How to Start a Daily Exercise Habit You Can Stick To

I often hear from clients who have given up on regular exercise because they don’t have the time or the energy remaining by the end of the workday. Europeans manage to incorporate movement into their daily routines, walking or cycling to work and errands. Most of us living in urban areas of the U.S. don’t really have the option to ride a bike to work due to long commutes and traffic-congested roads.

Many of us feel fortunate to have even 30 minutes available for physical exercise that goes beyond the essentials of washing the dishes, taking out the trash, or picking up the mail. Particularly during the cold weather months in the northern U.S., we gravitate toward the gym to get some daily exercise. But since gyms aren’t accessible or affordable for everyone, we need more ways to create an exercise habit and keep it real.

Many Motivations

By now, everyone has heard of the benefits of daily exercise for physical and emotional well-being: improved strength and energy level; prevention of diabetes, heart disease, and dementia; relief of symptoms of depression and anxiety; better sleep, focus, and productivity. I’m assuming no one needs more reasons to exercise. Maybe we just need more ways to make it a habit.

There are numerous different blocks to getting more regular exercise, not the least of which is the difficulty of just getting started. To address as many of these hurdles as possible, the following are 12 tips for starting a daily exercise habit. These are based upon a combination of ideas from habit formation specialist James Clear and basic principles of behavior modification.

12 Actionable Tips

1. Set easy short-term goals. Start by planning for 10 minutes of exercise per day. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has shown that his minimal amount of activity can help save lives, particularly for adults over age 40.
2. Find an activity that you can enjoy. Possibilities include: walking outdoors, riding a bike, dancing in your home, lifting weights, and kickboxing. If taking a walk bores you, maybe listen to a podcast while you walk.
3. Reward yourself each day you meet your goal during the first week. This is basic behavior modification. A behavior you reward is more likely to be repeated. Choose a healthy and harmless reward, anything from giving yourself a pat on the back to having a square of dark chocolate. After the first week, you might raise the standard for getting your reward.
4. Ask a friend, partner, or spouse to join you. Even if they’re only available sometimes, their involvement adds a social support element to the new routine.
5. Join a class if you benefit from added structure and group support. Many community centers offer classes for yoga, dance, or martial arts.
6. Be specific when setting up your new routine. Think through the when and where of the new activity so that it’s realistic and more likely to happen. Rather than planning to “walk tomorrow,” plan to “walk through the neighborhood at 5 PM tomorrow.”
7. Use habit stacking, as explained by James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits. Tie the new behavior to an existing routine behavior. For example, 10 minutes of exercise might occur before your evening meal. The time of the meal doesn’t have to be consistent; the sequence of the events is what matters.
8. Use time as your cue if your schedule is very consistent from day to day. As an example, 6 PM might be your time for daily exercise. Unless there’s a life-threatening emergency, you know what you’ll do at 6 PM.
9. Set up physical cues. If your routine is to go to the gym, consider leaving your gym shoes by the doorway or a water bottle where you’ll see them when it’s time to go.
10. Believe in your ability to meet your goal. This is much easier if your first goal is easy for you. You can gradually build the level of challenge or the time spent exercising if you’d like.
11. Be flexible in terms of the outcome you’re seeking. Maybe you started the new routine hoping to lose weight and became discouraged when that didn’t happen. Another desirable outcome, such as gaining strength, might replace the original weight loss goal and serve as the new motivator.
12. Forgive yourself on the days when it doesn’t happen. Being 100 percent consistent daily and month after month is highly unlikely, except for those addicted to exercise, and that’s a different problem. When you miss a day, just set your intent to resume the exercise the next day.

Final Thoughts

One of the greatest hurdles to starting any new routine is the self-doubt that creeps up on you: "Will I stick to it, or will this just be an exercise in frustration?" These tips are designed to make it as easy as possible to get started on whatever exercise goals you set for yourself. Once the exercise becomes routine, maintenance is often easier than we think it will be due to its naturally rewarding nature.