It’s difficult to overstate the significance of exercising for health and longevity. Besides its positive effects on body composition, regular exercise lowers the risk of cardiovascular risk, reduces stress, improves mood, staves off dementia, and helps with chronic pain, according to Harvard Health--all of which are central to the promotion of a long and healthy life. M. D. Peter Attia goes so far as to claim that “nothing comes close to having a greater impact on the length and quality of your life than your training.”

None of this is news. But while the positive effects of exercise are widely appreciated,  less than a third of US adults are hitting basic exercise benchmarks, with nearly half saying that they are too busy to fit exercise into their daily routine.

If you fall in that half and would like to develop an exercise habit, this article is for you.

Here are two evidence-based ways to build an exercise habit as a busy professional.

1. Remove friction

In a 1981 study, researchers extended the closing time of elevator doors from 10 seconds to over 30 seconds. This simple change prompted individuals to opt for the stairs instead of waiting.

Dr. Wendy Wood, a research psychologist at the University of Southern California, identifies this as a prime example of "friction." It illustrates how minor inconveniences can influence behavior and impede habit formation. By removing such obstacles, we can facilitate the development of habits that stick.

We can apply this example to other aspects of our life where small inconveniences impact our behaviors and get in the way of habit development. When we clear the obstacles that stand in our way, it’s a lot easier to make habits that actually stick.

Here are some examples of how to reduce friction in the case of exercise:

• Automatically schedule workouts in your calendar. With Basis, which analyzes your calendar and daily energy levels, you can find available and optimal times for you to exercise, and block them in your calendar. This removes the friction of having to manually figure these things out, as well as the friction of manually scheduling workout sessions in your calendar.

• Automate contingency plans. Habits are often broken because things come up--last-minute meetings, personal emergencies, and so on. These can interfere with your scheduled workouts. With an app like Basis, you can remove the friction of having to  manually make contingency workout plans in the case of an emergency. When something that interferes with your workout plans comes up, Basis automatically scans the rest of your day and finds the next best time for you to work out.

• Automate workout ideas. You had planned to go for a walk to get some cardio in, but now the forecast says that it’s going to rain. What do you do? Having to figure that out is an extra barrier to your exercise routine. You can remove that blocker with Basis, which tracks changes in the weather and makes alternative exercise suggestions when these changes affect your workout plans.

2. Make it daily

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Research emphasizes the importance of repetition in habit formation. The idea is simple: the more you repeat something, the more likely you’ll develop a habit of doing it.

The idea can be applied in the context of exercise. You can make it your goal to get some exercise in--to repeat exercising--daily. This way you never have to restart the habit, something which is psychologically difficult to do.

Daily exercise doesn’t have to mean going to the gym every day of the week if that’s not realistic for you. It only means getting some form of exercise daily. This could be:

• Doing a set of push ups in the morning or before bed.  Or whatever your favorite exercise is--jumping jacks, air squats, etc. If you’re looking for quick workout ideas, Basis can analyze your health data and come up with suggestions that are tailored to your body and health goals.

• Going for a short walk. This could be a break from work or as part of an errand, like walking to the grocery store and carrying groceries home. Basis can automatically schedule activities that get you moving in your calendar, by analyzing your day and energy levels and identifying the optimal time to get these in.

Whatever you do, you are repeating the same kind of activity--exercising--every day. And the more you repeat it, the more likely it is that you’ll get in the habit of doing it as part of your routine.

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