“I’m too busy to exercise.”

Even if it were true, it isn’t a reasonable excuse. Exercise gives you more energy to do work. In many ways, most people are too busy not to exercise. But still, a lot of people feel they don’t have time for starting new habits like exercise, reading or doing extra work. Being able to find time is a big obstacle in starting new habits.

I’d like to make two arguments. These are generalizations, so while they may not be true in specific cases, I’d say they apply to most people, most of the time.

1. Time is never the most limited resource in your day.
2. A lack of attention, not time, is what prevents you from adding new habits.

You Have Enough Time

Even when you’re extremely busy, you aren’t using your time with 100% efficiency. There are gaps in everyone’s schedule where they aren’t doing anything important. Even if your schedule has no gaps, there are probably chunks of time where you aren’t working as fast or as effectively as you possibly could.

Why aren’t you completely efficient? It’s because time isn’t the limiting factor. If it were the limiting factor, people could work non-stop without breaks or any unproductive distractions. Instead people, even those who are highly productive, need to take breaks, occasionally procrastinate and slow down on tasks throughout the day.

The real limiting factor for productivity is your energy levels and ability to pay attention. Energy levels limit your productivity because when you’re tired, you can have ample time and still not get everything done. Your attention span is even more limited, because even if there are a million things that need to be done, you can only focus on one or two at a time.

You might not be able to insert another 4-5 hours into your schedule without making some sacrifices. But even extremely busy people can add an hour or two into their schedule without eliminating something. The reason it’s hard to “find time” isn’t a lack of time. It’s because you don’t have the attention span left to focus on something else that needs to fit into your day.

I first suspected time wasn’t the real problem during an extremely busy period in my life over a year ago. I was insanely busy, but at this time I still exercised regularly. I had daily to-do lists with over twenty items, and I still found time to exercise.

However, after a few weeks off, due to illness, I stopped exercising. I was not busy by any standards, in fact, my schedule was incredibly light. Despite this free time, I found it hard to find time to exercise. It seemed to get pushed later and later into my schedule until it was gone. How could I explain this odd experience?
Paying Attention is Expensive

Some studies estimate that there are close to eleven thousand sensory inputs into your brain during any second, but you only process around forty consciously. This means out of everything you could be thinking about, you are reduced to examining less than one percent.

Even when you do think, you’re handicapped. Your short-term memory, or active memory, can only hold about 7 items at a time (why do you think phone numbers are typically 7 digits long?). Your attention is extremely limited, and given the amount of things you do each day, paying attention is very expensive.

I believe this lack of attention is the main culprit in finding time for new habits. You may have very little time, but you have even less attention. Even if you could find an hour or two to spare for exercising, reading or a new activity, it’s mentally costly to keep reminding yourself to do it. New habits have a start-up cost that you pay with attention.
Finding Time for New Habits

There isn’t much you can do to free up more attention. But you can be smart in your usage of it. Forming a habit makes continuing much easier because, after several weeks, you stop thinking about it. My exercise during the busy period in my life was easy because it no longer required thought. When I stopped for a few weeks, I suddenly needed reminders, which made finding time more difficult.

You can reduce the attention needed to start a new habit by writing it down. Write it into your to-do lists, and place it on Post Its around your house. If you allow the environment to remind you of your habit, you can cut down on the amount of internal attention you need to use to remember it.

The best way to find time is to focus on it. If you can focus on a new habit for a few weeks, you can find the attention to make it a habit. Once exercise, reading, studying or whatever you want to do becomes a habit, it won’t cost you anything to keep going. Attention is the currency of productivity, so if you want to find time for anything, find the energy to pay attention first.

“我太忙了，沒有時間去鍛煉。”即使真如此，它也是不合理的借口。鍛煉能給你更多的工作精力。但由于這樣那樣的事情，大多數(shù)人沒有時間進(jìn)行鍛煉。同樣，許多人也感覺到他們留不出時間去養(yǎng)成某些習(xí)慣，如鍛煉，閱讀和做工作之外的事。是否能找到時間是養(yǎng)成新習(xí)慣的一大障礙。我想用兩點來反駁沒有時間的這種說法。它們只是針對大多數(shù)人，適用于平常的日子，在特殊的情況下可能不是正確的。1，時間是你生命中取之不竭的資源。2，缺的是注意力，而不是時間，使它妨礙你養(yǎng)成新的習(xí)慣。

你有的是時間。即使當(dāng)你極度忙碌，你也沒百分百地有效利用你的時間。每個人的時間表上都有空白，那些時間段中他們沒有做任何有意義的事。即使你的計劃中滅有空白地帶，也有相當(dāng)大部分的時間你不能如你你的能力快捷高效地工作。

為什么你不能總是高效率地做事？因為時間不是限制因素。假如時間是，人們將會取消任何無價值的娛樂，不停歇地工作。但是，就是那些非常高效的人，也需要休息，也需偶爾的拖拉，也會在一天的工作中歇歇手。

效率真正的限制因素是你的精力層次和注意力的好壞。精力旺盛與否限制了你的效率，因為當(dāng)你疲勞是，雖然你有大量的可用時間，但你什么也做不了。注意廣度的限制甚至更強。即便你同時得處理上百萬件的事情，你只呢個一次集中精力在一兩件事上。

你很難在不作出犧牲做其它事的情況下在你的時間表里插入4到5小時。但即使極端忙碌是，人們也能抽出1到2個小時，這并不會減少做其它事情的時間。說“找時間”很困難的理由不是缺時間。是因為你的注意廣度沒有給你一天留下做其它事情的可能。在過去的一年中，我就開始懷疑時間并不是在極其忙碌時期不能鍛煉的真正問題。我的確很忙碌，但是我那時仍然有規(guī)律地鍛煉。我每天都列出要做的二十來件事的清單，但我仍舊能夠找到鍛煉的時間。

但是，幾個星期過去之后，疾病時我停止鍛煉。從那一個角度上說，我都不再忙碌，事實上，我的時間安排已經(jīng)變得難以想象的疏落。我卻發(fā)現(xiàn)這些空閑時間不能拿來鍛煉。鍛煉在我的時間表中越來越靠后，知道不再進(jìn)行下去。我怎樣才能解釋這奇怪的經(jīng)歷呢？

集中注意力要付出高昂的代價。有些研究文獻(xiàn)估計人的大腦可以在一秒鐘感知將近11000種信息。但你僅能有意識處理大約40條。這意味著在任何事情中，你都不能體察到其中的百分之一。