Finding time to workout during school terms can be tough. You always struggle between getting assignments done and getting in a healthy workout for the day. What if we told you there are ways to get your daily exercise in-take and still have time to study? Continue reading for ways to balance workouts with school.
Plan & Organize
The first step is to plan and organize all your daily tasks. Using a planner or phone calendar can be beneficial. This allows you to see everything laid out in front of you. Add school work, assignments and a due date to each day. This way you won't forget and can plan ahead for what is to come. Within each day, set aside specified time needed for each task like 1 hour of exercising and 2 hours for school work. Organizing daily responsibilities is key to maintaining all aspects of life and health. Another part of organizing is keeping your environment free of messes and clutter. A great strategy is to keep the area that you are going to do school work in clean. You should properly organize notebooks and textbooks by subject. This way if you do workout, when you finally sit down, everything is easily accessible to you. This will also avert the anxiety that your work space is messy and now you have to clean it before beginning. Having a plan will make you more inclined to workout and stay on top of fitness. Exercising should not be another hardship in life. If you have the ability, you should wear your workout clothing to class. This way you can go straight from class to the gym. We all know that feeling of "once I'm home, I'm not leaving". This can help to avoid that issue and even make going less stressful, while creating a routine to give your life stability. Once you get into the groove of things, it becomes easier to go and complete school work as well. It may even begin to seem like you are missing something out of the day when you do not workout.
Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
As a student, your most important responsibility is your school work. You are a student first and everything else comes after. Well, this includes exercising. The good thing is you have the ability to make your schedule the way you want. Grouping classes in a strategic manner will help you to prioritize all other daily responsibilities. If you attend all your classes in the morning, then you have the rest of the day to workout and get your school work finished. You can also do the opposite, schedule classes in the evening and complete other tasks in the morning. If neither one of these options suit you, and you have a long enough break between classes, you can venture to the gym during this time. Ultimately it is up to you to decide the order in which you want to accomplish things. Incorporating a daily dose of exercise into your regimen will actually help you to do better in school and stay focused for longer. Think about your work load and analyze how much time and energy you are going to need for this list. After you have sorted out your priorities, fit in gym time. Your school may even offer exercise classes in a specific area such as yoga, dance, or total body. If you do some digging into your school, these classes probably fit into your schedule better than you think.
Multitask Wisely
There are so many different parts of life that need to be completed in a day. Sometimes there is just not enough time to do everything and still manage a healthy amount of sleep. If you are really skilled at the art of multitasking, then you can workout and study at the same time. Warning: this trick is not for everyone! As we know, multitasking is not the easiest thing to do in the world. If you plan to work out on an elliptical, treadmill, or stationary bike, then it may be easy to flip through pages in your textbook or review a study guide. If you're studying alone in your room, you can read on the floor while stretching out your body in the process. Stretching, believe it or not, is very beneficial for the body and can relieve a good amount of stress. By combining working out and studying, you are freeing up some extra time in the day... you may even get those 5 minutes of your favorite show in! If you are studying and exercising, you may even end up doing a little longer of a workout because you are so focused on your studies that you don't realize how much time has passed.
Leave Room For Break Time
You can't study 24 hours a day 7 days a week. At some point you need to schedule a break. The key word here being scheduled. Plan for one day off a week. Do not look at book - solely worry about yourself. This day should be made for health, such as exercising and completing other healthy activities for the body. Studying for long periods of time is not helpful as it does not actually make you retain information better. If you are not getting to the gym during the week, this rest day should be the day the you do. Don't waste the day! Be productive and mindful of your body's needs. If you use this day properly, when you get back to doing school work, you will be refreshed and rejuvenated for the new tasks to come. The body releases many harmful toxins and calms anxiety levels when you sweat. Working out can really pay off in the long run!
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-Franki
