Contributed by Laura F.

“E” is for exercise but “E” could also be for enjoyment.  After all, one of the oldest (and truest) pieces of advice about exercise is to always pick an activity you enjoy.  The biggest problem with exercise, according to those who study such things, is that people rarely stick with an exercise regime.  For every dedicated runner who fits in ten miles a day so as always to be “marathon-ready,” for every gym rat who wears out the seat of their favorite stationary bike, there are a hundred (or more) people who start a workout program only to abandon the program within weeks or even days.  If only these people did something they ENJOYED, the theory is, they would find it easy and satisfying to keep regular exercise a part of their lives.

I don’t disagree with any of that.  Even the most time-crunched among us usually find or make time for what we truly crave.  Time management experts will sometimes claim that through truly efficient use of our time, we can always accommodate the activities that matter most to us.  Well, “efficiency” is another “E” word, but I am NOT writing a blog post about “E is for Efficiency.”  Instead, I’m going to advocate for deliberate inefficiency, all in the service of incorporating more exercise into my own life and into the life of anyone who wants to try this approach.

After all, exercise-efficiency experts argue that by being ultra-efficient in all areas of our lives, we can always include exercise in our schedules.  But extremes meet (hey, “extremes”!  another “e” word!) and by being inefficient, one can be surprisingly active.

Let me give an example.  In my old apartment building, I had to walk up and down three flights of stairs to get to the laundry room.  The more often I walked up and down, the more exercise I got.  So why not take the laundry down in batches?  Why make one trip up and down the stairs when two trips would provide a better workout?  Why make only two trips when three trips would make me feel like a super-athlete?  And as for making FOUR trips up and down stairs – well, after four trips, I feel ready for a gold medal from the Olympic Committee.

Think I’m kidding?  I’m not.

I enjoy feeling like a super-athlete; in fact, I enjoy that feeling immensely, although no one who observes my daily routine would see anything even remotely athletic about it.  So, by building inefficiency into my daily routine, I get to ENJOY the self-image I create by climbing stairs more often than I need to, walking more steps than I need to, and generally putting more effort into routine household chores than any efficiency expert would recommend.

An additional benefit to this workout regime is that it motivates me to actually do some housework, at least at those times when I want to polish my Olympic gold medalist self-image.

Could this approach of cultivated inefficiency work for you, also?  Or are you someone who takes the opposite approach of being so efficient that you have time in your day specifically set aside for a straightforward workout?  Either approach could work since, as noted above, extremes meet.