Do you want to walk 10,000 steps a day but do not know when you can do it? Then you almost certainly are taking an all-or-nothing approach to your goal, and it is this approach that is stopping you from achieving your goal. The workaround is to break your day into chunks of time and walk some number of steps during each chunk. This article helps you to identify those chunks of time.
You can use any or all of the following chunks of time to contribute toward your goal of walking 10K steps/day during a workday,
no matter whether you are employed or you see your volunteer efforts as a workday.
UPON WAKING: You may find that this is the biggest chunk of time that you can find for walking during your workday. Turn off the TV set and go to bed a little earlier so that you can rise a little earlier and devote that freed time to walking.
AFTER BREAKFAST: Try walking for a few minutes with your family right after breakfast. This might only be five or ten minutes, but every chunk of time helps!
AFTER MORNING SHOWER: Okay, so you might not want to perspire too much once you have had your morning shower, but you can still take a few hundred steps toward your goal. In fact, you probably are taking those steps anyway and simply do not realize it. Be sure that you are wearing your pedometer or step counter throughout your day, and those after-morning-shower steps WILL get counted toward your daily goal!
FROM HOME TO WORK: This could be a logistical nightmare for you. But do the math: If you are fortunate enough to be able to walk from home to work in twenty minutes or so, then try it!
RESTROOM BREAKS: Pick the farthest restroom from your work area. Time your round-trip walk to and from that restroom. Multiply by the number of breaks you take in one workday, and you may be surprised at how much time you contribute toward your daily goal.
LUNCHTIME: This could be a winner for you in three ways. Take part of your lunchtime to walk, and you have added the minutes -- and therefore the steps -- toward your goal. Invite your lunch companions to join you, and you have encouraged others to pursue better health and have probably strengthened work relationships in the process.
CONFERENCE CALLS: Unless you have to stare at a computer screen throughout a conference call, you can attend it with a cellphone or with a cordless headset that talks to your desk telephone. And check this out: Attending just one hour-long call per workday in this way could take you 80% toward your daily goal.
WALKING MEETINGS: If you meet with your boss or others in person, ask them whether you can walk together for some or all of the meeting. Besides contributing significantly toward your daily goal, you might find that those walking meetings are more productive because attendees are more energized from the walks.
TREADMILL-DESK TIME: If your work situation and your budget (or company's budget) can afford this, then this could be the simplest way to reach -- and even exceed -- your 10K-steps/day walking goal each workday.
FROM WORK TO HOME: As with walking from home to work, this might not be for you. But suppose you can. Your home-to-work duration plus work-to-home duration could contribute significantly toward your walking 10K steps/day.
BEFORE DINNER: After you get home, walking before dinner could let you walk off the day's frustrations and let you contribute ten to thirty minutes toward your daily goal.
AFTER DINNER: Walking after dinner, which should be the lightest meal of the day anyway, can be another big contributor toward your 10K-steps/day goal. Try it with one or more family members, and you could have a win-win-win: steps for you, steps for your family member(s), and stronger family ties.
There you have it: thirteen chunks of time that you can mix and match to reach your 10K-steps/day walking goal. Given that most people can reach this goal in about one hour and fifteen minutes, you probably will not need all of these to walk 10K steps/day.
