Time Management 158 - The Three

Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 158th day.

Today's topic is: The Three Primary Benefits of Exercise

Many people wonder how they become fit, particularly when it comes to running. They may ask: how can I enjoy running?

Those who join my Yixiaoneng classroom course know that I would lead them on a wonderful 5km run the next morning they signed up. Even if you hate running, or you are out of breath after running only 500 meters, I will teach you how to run the full 5km easily.

Running is a habit that I have mastered. I am now a marathon runner. Therefore, I'd like to share what I've learned about exercise with you.

I believe everyone knows that exercise helps to improve our cardiovascular system and muscle function. If everyone knows that exercise is good for you, why do so few people develop this habit? Maybe they have no time, or they don't have enough exercise knowledge.

You may be wondering why we're talking about exercise during a time management lesson. The reason is that, like I said before, energy management is the basis of time management. Energy management is the simply how we manage our time spent resting and working each day.

Recall that there are three habits of energy management: exercise, sleep and diet.  A fourth habit is also very helpful: meditation. You can think of these habits as the "3+1" habits. The habits ensure our energy can be replenished well. Energy is stored as a result of the good "3+1" habits and released when working.  This kind of ordered and rhythmed sequence is energy management. Storing engergy and releasing energy.

Today, we won't talk about the other habits but focus rather on exercise.

Exercise can promote our blood circulation, increase heart rate and make our body secrete endorphins, like dopamine and serotonin, which are substances that increase our happiness. So exercise is helpful for us to replenish energy and increases our time management efficiency.

There is a book called Procrastination, which studies the phenomenon of procrastination. It points out that exercise and meditation are the most effective methods to cure procrastination. Therefore, we know that exercise can also cure procrastination.

Therefore, exercise has three main effects:

1. Good health;

2. Good mood;

3. Less procrastination.

I hereby strongly suggest you to start exercising now!

If, after hearing this, you are willing to put your health first and are willing to exercise in order to increase your productivity, then I have to tell you that jogging and swimming are good choices. For now, let's put swimming aside and discuss running instead.

First let me say that I am very grateful to my running coach Wu Dong.

Wu Dong was once injured because while running and in the hospital for one month. He then realized that the most important thing to focus on while exercising is preventing injury! A few days later, he created a method for preventing injury when running, which he called the "Jian Ai Running Step", and then he wrote several books called "How to Fall in Love with Running"

His idea happens to be very similar to my own idea of falling in love with your body every day. He taught me how to incorporate this into running. With the guidance of Wu Dong, I easily increased my running distance from 5km to 10km and then on to a half marathon.  I improved my time in the half marathon from 3 hours to 2 hours and 15 minutes. Therefore, I'd like to share this fantastic "Jian Ai Running Step" method with you.

Let me ask again, why are there are so many people that don't like to run? What is the first thing you feel when you hear about running? You feelt tired! Am I right? Because we feel tired, we are not willing to go running.

So what is this telling us about the problem? It's telling us that the problem is about how we think about running. If it is painful and requires great willpower to do something, then if that's the case, we will refuse to do it!

In our next lesson, we're going to discuss how to run happily.

Thank you being with me together today. Have a wonderful day!