We all know the feeling. Feeling stressed out with cramming all of these exams, assignments, papers, and other work within your day. It gets hard planning a schedule around those things. Now, what if you also have a job on top of that? It seems impossible to find any “me time” with all of your priorities. For many college students, fitness is an outlet for them to escape those priorities.

However, having a busy college lifestyle plays a huge factor in the reason why students have a difficult time implicating fitness within their day. Everybody’s schedules differ from each other, but the struggle is common, so you’re not alone in this. There are a variety of ways that you can squeeze in time for fitness in your day, but the key is going to be finding a strategy that works for you and your needs. Scroll down to read 5 tips on how to balance fitness and college.

1. Maximize Your Time at the Gym 

Sometimes, you are only going to have a small window of time within your day that can be used to work out. Let’s say you have 2 hours before your next class starts, okay that’s great. 2 hours gives you plenty of time to have a good solid workout, freshen up, and even grab a quick snack. If you have the time, use it. Maximizing your gym time can help you have shorter and more effective workouts. I took the time to interview Sebastian Ponce, a student at Northern Illinois University. He works 5 days a week while also being in college full-time.

Ponce mentioned that if he’s in a time crunch, he will do something that can be done quickly, like a HIIT or cardio workout. “Something that can just get me in and out and still feel active,” he says. There is a lot that you can accomplish in an hour, it’s just important to remember to use your time wisely.

According to the Public School of Health at Harvard, a higher-intensity 30-minute workout can be just as beneficial as your traditional hour-long workout. Doing specific workouts maximizes your time at the gym, but another piece of advice is to make sure you are utilizing this time efficiently. This can mean lifting a bit lighter than usual so that you can shorten your rest time in between reps.

2. Use Your Resources

Many people don’t realize there are ways to be active without taking time out of their day to go to a gym. This might look different for everyone, but using your resources could be riding a bike to your classes or maybe riding a skateboard or a scooter. If those do not interest you, you can try to take the long route to class and walk. Another way to use your resources, and I cannot stress this enough, is to work out in your dorm and at home. Home Workouts are a great thing to take advantage of, if you have the space for them. If you’re finding it hard to make that trip to the gym, go on YouTube and find a workout that is tailored to what you’d like to do. There are hundreds of workouts that range from beginner to expert.

If a full workout isn’t your cup of tea, meditation is another good way of staying fit and healthy while also helping you keep a good peace of mind. Especially for college students, focused meditation can be paired with your studies to help you on your college journey. Potential benefits that come from this form of meditation are that it can help improve your attention span, your memory, and your mental health. Adding meditation to your usual self-care routine can relieve stress, but it is overall a good way to help you retain mindfulness, which is vital to have in college and your fitness routines.

3. Make It a Schedule Until It Becomes a Habit 

Remember, trust the process. The 21/90 rule tells us that it takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days to make it a part of your lifestyle. Dr. Jodie Horton, chief wellness advisor for Love Wellness says: “The most important thing is to stay positive throughout your journey”. Any progress is progress even if it’s small. So, if you only have time to work out 2 days a week, that’s totally okay! A helpful way to fit gym time into your day is to treat it as another class. In that way, it helps you to prioritize time to be active.

After interviewing Susan Stulas, a group fitness instructor, I asked her about the importance of repetition to add on a new fitness habit. She says that repetition keeps her in routine. She also mentions that when making your schedule, “Make one that will work for you and not make you feel defeated. Once you’ve established something that works, slowly add in more or take out some, whatever you feel you need to do, and take it one day at a time”. Staying motivated in your fitness journey is going to be crucial in this transition of getting into the routine. Part of this will be to allow yourself to be okay with having off days. If you need a break from working out to get your motivation back, take the time. Splitting up your time to leave room for breaks is going to help you avoid work overload. If you are overwhelmed, you won’t be able to put 100% into your work and it leaves a lot more room for error.