When life gets hectic, exercise is usually the first thing we scratch off the to-do list. Yet this is the time when we need exercise the most. It helps to ease stress and burns the extra calories from a mindless meal or unplanned snack. Don’t give up on exercise all together. Breaking your workout into short sessions that you squeeze in throughout the day adds up. While 30 minutes of exercise daily is recommended to improve health, a vigorous 10-minute session can blast calories and keep you on track when life gets crazy.

At the gym

If your gym is conveniently located, a quick stop is worth it. Queue up your favorite song and hop on a spin bike. Vigorously cycling for 10 minutes burns 119 calories. For a full body workout, hop on the rowing machine where you’ll burn just a little less at 100 calories for the same amount of time.

In your living room

Grab your favorite kickboxing video and commit to 10 minutes, or keep it simple and jump rope at a moderate pace to burn 120 calories. Pick a few of your favorite strength and cardio exercises and alternate between them for a 10 minutes circuit training session to burn 93 calories. Even just turning on music and doing a little hip hop dancing will burn 60 calories.

In the yard

Don’t discard seasonal yard work as part of your daily exercise. It keeps you moving and burns calories. Rake leaves for 10 minutes, and you’ll burn 44 calories. Manually trimming shrubs and trees burns 40 calories. Once the snow falls and you start shoveling, you can burn 66 calories in 10 minutes.

Around the neighborhood

A quick run around the neighborhood at a 10 minute per mile pace will burn 120 calories. Switch to roller blades and enjoy the crisp fall air to blast 146 calories. If you have access to stairs, walking up them for 10 minutes will burn 93 calories.

*Calories burned are based on a 150 pound female.

Lori Rice, M.S., is a nutritional scientist and author with a passion for healthy cooking, exercise physiology, and food photography.