These days it seems like everyone is getting busier and busier, and it is hard to find time for things outside of our regular routine. This can be especially true when it comes to things like exercising or running, that are apt to be put off anyway. When we can use lack of time as an excuse for skipping the morning run for the third time this week it far easier to push aside the guilt and feel justified. That is why you need to put in a little bit of effort and plan ahead to be sure that you make more time for running, and meet your fitness goals. While it is never easy to find more time, with a little planning and preparation you can take away the excuse that you are just to busy and give yourself a little extra boost to get your move on.

Plan / Prep Meals

Planning and prepping meals go hand in hand and can save you a ton of time through your week.

By planning ahead and knowing what you are going to make throughout the week you save all the wasted time trying to figure out what to do when it is meal time. It also saves you time and money at the grocery store. Having a plan will get you in an out much faster and you won’t be buying food that ends up going into the compost after sitting in your fridge for two weeks.

Prepping meals is another great way to make more time for running during the week. Even something simple like cutting up vegetables and preparing the night before can take some of the stress off the next day. Another great way to prep is to make a few meals ahead on the weekend and freeze them so that you just have to pull dinner out to thaw in the morning and it is ready to go in the oven as soon as you are home.

Carpool / Use Public Transportation

If you have to travel at all to get to work, you already know that you are missing time out of your day going back and forth. If you can find someone to car pool with or are able to use public transportation you can get some of this time back. If you don’t have to focus on driving you can spend that time getting a little bit of extra work done, getting emails out of the way, or planning for the week (see above).

Make Use of Technology

One of the reasons that we have less time these days is technology. There are emails to check, and texts to send, and messages to reply to. We can however use that same technology to win back a bit of this time.

There are many great programs that can help you organize your technological responsibilities to make them easier and less time consuming. Apps like FreeRamble’s SMS Auto Sender which allows you to schedule text messages to be sent out at a specific data and time are a perfect way that you can prepare ahead of time so that you have more time for running as the week goes on.

Remove Distractions / Set Limits

Just as we know that we all have less time these days, we also know that some of that time is spend on things that are less than useful. How many hours did you use last week scrolling through Facebook? If you want to find more time for running limit the amount of time you spend on devices or in front of the screen.

Don’t pick up your phone as soon as you wake up. You should be prepping for your run anyway right! Use text message and social media schedulers as we mentioned above so that you know things are taken care of. If you don’t have to load Facebook in the first place than you wont accidentally waist 20 minutes scrolling through cute cat videos.

Likewise, in the evening prioritize. Finish what needs to be done, get things ready for the next day, or go for that evening run. Once you are finished the necessary stuff than you can reward yourself with an episode of Stranger Things, or checking out what your second cousin’s, best friend’s, sister had for breakfast.