“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，没有时间去锻炼。”即使真如此，它也是不合理的借口。锻炼能给你更多的工作精力。但由于这样那样的事情，大多数人没有时间进行锻炼。同样，许多人也感觉到他们留不出时间去养成某些习惯，如锻炼，阅读和做工作之外的事。是否能找到时间是养成新习惯的一大障碍。我想用两点来反驳没有时间的这种说法。它们只是针对大多数人，适用于平常的日子，在特殊的情况下可能不是正确的。1，时间是你生命中取之不竭的资源。2，缺的是注意力，而不是时间，使它妨碍你养成新的习惯。

你有的是时间。即使当你极度忙碌，你也没百分百地有效利用你的时间。每个人的时间表上都有空白，那些时间段中他们没有做任何有意义的事。即使你的计划中灭有空白地带，也有相当大部分的时间你不能如你你的能力快捷高效地工作。

为什么你不能总是高效率地做事？因为时间不是限制因素。假如时间是，人们将会取消任何无价值的娱乐，不停歇地工作。但是，就是那些非常高效的人，也需要休息，也需偶尔的拖拉，也会在一天的工作中歇歇手。

效率真正的限制因素是你的精力层次和注意力的好坏。精力旺盛与否限制了你的效率，因为当你疲劳是，虽然你有大量的可用时间，但你什么也做不了。注意广度的限制甚至更强。即便你同时得处理上百万件的事情，你只呢个一次集中精力在一两件事上。

你很难在不作出牺牲做其它事的情况下在你的时间表里插入4到5小时。但即使极端忙碌是，人们也能抽出1到2个小时，这并不会减少做其它事情的时间。说“找时间”很困难的理由不是缺时间。是因为你的注意广度没有给你一天留下做其它事情的可能。在过去的一年中，我就开始怀疑时间并不是在极其忙碌时期不能锻炼的真正问题。我的确很忙碌，但是我那时仍然有规律地锻炼。我每天都列出要做的二十来件事的清单，但我仍旧能够找到锻炼的时间。

但是，几个星期过去之后，疾病时我停止锻炼。从那一个角度上说，我都不再忙碌，事实上，我的时间安排已经变得难以想象的疏落。我却发现这些空闲时间不能拿来锻炼。锻炼在我的时间表中越来越靠后，知道不再进行下去。我怎样才能解释这奇怪的经历呢？

集中注意力要付出高昂的代价。有些研究文献估计人的大脑可以在一秒钟感知将近11000种信息。但你仅能有意识处理大约40条。这意味着在任何事情中，你都不能体察到其中的百分之一。