20 Minutes for Health
If you’re trying to make a healthy change, but keep getting stuck because you really don’t have time, try this – take just 20 minutes every day to work on the change you want to make. Want to eat healthier this year, exercise regularly, lose weight, or reduce stress? Or make any other change to improve your physical or mental health? You can get started and make real progress by working on it for just 20 minutes a day.
Here’s how to do it: Schedule 20 minutes every day, at least 6 days a week, to work on the most important change you want to make. Put that time on your calendar or in your planner, or set a reminder on your phone. Each day, use those “20 minutes for health” to focus solely on the healthy change you want to make.
For example, if you want to start exercising, use your 20 minutes to take a walk, lift hand weights, or do an online workout video. If you want to change your diet, use your 20 minutes to plan a healthy menu for the week, make a grocery list that supports your healthy menu, wash and cut up fruits and vegetables, or prep some healthy lunches.
The possibilities are almost endless. Want to reduce your stress level, get better sleep, or lose weight? Take 20 minutes for health – figure out the things you need to do to make that change and work on one of them for 20 minutes every day, at least 6 days a week.
Is 20 minutes enough to make a difference? Absolutely. Is it enough to get you all the way to your goal? Maybe not. But it’s an excellent start.
Once your first 20 minutes for health is part of your routine (which might take a month or several months), consider adding another 20-minute block to each day, in order to ramp up your efforts to reach your goal. Maybe schedule one 20-minute block in the morning and one in the evening. Or one in the afternoon and one before bed. Or, if you can make it work, two blocks back to back. Whatever works for you.
Do the same thing you did with your first 20 minutes for health – put it on your calendar or in your planner, or set a reminder on your phone. Prioritize it. Then use it to move forward and really make progress.
At this point, you’ll be spending 40 minutes each day taking positive steps to improve your physical or mental health. That’s phenomenal! Can you make a real difference in 40 minutes a day? 100% – you absolutely can.
In some ways the 20 minutes for health approach is like habit stacking, but instead of habits you’ll be stacking blocks of time throughout the day that you’ll use to move forward on a healthy goal. And as you integrate these 20-minute blocks into your day and see real results for your health, you may even find a way to add a third block to the stack on some days.
But don’t worry if that seems impossible. Start with just 20 minutes for health, every day, and see where it leads you.
Does this seem like something that you could do? Try it and let me know in the comments or at [email protected] how it works. I’d love to hear from you.
