Hello my loves! First of all — thank you so much for the love about the site makeover. I am still over the moon about it and love, love, love hearing your thoughts as you poke around & check out all the new features! EEK. Coolest ever.
Today we are going to talk about time management, and how it directly relates to my fitness routine. “What? Really?! How?” You’re thinking. I know. Well, for several reasons. I’ll get to those in a sec, but first I wanna tell you that I’ve partnered with G-Shock S Series for this post to walk you through a day in the life of my fitness & wellness routine. Woo woo!
After I started wearing the watch and giving some thought to its role in the structure of my life, I realized that time management literally has everything to do with my daily fitness routine.
Why?
Let me tell you.
With work, I am all over the board. I’m either blogging, jotting down notes for book #2, in TBV Apparel meetings, at a photo shoot, trying new healthy restaurants for the blog, filming YouTube vids, hosting wellness events, collaborating with awesome like-minded peeps, the list goes on.
When it comes to exercise, the same applies. I am a HIIT freak (hello, OrangeTheory!), a distance runner, a yogi lover who is only getting more and more obsessed with yoga by the day (after 10+ years of practice), and I also like to hike, spin, do Pilates; you name it — I love it.
The three main workouts I rotate throughout the week are running, yoga and OrangeTheory (OTF Brentwood all the way!). My ideal day would consist of all three, and miraculously, sometimes it DOES. And the only answer for why I’m able to do that, why I’m able to “squeeze it in” despite my hectic life sched, is because of effective time management.
I manage my time so that I can do what I like, when I want to, how I like it, and how I know I need to in order to feel my best.
Ya feel me? Let’s get into more deets about this.
I used to be someone who was terrible at managing my time. Especially when I first started blogging full-time. I would spend, I kid you not, an hour and a half replying to the sweetest & most heartfelt emails that I received, and then another whopping two hours answering peoples’ questions in such radically honest detail that by the time I finished emailing for the day I felt like I’d just written five new blog posts.
And you can guess what happened after that… I wasn’t able to write the blog posts, because I was too mentally wiped out from the emails!
FITNESS & WELLNESS
That time management issue also trickled into my fitness and wellness routine. I would work, work, work all day and then sprint out the door to make it to a yoga class at night and then be so entirely blissed out and zen afterward to only come home and realize that I had more work to do because I had been emailing people back all day instead of writing my blog posts.
Not good! Not the kind of life I want to live at least. I want to live in the moment, be present, and let exercise be a part of my life versus something I’m just doing to check off the list. Exercising makes me feel whole, it makes me feel like ME, and I find that I feel my absolute best when I am active throughout the day instead of having one little “spurt” of a major workout in the morning or in the evening. Also, my body looks/feels stronger when I am able to get out and walk/run/stretch/move throughout the day instead of sitting for 298329842947 hours in a row.
Right?!? Do you feel that way too?
Let’s dip into what my CURRENT daily fitness routine looks like and why I am so much better at managing my time now:
Morning:
As you know, I am ALL ABOUT that digital detox in the mornings. I don’t look at my phone for a good 45 minutes to an hour after I wake up (sometimes longer if I can swing it), and I put great care into how I spend that first little portion of my day. When I used to wake up and immediately hop on my phone it would inundate my brain with other peoples’ thoughts/ideas/questions/images/comments, rather than allowing myself to tap into my own creativity and spend time in my head.
It’s important to be in our heads sometimes to reflect and check in, because it reminds us what we WANT and how we will get there. What I want, most of all, is to live a happy, healthy, balanced, active life rooted in wellness and surrounded by awesome, loving, inspiring people. That’s what I want at my core. And being able to tap into that in the morning keeps me grounded, and helps me wire my day as such.
Thanks to my G-Shock S Series, I can wake up and have my morning routine without having to worry about looking at my phone for the time. If I even glance at my phone for the time during my “detox” period, I end up seeing a text or an email that pulls me out of that creative, calm vibe.
It also helps me stay on track all morning so I know how much time to spend making tea, making breakfast, cuddling with Huddy, stretching on my yoga mat, etc. When about an hour is passed, I know it’s time to get a bit of work done before I head to my OrangeTheory workout and get my heart pumpin’! THEN it’s work time. 🙂 I told you I have priorities!
Afternoon:
I usually head to OrangeTheory at 9:30am for my hourlong HIIT class. My watch has been an awesome addition to the class because I like to test my strength by holding timed planks, and checking the time that it takes to walk to and from OrangeTheory because I totally count that time/distance as part of my daily wellness routine and vibe. 😉
After OrangeTheory, I head home to get the bulk of my work done. That’s when my watch really comes in the most handy, because it helps me manage my time as I mentioned above. While I work, I try to never sit for more than an hour and a half at a time without at least getting up and stretching/walking for 10-15 mins (it’s also good for your hormones to move every hour or so like that!).
I also like to incorporate lunches and afternoon hangouts with friends, because that’s another thing that recharges me and keeps me motivated and inspired when I get back to my work.
And time at the beach!! On a weekend, I am all about those beach runs, healthy Rawvolution cafe lunches, and partner yoga poses in the sand.
Evening:
If I’ve been legitimately effective in my time management (some days are better than others!), I can usually start to wind down around 6pm and start thinking about what my night is going to look like. When it comes to wellness, it’s just as important to schedule in dinners with friends and walks with people you love as it is to hit up a nighttime yoga class or go on an evening run. I like to mix it up and incorporate both so I have all the balance. 🙂
My typical night would consist of making dinner, going on a walk in Brentwood with one of my BFF’s (and using the reflective LED light on my G-Shock, duh!), and getting in bed around 9:30pm for my nightly digital detox to read a book, cuddle with Huddy, or journal.
Night:
Lastly, you guys know that I have been getting pretty heavily into meditating, thanks to Ayurveda. 🙂 Some people like to meditate in the morning, but I like to do it at night!
You may not consider meditating a form of “fitness,” but I need to get my heart rate pumping before I am able to fully zen out and meditate. It’s something I like to do at the end of a sweaty yoga class or a long running sesh. To me, meditating fits right in with my fitness routine because it keeps me feeling relaxed, replenished and in sync with what I really want.
That’s what fitness is all ABOUT, am I right??!! It’s something that helps connect us to our very core and keep us feeling our absolute best. So we can go out into the world, be passionate, kick ass, and share our most authentic selves with the world.
Then I get up the next day to do it all over again. Every day is different, but that’s a general overview of what I am going for each day, and how managing my time effectively has been a life saver!
Thoughts? Anyone else have effective time management skills to share with me? Do tell! I can still use all the help I can get!
FTC Disclosure: I was compensated by G-Shock S Series to write this post, but all opinions are my own — as always!
