Fitness is hard to start, and life only accelerates. You need to fit exercise into your busy week – without neglecting your spouse and kids.

It is possible to balance life’s commitments with getting healthy, and exercise will help you show up better to every other aspect of your life.

In this post, I will guide you step by step in prioritizing your goals and and provide a framework for you to plan to achieve everything that matters to you.

How to determine your priorities

We all see influencers that don’t need to go to work, and it can seem easy for them to have 8 hours a day to spend in the gym. This is not realistic, but it is possible for us to find time in your schedule to work out.

We will start by figuring out what you need to do, what you want to do, and what you already do. We will come up with quantities and figure out when you will fit it all into your schedule.

Listing activities

Start by listing every type of task that you need or want to accomplish in a week. Take a moment and really think of everything, from walking your dog to going to church to fixing your house. Add in hobbies, obligations, family time, whatever you would like to do or already do in a week. I will be doing this in Excel, but you can do it with Google Sheets or a pen and paper.

For me, the list looks like this:

• Run
• Work
• Trail Run
• Go fishing or hunting
• Go to church
• Go to grocery store
• Meal Prep
• Laundry
• Lift Weights
• Swim
• Bike
• Date Night
• Read Daily Devotional
• Walk dog
• Clean Surfaces
• Home Maintenance
• Feed dog
• Write Roam Post
• Write Refine Post
• See family
• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
• Quality Time with Wife: Day Trips, Hiking, Springs

Make sure your list includes both requirements, like working, and aspirations, like new hobbies or fitness activities. Perhaps you want to start martial arts or would like to read more. Add that in.

Determining quantities and other requirements

Before we can break down your week and find a home for fitness, we need to add quantities. For example, I know that I need to clean off the counters every night and I want to lift weights 4 days a week.  Add in the number of times you need to do each task. If are brand new to running and want to start, add a quantity of 3.

When you are listing out each activity, add in notes or comments in a new column.

As an example, here is my list:

Finding The Time

Now that you have a list of what you do and want to do, we need to come up with when you will do it. List out when you think it would be best to do each activity. For example, as a new runner it would be ideal to run before work, but you will be more likely to actually do it after work instead of trying to wake up early.

In the next step, you might choose to color code your new schedule, so it will be easier for you to also assign a category in a new column, i.e. Fitness, Side Hustle, etc.

Here is my example, showing both what I want to do and need to do in a week:

Planning Your Week and Achieving Balance

You have a big list of things that you need to do for yourself and others. In this next step, it may be tempting to move fitness down a peg to make room for other obligations. I assure you that by prioritizing fitness, you will show up better to your other obligations. You will be sharper and live longer, so make sure to keep fitness a priority.

Finding the Time to Sleep

Before we proceed, figure out what time you want to get up, based on work or fitness obligations. To figure out what time you need to go to sleep, subtract 8 hours from the time you want to get up. For me, I want to wake up at 6am, so I must be asleep at 10pm.

We are not going to skip out on sleep to hit our other goals, you will hit them better if you are well rested. As you build this new habit of fitness, you need to let your body recover from the workouts. It is imperative that you give yourself 8 hours of time in bed, every night minimum.

To set your circadian rhythm right, you will also need to wake up at the same time every day. Yes, this includes weekends. I think you will find that you can do a lot more in a week than you anticipated, especially if you get your time back. The simplest way to do this is by skipping out on TV and drinking. You won’t miss much.

Making the Plan

Lay out the 7 days of the week as columns, and each waking hour as a row. Since I need to go to sleep at 10pm and wake up at 6am, my waking hours range from 6am-9pm. Here is the basis for your week, each block representing a waking hour:

Start by adding work and the new habit you would like to include, such as a side hustle or fitness. Make sure that you are realistic with the time it takes you to get ready or drive to activities. We are adding the new habit in first and arranging our day around it to make sure it is not skipped.

I am wrapping up training for a half marathon, and my plan involves 5 runs of less than an hour and one long run which is multiple hours. This is what my schedule looks like with just work and running.

See all that white space? Those are hours you are awake that you can fill up with activities like working towards financial freedom and spending time with family.

Adding High-Priority Activities

Add in other necessary activities, like religious commitments, meal prep, trips to the grocery store, and time spent with family and friends. Try to clump these activities together and give yourself a full day off on the weekend.

Here is what my schedule looks like with all high-priority activities accounted for:

You will note that I lift weights after I run, and on back-to-back days. This is certainly not optimal, but it is what my time allows for. The lifting is separated by enough hours that I am fresh again after running. If you are running and lifting back-to-back on the same day, lift first on fresh legs before you run.

Filling the White Space

With all necessary tasks accounted for, I still have almost 40 hours available. This is what you get when you plan your time and act with discipline: freedom.

I do not use screens within an hour of bedtime, as it hurts your sleep. I also like to walk the dog at night to get him some exercise and wind down before bed. I find the best time to walk the dog is between 9pm-10pm, so I will add that in every day.

How You Can Even Fit Side Hustles

What about side gigs and businesses? To accelerate your earning potential, you will have to put in work outside of work hours. While I have not yet make any money blogging, I plan to one day monetize the blog. In writing the previous 17 posts, I have averaged 4.04 hours directly outlining, writing, and posting each post.

