deepstash
Beta
How to Make Exercise a Daily Habit : zen habits
Send yourself a reminder
There are a number of ways to send yourself an email or text reminder, so you’ll never forget.
Then, when you get the reminder, do it right away. Don’t brook any delays.
145 SAVES
This is a professional note extracted from an online article.
Read more efficiently
Save what inspires you
Remember anything
IDEA EXTRACTED FROM:
11
Key Ideas
Exercise as a daily habit
The problem with trying to make exercise a habit is that you usually try to exercise 3 or 4 times a week … and that makes creating a new exercise habit difficult.
Exercising every day is more likely to result in a habit — something that becomes almost automatic, and much easier, instead of a constant struggle.
Set a time
Decide whether you’re more likely to stick with it in the morning or lunchtime or evening, and stick with that time.
If you don’t set a time, you’re more likely to put it off until you have more time or energy, and then put it off until the next day. Soon, it’s not a habit at all.
Start small
When you first try to make exercise a daily habit, chances are, your body won’t be used to that kind of stress.
The key: only do 20 minutes in the beginning, and do it nice and easy. Nothing hard. Even 10-15 minutes is fine at first if you’re just starting out.
Increase intensity slowly
- Wait at least two weeks before starting to increase — that’s the minimum your body needs to adjust.
- Once it begins to feel way too easy, you can start increasing the length of your workouts, to 30 and then 40 minutes, and eventually up to an hour.
- Once you do that, you can gradually increase the intensity — running faster or harder, for example.
Make it pleasurable
An mp3 player with some great music helps.
Lay out your gear
If you have to not only wake up early but get a bunch of gear together while half-awake, you might just want to go back into bed.
But if you lay out your workout clothes and shoes and watch and mp3 player, or whatever you need for your exercise, you’ll be ready to go with no friction at all.
Just head out the door
Get your running shoes on and get out the door.
Don’t worry about how long you have to go or how hard it will be. Just get out and get started. Once you've done that, it’s a piece of cake.
Mix it up
Instead of doing one type of exercise every single day, do a variety to make it more interesting.
What that means is that you're not pounding the same muscles, every day. That gives them a chance to recover because without recovery, you’re just breaking your muscles down over and over.
Have a relative rest day
It’s good to have one day of rest, where you’re not doing the same exercises as the other six days.
Don’t skip a day
Consistency is key, so try not to skip a single day. If you do, don’t feel bad.
Just start over again, and try to identify the obstacle that led to your skipping a day and prepare for it this time.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
1
Key Idea
How To Start A Daily Running Habit
1. Don’t Think: You just go—every day.
2. Find A Schedule That Suits You: Try Fit your daily run in your current lifestyle.
3. Minimize Landing Shock:&n...
13
Key Ideas
Integrating journaling in your daily life
The biggest mistake is to journal only in reaction to something that is going on, instead of letting it be part of a system.
Make writing in your personal journal part of your every...
Benefits of a journal
- When you keep a journal, you can look back on important life events to read about how you felt at the time. You may also be able to learn from these past experiences.
- Writing about traumatic events results in physical and psychological health benefits. Journaling focuses on understanding traumatic events and makes people see these events with an extra level of clarity.
Schedule journaling time
Start your daily journal off on the right foot by scheduling your writing for a set time every day.
- If you find your mind is most active in the morning, wake up 15 to 20 minutes earlier and jot down your thoughts then.
- If you prefer to record everything after the day is over, then make it an evening activity before you go to bed.
10 more ideas
6
Key Ideas
Writing Daily
To build a habit of daily writing, try to get three pages of writing done every day. It can be about anything and it’s important that you write all without editing or censoring.
Dai...
Set Accountability Metrics
Come up with trackable goals like a number of words or pages per day. The specificity is important because being able to measure it allows you to keep track of your progress and better change your behavior.
Make It a Regular Practice
Keeping track of streaks is a very powerful tactic for developing any new habit. Knowing that you have consistently succeeded for a number of days helps you push through the days who are unmotivated.
Other ways to foster regularity: writing in a different style or genre, and doing your writing first thing in the morning.
3 more ideas