One of the most common excuses for people who avoid exercise is that they don't have time. We all know the old adage, "If you want something done, ask a busy person". However, there is a perception that healthy lifestyles take rather than make time. But it's an incorrect assumption that needs rectifying. Studies show that healthy employees are three times more productive than those in poor health¹. Few, if any, studies measure life's productivity overall, but why would one's productivity levels cease the moment that you walked out the workplace door? They wouldn't. If anything, they would be much more likely to increase. Consider your life if you were three times more productive overall. Something that would ordinarily take you nine hours to do, would now only take you three hours to complete. That's a potential extra six hours of free time every day (and it's certainly not going to take you that much time each day to attain and then maintain this level of health and fitness).

Workplace studies also show that employees who become fit and healthy demonstrate a dramatic decrease in both absenteeism and presenteeism (where an employee is physically at work, but under-performing due to complications arising from injury or illness). We can't just call in sick from our lives (as much as we would like to sometimes), but many of us actually spend a significant number of days living in a presenteeism state and not performing at our best. In fact, this process is now so firmly entrenched among so many that people think it is 'normal' to feel tired all the time, that it is 'normal' to suffer the 3 o'clock slump and it is 'normal' to experience daily food-cravings. These things are not normal – they are just symptoms of an unhealthy lifestyle, symptoms that can be treated and a disease that can be cured.

80% of all GP visits are, in fact, due to lifestyle factors. In terms of productivity, a UK Study found "Siesta Syndrome" (another name for the 3 o'clock slump) resulted in over 50% of people making mistakes at work during this time. The survey also revealed that 10% of people thought that they were over 90% less productive during this time². You'll also have more time if you are fit and healthy because you'll spend less time at the doctor's office. A 2001 Australian study revealed that obese workers were 28% more likely to have visited a GP in the previous two weeks than non-obese employees³. On a slightly more trivial, but no less time consuming task, it takes you much longer to shop for clothes and decide on what to wear when you are overweight than it does when you are not!

We also need to be mindful of some of the less heavily promoted benefits of a healthy living and how these can impact on our time management as well. Research shows that various forms of exercise actually help us to think more clearly⁴ and develop better sleep patterns. Consider how improvements in these factors would impact throughout your life. Would you like to think better, sleep better and feel better overall? Who wouldn't! Ask yourself if your life worth the investment in yourself? Everyone talks about working on your business rather than in your business, what about working on your life rather than just working in your life? The concept transcends. Investing the time to achieve a healthy life in a way that you can sustain forever is an investment in yourself and your future.

Climbing the corporate ladder is a long and arduous process. We need stamina. We need endurance. We need to be healthy. We need more time. We shouldn't think of a healthy lifestyle as something that takes time, it is something that makes time for us in so many ways, and not just on a daily basis. Ultimately, a healthy lifestyle means that you are much less likely to die an early death due to the myriad of diseases that an unhealthy lifestyle contributes to and, in the end, isn't that the greatest time giver of them all?

Sally Symonds is the author of "50 Steps to Lose 50kg . . . And Keep It Off" – the inspirational story of how she halved her weight and doubled her life. She is also the director of her own Healthy Life Mentoring business which specializes in helping people lose weight and attain a work/life balance in time-efficient ways. Sally offers an online healthy life club, individual mentoring sessions and workplace transformations.

Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 07 3278 4785 / 0417 727 625

Sally Symonds is a member of the Australian Women's Mentoring Network. Visit Sally's AWMN profile (login required).

1.  http://www.healthfutures.com.au/benefits.php
2.  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pure-water-and-employee-productivity-a-good-investment.html
3.  http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/aus/bulletin31/bulletin31.pdf
4. Tomporowski PD, Effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition, Acta Psychologica (Amst). 2003 Mar;112(3):297-324