I have joined a 30-day Productivity Challenge and wanted to share my journey with you and invite you to join me. Click here – https://30dayproductivity.com – if you want to join me. I think that this could be a lot of fun, especially completing it as a community.

Today’s productivity challenge is to start a habit tracking journey. And, as was the case yesterday, tracking habits is something that I discussed in a previous post on how I leverage Notion. Today, rather than focusing on how I track habits, I thought I would share some of the challenges of actually consistently doing my habits that I am struggling with. I think we all struggle with maintaining consistent habits and sometimes, it helps to have some strategies.

I shared how my employer provides us with a health and fitness program. One of my new habits is to work out for at least 30 to 45 minutes every day. This has been incredibly difficult to do! Even with someone holding me accountable, I really struggled with going into the basement to just do it. Part of this is because the basement, was, well, a mess. I admit it. Our basement became a sort of dumping ground and we actually piled a bunch of things on our exercise equipment. It was just not appealing.

One of the first strategies is to make your environment appealing and conducive to working out. Obviously, we could not work out in a basement with the equipment covered. I procrastinated establishing a good workout habit until I cleaned out the basement.

The second strategy is to tell yourself that you will follow the 2-minute or 5-minute rules. My first few days, after cleaning up from dinner, I would drag myself downstairs and use the elliptical for 5 minutes. That was literally all I could do and my legs would be hurting. The habit is supposed to for 30 to 45 minutes but that was clearly not happening. Part of using the limited rules was because it was not fun and I didn’t want to do more than I could handle, and then suffer a fibromyalgia flare.

The third strategy is to set up a system and a process. I made it a consistent habit to go downstairs, and just get through my 5 minutes of misery. And it really was not fun. I was forcing myself to do something because I was being held accountable by my coach.

The fourth strategy is to adjust the process until it works for you. After a few days of surviving 5 minutes on the elliptical, I decided to try and mix things up a bit. Now that the basement was cleaned up, I spent 5 minutes on each piece of equipment: rower, elliptical, treadmill, and easy-strider.

Yeah! Whoo Hoo! I made it 20 minutes! I actually felt proud of myself for making it that long. The fifth strategy is to celebrate your wins and I was excited. For the first time, I started to feel more motivated to continue the habit. It still wasn’t fun; I was just grinning because I felt a sense of accomplishment, but really I was just getting through the exercise by sheer force of will.

The next night, I did the same set of equipment, but extended the time on the treadmill and easy-strider from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. Yes! I have now worked my way up to 30 minutes. Again, I was able to celebrate my win. It still wasn’t the most fun; I was happier because I felt a sense of accomplishment for meeting part of the goal, but again, I was just getting through the exercise because I’m, well, stubborn.

But then I faced some unintended consequences. I could not sleep! My process was to eat dinner, clean up the kitchen, do my end of the day routines, drag myself to the basement, and do 30 minutes of exercise. Finally finished, I would get ready for bed and try to go to sleep. But I couldn’t fall asleep! It was like I was energized, so I would toss and turn for hours, finally falling asleep between midnight and 1:00 am. Of course in the morning, then, I would be exhausted and struggled through the next day. This continued until we got to another weekend.

My health coach recommended I purchase the TRX system. My husband helped me find a good place to install it and I watched a few videos on how to complete the basic beginner exercises. But I didn’t try any of them. Instead, I did my usual 30 minutes of exercise, tossed and turned through the night. But because it was the weekend, I was able to sleep in the next day and at least get past the exhausted stage. Once I was up and dressed and ready for the day, I had my husband come down and spot me, while we worked through the initial training videos together. It was work, but it was fun, too. I actually like the TRX system and I only did one rep of each of the exercises, and then did my usual routine of the four machines.

When I was done, I felt great! I was so energized and was able to keep busy throughout the day. And I was not suffering any negative consequences with my fibromyalgia. That was when I had the “aha” lightbulb moment. Maybe, instead of working out at night, I should work out in the morning. While trying to figure out how to use the TRX system, I stumbled on a YouTube video of Ben Bergerson being interviewed by the High Performance channel. And some of the things he said resonated with me – like getting out of bed is the hardest thing to do.

Once again, I decided to adjust my process. Here is what the process is now and I am consistently working out for 30- to 45-minutes every day! And I start preparing the night before. I am sleeping in clothes that I can work out in! Now, I have no excuse to not work out. Not only are the clothes comfortable, but they are serving a dual purpose. I have enough sets that I can put on a fresh set each night, so I made it work for me.

5:00 am Wake up to the alarm and refuse to hit the snooze alarm.

5:05 am Use the restroom and weigh-in.

5:10 am Make the bed, put on my socks and shoes, and make a cup of coffee.

5:15 am Set up the phone and Bluetooth headphones. Work out. Do whatever I can do physically or what my health coach has scheduled for me.

6:00 am Shower and work through the rest of my morning routines.

And this works for me! Of course, the first morning that I tried it, immediately after the day of using the TRX for the first time, I was hurting. Not all over, but my thighs were killing me. It was so demotivating and I didn’t want to work out. It hurt just to go up the stairs to weigh-in! It hurt to walk downstairs to the basement!

Once again, I made an adjustment. I opted to just use the easy-strider. This is the lowest impact machine I have, so I set a slow pace and a timer for 30 minutes. I got through it. And then, the endorphines and dopamine kicked in and I had a great rest of the day. This repeated every day throughout the week. It took me 4 days to work through the pain in my legs, but I did get through it without breaking my habit!

I then worked on making it fun! Now, obviously you can incorporate fun in the process at any point. Because I was struggling so much in the beginning and I was working out for only 5 minutes, it took me a bit to make it fun. I ordered some Bluetooth headphones so that I could be hands- and cords-free. This made all the difference for me! I like to listen to podcasts or audiobooks while working out. It takes my mind someplace other than whatever I am doing during my workout. Now, the 30 to 45 minutes fly by – so much so, that I now have a 6:00 am alarm to remind me to stop!

Then this morning, I did not want to get up at 5:00 am. There is a teacher in-service, so I did not have to do my daily commute to my youngest daughter’s school located 30 minutes away. This meant that I could sleep in until 6:00 am or even as late as 7:00 am.

Nope.

My body was wide awake and wanted to get moving. I have been listening to so many episodes of the Chasing Excellence podcast that I felt like I could hear Ben Bergerson telling me that I could not hit the snooze button. That it was bad for my sleep. That getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day. And that if I win in the morning, I will win the day. So, I got up and did my workout process, just like I did every day this week. And I feel really good.

In summary, here are the strategies that I employed to set this good, healthy habit that I now enjoy and look forward to completing every day:

1. Make your environment appealing.
2. Follow the 2-minute or 5-minute rule.
3. Set up a system or process.
4. Make adjustments to your system or process to make it work for you.
5. Celebrate! Take a moment to enjoy your accomplishments!
6. Make it fun! (Feel free to move this anywhere in the list.)