One of the biggest challenges of living a healthy lifestyle is that it takes time. We live in a time-poor world, with many people suffering from “busy disease” — endlessly rushing between work, parenting, social commitments, and screens. Some are genuinely too busy to find time for health, while others struggle to prioritise it.

The sad truth is this: if you don’t make time for health now, illness will force you to make time later.

Forging Out Time

The word  forging  is a good fit. When metal is forged, it takes heat, energy, and effort. The same is true for our time. We give so much of ourselves to jobs, families, technology, and social life that exercise, cooking, and sleep often fall to the bottom of the list.

This is why you need to literally  forge out time  in your calendar. It doesn’t mean spending ten hours a week on a strict plan — it means being realistic about what time you  do  have, dedicating it to your health, and protecting it like gold dust.

If you don’t, the body eventually enforces its own schedule. You’ll be forced to take time off — not to flourish, but to recover, simply to get back to zero. When you’re healthy, the time you have is a gift to build on. When you’re unwell, the best you can hope for is to claw your way back to baseline.

Where You Need to Make Time

Exercise

Move your body daily — whether walking, resistance training, or high-intensity intervals. Aim for at least 30 minutes, five days a week. Regular exercise reduces the risk of death from all causes by around 20–30% and is consistently linked with longer life expectancy. It protects your heart, lowers the chance of stroke and high blood pressure, and helps regulate blood sugar.

Exercise also supports weight management, reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and strengthens the immune system, making infections and chronic inflammation less likely. Mentally, it lowers rates of depression and anxiety, improves resilience to stress, and is one of the most effective tools we have for emotional regulation. It even helps protect your brain as you age, slowing cognitive decline and reducing the risk of dementia.

On the other hand, being sedentary does the opposite. It increases the likelihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, faster cognitive decline, and even preventable cancers.

Cooking

Give yourself an hour each evening to cook a real meal from real food — and ideally to share it with others.

Home-cooked meals, made from whole or minimally processed ingredients, are consistently linked with healthier weight, better diet quality, and reduced risk of chronic disease. Cooking for yourself means eating more vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nutrients that the body actually needs, while consuming less sugar, sodium, and unhealthy fats.

People who cook more often report better psychological well-being, and the act of preparing and sharing food creates connection and social benefit that eating out of a package cannot match.

By contrast, diets high in ultra-processed foods — ready meals, packaged snacks, sugary drinks — are linked with weight gain, obesity, higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and several types of cancer, particularly colorectal and breast cancer. These diets are also associated with higher rates of depression and poor mood, partly through inflammation and effects on the gut microbiome.

Sleeping

Protect eight hours in bed every night.

When you average less than six hours of sleep, the risks compound quickly. Mortality risk increases by around 15%, and if you already have heart disease or diabetes, the risk of dying from these conditions can double or even triple. People who sleep less than six hours are more likely to develop atherosclerosis (plaque in the arteries), high blood pressure, coronary disease, and stroke.

Sleep deprivation disrupts hormones that control hunger and satiety, raising the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. It also weakens the immune system, lowering antibody production and making infections more likely. People who regularly sleep under six hours are more than twice as likely to report frequent mental distress compared to those who get enough rest.

Mentally, short sleep drives up rates of depression and anxiety, impairs memory and concentration, and can cut productivity in half. It also makes accidents and errors far more likely — whether on the road, at work, or in everyday life.

By contrast, seven to eight hours of sleep each night strengthens immunity, lowers disease risk, supports emotional balance, and preserves cognitive performance.

Final Thoughts

Understanding the impact of these three behaviours — sleeping, moving, and cooking — is crucial for motivation. If you know  why  they matter, you’ll be far more likely to carve out the time to do them.

At the end of the day, the choice is simple: forge out time for health now, or wait until illness forces you to.