make up a schedule that rotates child-watching chores evenly so no one misses consecutive workouts.
- Consider buying a baby jogger. Kids love being a part of your run or walk, and once your child outgrows it, you can pass the baby jogger along to a friend or relative.
- Make deals with neighbors. If your close neighbor doesn’t have kids or like to run or walk, she can still be of help. Arrange a trade-off—if she watches your child while you run, then you can pick up groceries or wait for a delivery or repairperson for her.
- Take your children along to your local running track. While you run laps, they can play on the infield where you can easily keep an eye on them.
- Does your husband or partner run or walk? Arrange complementary workout schedules, so each of you can exercise and watch your children.
For Working Women:
All of the preceding ideas apply to you, but since you are already out of the house and on an imposed schedule—your boss’s—you have other opportunities.
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Do your workout on the way home. Whether you have a family or are single, going out again after you get home is very difficult. However, if you bring your workout clothes and a towel with you in the morning, you can get in a run or walk before you get home.
Change in the ladies’ room at work, then either establish a route right from the office door or drive to a favorite path or track. After your cool down, you can drive home in your warm-up suit.
Train or bus commuters can do virtually the same thing. You may want to run or walk near your office and pick up your clothes after your workout. Or if you leave your car at the train or bus station, drop off your clothes in it and drive to your favorite running or walking route. - Use glide time to create a convenient workout schedule. Today, many businesses offer glide time schedules. Whether you like to exercise early or late, this type of schedule can give you the flexibility you need to balance other responsibilities with running or walking.
- Start a running or walking group at work. If you would feel conspicuous going out of your office in running or walking clothes, use your company newsletter or bulletin boards to find other women who also want to workout at work. There is safety and anonymity in numbers, and you’ll probably find many like-minded coworkers. And they don’t have to all be women!
- Business travelers: Running or walking is a great way to see some of the cities you visit outside the confines of a conference room. Most hotels now provide walking/running maps. Or you can pre-outline a route to take in some of the location’s top sights by getting a map online. Go out early; some of the world’s greatest cities are traffic free in the early morning and to see the sights so freely is simply magic.
- Conventions almost always have a ‘happy hour’ from 5 to 7. Steal away and exercise during this time, appearing back fifteen minutes before it’s over. Inevitably, it’s just in full swing! Caution: don’t drink alcohol until you’ve had plenty of water!
The battle with time is a fight we have all our lives. Don’t feel discouraged by it. One characteristic of runners and walkers is their ability to get on with the task at hand. If you believe in what you are doing and the results you’ll achieve, then the rest will fall into place. Please share your time management tips. They’ll help someone else find out that running and walking are the fast track to looking good and feeling better—just as you did.
