A daily diary investigation of the impact of work stress on exercise intention realisation: can planning overcome the disruptive influence of work?

Using the theoretical context of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study examined whether work has a disruptive influence on people's ability to carry out their daily intentions to exercise, and whether daily planning helps overcome this. A daily questionnaire was completed by 42 employees for 14 days. A brief daily planning intervention was administered to half of the employees. Multilevel modelling was used to analyse the data. The moderating effects of daily perceived behavioural control (PBC), job demands and work-related anxiety and depression on the relationship between intention to exercise and subsequent behaviour were investigated, as well as the impact of the intervention. Intention and PBC predicted exercise. Job demands appeared to disrupt people's ability to carry out their daily exercise intentions. Contrary to expectation, people in the no intervention group were more likely to exercise. Furthermore, on low-demand days they were most successful in realising their exercise intentions (when they intended to exercise for longer), whereas people in the intervention group, on high-demand days were least successful in realising their exercise intentions. The intervention may have operated contrary to expectation by drawing attention to potential failure.