ONLY 15 MINUTES - BUT WE DO NOT DO IT

I see so many ads which promise dream body - the only thing what we need to do just a 15 minutes exercise block every day. I truly believe these works. But we do not do it. Why? We surely have only 15 minutes a day in order to get a dream body? No, there must be some explanation...




Nearly all ads try to convince us that does not matter how busy we are, we surely have 15 minutes in our home to do this or that exercise block. And the honest answer is, yes, of course we have 15 minutes.
Let's suppose we are motivated and enthusiastic reading the ad and we buy the product (DVD, book or on-line lessons) and we look forward the result. Then when we get the access we start doing the exercises with great enthusiasm... Then we skip a day or two, then we forget the whole thing within a week. But what about our dream body?
Really don't we have the time?

Regularity

It is not enough just to make a decision about a change in our life. We need to make it a habit.
A one-two hours work out seems to be impossible with small children but other hand 15 minutes  time slot seems to be so obviously handy that we think we are able to complete it without any effort.
And this is the trap.
We are prone to think we do not need to plan ahead, we will find that time during the day. But during the day we are just to busy to think about it. The next time when we remember our exercises when we go to bed: well, I missed it again, I will do it tomorrow...
It is easy to fit in a short exercise into our day, but we need to do the minimum effort and need to plan it.

Without planning all our decisions are no more then temporary enthusiasm. We need this enthusiasm to make the decision and the same time we need a good, feasible plan how to do it -not just today but tomorrow, next week and next month.

Planning is the key to efficient time management

I spend about 2-3 hours every week with planning. I plan ahead for the following week: knowing the family program I put together a weekly meal plan, a what-to-do-and-when-household cleaning plan and schedule my exercises. This way I also can see when we have time for quality family time. All these are important. Regarding exercises I am really careful to keep scheduled at least three high intensity and one 40 minutes Pilates exercises for the week. This my weekly routine for now, but there was time when I did 15 minutes exercises every weekday morning before going to work. So I know it is possible to do this on the long term. Of course I had to change my routine by time but the point is that I have always had a plan.

I know planning is time consuming but I think about it as an investment. Planning is the key to efficient time management - what mothers need the most. Having a plan we do not need to think in the last minute what to cook tonight and do we have all the ingredients? We do not wast our precious time bouncing between unfinished tasks. Planning means time and control.

Magic word: flexibility

Of course with kids we always can expect unexpected incidents. :-)  Having a plan in our pocket (or on a wall board rather) at least we know where  we have to differ from our plan. So we can select what to cancel, swap or put off, and how to re-schedule them.
I have found really good planning tool ideas on Pinterest:

lassic chalk

Update:

If you do not like the chalk board, here is an another idea to set up your organiser wall. It's advantage that you can set up and vary the wall based on your own needs: 

Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Wall Manager