Time and health, the two essential things in life money can’t buy. But, we can improve the quality of both. When living a busy lifestyle, it can be difficult. As a full-time student and employee with a three-month-old baby, trust me when I say I know how difficult both can be to maintain. A busier schedule often means less time spent on health, and in turn, this gives us less energy making us feel busier than we are. Do not fall into that trap. Maintain your health. If you do not have time, make time. You will thank me later. Here are six ways to improve your fitness when crunched for time.

Become More Efficient

Being more efficient may sound like a no-brainer. Wouldn’t we all be more efficient if we could? That answer is no. Most people get stuck in routines and lose their efficiency with lots of little things. There are several ideas you can come up with to increase productivity.

Carry a couple of exercise bands with you in your purse and exercise when waiting for an appointment. Keep some small exercise tools like those resistance bands at your desk. Find some little ways you can work out at tough times and even cut out 15 minutes of inefficient activity per day and use that for a workout. In fact, with an ultra-intense exercise, you can get a full workout finished in under 20 minutes per day.

Take The Stairs

Taking the stairs every opportunity you get is a great way to stay in shape when short on time. If you live or work in a place that has stairs, even if you are on the fourth floor, it may be an excellent way to kill a spare five or 10 minutes.

Keep Resistance Bands With You

Keeping resistance bands is an idea you will thank me for later. You can even keep one in your pocket if you do not always keep a purse with you. You will be amazed at how many times and places you can use a resistance band during your day.

Stuck in traffic? You can give a few pulls before inching forward. In line at the grocery store? you can do a few simple exercises that will not leave you looking foolish. You can use resistance bands at the office during quick breaks. It is incredible the amount of exercise you can fit into your day with a couple of resistance bands in your downtime.

Exercise App With Reminders

Being busy does not mean you do not have the time to exercise. With everything else going on in life, you do not think of exercising until it is too late.

There are several apps these days that you can set push notifications to remind you to exercise in the morning, at lunch or whenever is best for you. You can establish a routine for your goals and spare time. No matter what your situation, there is an app to help.

Commercial Breaks

One of the simplest methods for a busy woman is the commercial break workout. Choose a show and during the commercial break drop for 20 push-ups and do 50 jumping jacks. Set up a different exercise for an hour of television, and that is about six breaks around 6 minutes each, giving you a 20-minute workout! Out of nowhere! YAY!

Recruit A Partner

After a long and hectic day, you may need time with your significant other to unwind, talk about your day and relax a little. Why not do that with exercise? For a half hour or more at the end of the day, you can bike ride, jog or workout together and discuss your day. What better way to let off some steam than talking it out with your partner while exercising? Ok, we can think of one better way, but that is exercise as well!

So there you have it. Some simple ways to optimize your day to get more exercise. Now, we know you are busy, so get going and make a plan!

Guest Post written by John Welborn