A simple exercise management lifehack
If I’m working at a computer all day on a regular basis I find it necessary to plan an exercise schedule. If I don’t I feel awful about not exercising and it becomes a distraction. I’m inspired by this description of novelist Haruki Murakami’s daily schedule while writing a novel:
I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.
I like to have a sense of how close I am to reaching a destination so I use a simple accounting tool to keep track of how much I exercise. Here’s what you do: take a clean sheet of paper and write the month on the top line along with a goal of how many exercises you want to aim for. Skip a line then write an exercise per line.
It looks like this:
May (goal: 10 exercises)
1 Mile Running
30+ Pushups
Make a tick mark every time you complete a set of an exercise. Keep the paper and a pen on your desk or somewhere you can see it everyday. Review at the end of the month and customize as necessary.
