Manage Your Energy; It's What Matters Most

Today, I’d like to encourage you to manage your energy by working towards high energy levels.

This is related to my last post about what to focus on first. 

So, let’s talk about…

In your life, there are probably days when you just breeze through tasks and surprise yourself with your level of productivity. 💪

And then there are the other days…

• when everything takes much longer than expected,
• when you find it hard to be creative or to tackle any challenging task,
• when, instead of working on your priorities, you eventually resort to doing grunt work for the remainder of the day (here’s what to do when you’re too tired to work). 😞
  

Why are you sometimes able to squeeze five hours of work into one whereas, at other times, the ratio is inverse?

It’s because time isn’t everything. Or rather, it’s not the sole indicator that matters.

A quote that is generally attributed to Albert Einstein explains this rather nicely: “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.”

When it comes to our general productivity, we could proclaim (à la the 1992 Clinton campaign): “It’s the energy, stupid!”

Or, to be a bit more nuanced, we might say that…

In a 2007 Harvard Business Review article, Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy encouraged the reader to manage energy, not time. 

They diagnosed: “The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story.”

Your energy, which is composed of your emotional and physiological state (among other things) influences what you are capable of at any given moment.

Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr described it this way in their book The Power of Full Engagement: “Performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy.”

So, let’s talk about…

Thankfully, there are things you can do to be in an energetic state. These include getting enough sleep, downtime, and exercise, as well as focusing on good nutrition.

If you don't get enough sleep, you might also want to check out my Podcast interview with my good friend Sondra Kornblatt from Restful Insomnia.

Grab a pen and paper. 📝Then, take a moment to go through the following process.

(If you want to get the most out of this or if you're afraid of getting stuck, get the "Taking Action Worksheets" and begin by filling those out.)

• What are five things that drain your energy?
  Examples might include: binging on Netflix, overworking, not moving enough during the day, not drinking enough water, drinking too much coffee or consuming too much sugar (only to have your energy crash after a short burst of energy), talking to people who are being super-negative, watching the news for a long time etc.
  
  
• What are five things that nourish your energy?
  Examples include: getting enough sleep, meditating, exercising, deep breathing, going for a walk, being out in nature, talking to friends or loved ones, taking a short nap, taking regular breaks.
  
  
• Pick one thing from these two lists that you want to change.
  For instance, you might decide that you want to drink more water.
  
  
• Pick one small action you can take to get started on that.
  For instance, if you want to drink more water, you might decide to take a refillable water bottle with you everywhere you go. (Unless you are someplace where the tap water isn’t safe to drink, please don’t buy bottled water. It’s bad for your wallet and the environment. Instead, invest in a good water filter.)

If you want to connect to your passion and purpose (as well as getting to a place where you really love your work), learn how to manage your own energy.

It’s much easier to take action or feel passionate when you’re full of energy.