Here are some strategies for actually following your plan…

When are you free?

Write down all the daily tasks you complete over a week. Then write down how much free time you have each day and when. This will help you determine your availability to exercise.

Have a regular appointment that takes up a lot of time or energy? Let that day be a rest day from exercise.

Have a one-off appointment? See if you can fit that in elsewhere in your week. If you can’t, it’s one session you’ve missed; one session doesn’t make a habit, so it’s alright.

You can use this planning pdf to help you get it all out on paper so you can see what you’ve got to work with.

How to fit exercise in your week

There are a few ways to help you complete your exercise routine.

1. Note how many sessions you have in the week (including clinic and home-based sessions) and aim to achieve all of them within the week. Completing these sessions will be based on how you feel during the week, so if you’re good one day, go for it. If you’re not so good, give it a miss. This may mean you end up cramming all your sessions on consecutive days, so have an idea about the days you can exercise, but balance it with how you feel.
2. Note how many sessions you have in the week (including clinic and home-based sessions) and which days you’d like to complete them on. Ensure they’re on days you don’t plan to be busy so you feel pressured and stressed out to complete your exercise. Remember, you can still move them to another day in the week if something comes up, or if you don’t feel good on that particular day.

Keep your appointments

Treat your exercises much like an appointment at the clinic. The sessions you do outside the clinic go a long way to accelerating your recovery and independent management of your health. They also help us know how you go without supervision. Think of it like “buy one, get one free.”

Don’t go it alone

If having an appointment and a person waiting on you is what keeps you on track then why not schedule your homework with a friend, someone who’ll be waiting on you to get off the couch and get moving.