When life gets too busy, the first thing that often gets neglected is an exercise routine. After all, when you have mountains of work to do, the last thing you need is to drive over to your local gym or head out the door for a run. But in truth, the best thing you can do for yourself during times of stress is to fit in exercise. And even though you might think your schedule is too packed to fit anything else, the truth is that you do have time to spare – here's how to find it.

Redefine Exercise

One of the main reasons people fail in their exercise plans is that they think of exercise in one way. They think 'exercise' can only be defined as something that takes hours to complete or that takes a trip to the gym and plenty of sweating and pain. But this is far from the case. Exercise should simply be thought of as time in which you keep active and you keep moving. This might include walking or even doing housework – anything that promotes activity is something which can be considered exercise.


While it's true that in order to build up our stamina, you will need to work out harder than just a simple walk, as a starting point, any movement is better than no movement at all.

Scheduling Your Life

Most of us have schedules and calendars which tell us where to go, what to do, and when we need to do it. And while we think of dentist appointments as unchangeable, we tend to think that exercise is the one thing we can easily move around – and eventually skip. Instead of giving up exercise, you need to start looking at this part of your life as something that's just as important as a big business meeting or a trip to get your taxes done. You just can't skip it.

To make sure you aren't skipping out on your exercise; take the time to write it on your calendar – in pen, not pencil – so that your exercise time has just as much weight as anything else in your life. This is going to help you create a pattern and a habit for your exercise, which will allow you to more easily fit in that workout you used to skip. At the beginning of each week, plan out your exercise time and you'll never skip another workout.

Multi-Tasking Works

Many people are already accustomed to doing two things at once – usually in the car or at their desks. But in many cases, doing two things at once can lead to not being able to focus on either. When you add exercise to other tasks in your life, however, you will not experience this loss of focus. All you need to do is to choose tasks which go along well with the exercise you enjoy doing. For example, if you need to meet up with a friend, go for a walk with them instead of going out to eat – or walk to your favourite coffee shop. Another idea is to do lift weights at your desk while you are on the phone. Light dumbbells can easily fit by your desk. Or you can use a balance ball for your chair at your desk, helping to engage your core at all times.

When you're in line, try squeezing your buttocks muscles or your abdominals to get a mini workout. Or you might want to workout during your favourite television shows to still keep up with your programs, but in a more active way.

Small Bits Add Up

What many people do not realize is that daily exercise doesn’t have to be done all at once. You can break up your exercise into smaller pieces in order to fit in your workouts without spending hours working out. Instead of a two hour cardio class, try adding 15 minutes of exercise to 3 parts of your day. That way, you will get the recommended 45 minutes of a daily activity, and you won't miss that time in your schedule. Or if things are really crazy, try just 5 minutes at a time whenever you think of it.

The fun part of exercise is that once you begin to see results, you will begin to want to exercise more. So, once you've found time in your schedule to workout, you might find you can even squeeze more in than you thought was possible. Yes, you might be busy, but you're never too busy to fit in some healthy habits.

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