To post on my blog twice a week, I will have to commit 8 hours, which I can find as the block from 7pm to 8pm on work nights and then in the block on Fridays after my long run before date night.

Here is what my schedule looks like with all obligations for work, fitness, and family accounted for, along with time allocated to working on side hustles:

For the last block starting at 8pm every night, I recommend incorporating a buffer. This will allow you to run errands and catch up on whatever craziness happens during the day. Similarly, I am adding a block on Sunday morning for breakfast, and one on Friday at noon for lunch. Meals for other days are taken as breaks during the work day or dinner right after work before lifting.

For Saturday, I am keeping it as a day off, free from obligations. This lets my wife and I travel locally to state parks and springs and do longer hikes. It allows for a full mental reset and for us to build a deeper connection by spending the weekend together. After all, we have to Roam to write about it!

Here is what the almost final schedule looks like:

Optimizing Your Week

Now that you have your week mostly flushed out with the activities you built in your table, compare the two. Look for opportunities to improve your schedule and find synergy to incorporate other goals into your plan.

For instance, I would like to one day run ultramarathons. To train for this, I will have to incorporate trail runs to my training plan. If I stretch out my long run, I can drive to a local state forest and do it as a trail run, helping me to set up better for future goals. Alternatively, I could add a swimming or biking block to the free hours.

Coordinate With Your Spouse For Even Better Results

Coordinate with your spouse for other ways to optimize your weekly schedule. My wife generally makes breakfast while I am on my morning run, which allows us time to read a daily devotional between breakfast and starting work most days. Also, she works on Fridays and I do not, so that gives me an extra day to work on RoamandRefine and do longer training blocks.

If possible, color code your glossary of activities to match your weekly plan. This will help you to stay organized and figure out what you are missing. The smaller tasks are lumped together in the buffer/errands time.

Change the font to red for each item in your glossary of activities that is not accounted for in your weekly schedule. These are tasks that you are deciding not to do. To live a balanced life, these is time for both fitness and hobbies, but you will have to choose where to spend your time.

Here is what my updated glossary of activities looks like:

And here is what my finalized weekly schedule looks like:

What if you missed something important?

When I look at my glossary of activities, I know that one day if I want to do a triathlon, I will have to find time to swim or bike. I also know that I would like to one day start Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). These are both activities that I am deferring such that I can leave time open to spend with my family. One day, when I drop down to part time at work or achieve certain running goals and decrease volume, I will certainly add them in.

The final item on my list that I want to do, but have a hard time fitting, is fishing and hunting. I need to get outdoors and put some food in the freezer at least once a month, so I will propose an alternate Sunday:

The alternate Sunday allows me a solid block to go harvest some wild, free-range food, while still leaving time to stream church, meal prep, and even see family. The other option is to take Saturday morning, which works well if you invite your spouse fishing or hunting with you.

How do I find time for fitness, hobbies, and relationships if I commute?

As somebody who works from home most days, it would be easy to poke criticism at me for having enough time to work on fitness goals, a blog, and still see family and hang out with my wife. That criticism is fair; it is indeed much easier for me to find the time since I am saving 3 hours per workday commuting to the office.

Here is how you can balance 6 days of running, 4 days of lifting, work 5 days a week in the office, date night, day trips, and even work on a side gig:

I agree that this is not ideal, and I would urge you to grow your side hustle and find a remote job. I am just showing you that it is possible in your current situation.

Tips, Trick, and Final Reminders

Avoid overcommitting. This model should reflect one change at a time from how you currently spend your week. If you try to do too much change at once, you will almost certainly burn out and fail. I want you to be successful, so let’s stick to one improvement at a time. After two or three solid weeks without missing on the new habit, add a second one in.

While you see my week filled with value-added activities, it is just as important to note what is not planned in my week: TV, Video Games, Drinking, and similar activities. By filling up your schedule with meaningful tasks, you will push out major time wasters and remove their ability to creep in.

You need to prepare for obstacles. To get time back, build a home gym. This will also remove friction when you had a long day at work and do not want to go drive. If you had a long day, do a minimum viable workout to maintain the habit and schedule, similar to how you would if you are sick.

Print out the weekly plan out and hang it on the fridge. Write in the margins what you did and did not do, and make tweaks at for next week. Keep iterating until you make it fit your life, and make your life fit your future you.

To start running as a beginner, check out the post for a step-by-step guide. For your weekly plan, you will need 3 running or walking days in the schedule.

If you mess up one day, get back on track. There is no reason to let yesterday dictate today.

How To Get In Touch

Send me an email at contact@roamandrefine.com if you need a hand balancing fitness into your week. I would love to help you make lifestyle changes if you need some extra motivation.

If you found this post helpful and created a cool schedule, send it my way too!

The information on this blog, Roam and Refine, is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a doctor or qualified health professional before beginning any new exercise or nutrition program. By using this site, you acknowledge that you are voluntarily participating in these activities and assume all risks of injury. Roam and Refine and its authors are not responsible for any liability, loss, or damage caused directly or indirectly from the use of this information.