Manage your energy, not your time

How to Manage Your Energy to Do Your Best Work and Feel Fulfilled

When you’re running on empty, you feel distracted, disconnected, and even frustrated. We’ve all been there, slogging through the days to try to get it all done, and still falling short. You don’t have energy left for the things that matter most. 

The problem is, it’s easy to get swept up in what pulls on our attention rather than consciously choosing where we want to invest our energy. You may constantly be busy, but you may not feel fulfilled.

“There's a really big difference between achievement and fulfillment,” says Molly Fletcher in the course Achieving More through Smart Energy Management. 
By proactively managing your energy, you can get closer to fulfillment—to show up as your best self at work and have energy for the people and the activities that matter most in your life.

Try these three simple—yet powerful—steps to masterfully manage your energy so you can better connect with and serve the people who matter most, whether it’s your teams and your customers, or friends and family. 

#1 Give yourself an energy audit

Step one is to check in with yourself through an “energy audit,” as Fletcher calls it. Ask yourself the following questions.

• What are the things that give you energy? These are things that fill you up and that make you feel good. Everyone is different, but this may be taking a morning walk with your dog or getting in a creative flow while running or writing. It could be quality time with family, with colleagues, or with a spiritual practice—anything that boosts your energy. 
• What are the things that are neutral? Fletcher describes this category as activities that don't necessarily lift you up, but that don’t drain you either. Think of things like tidying your desk or responding to emails—necessary tasks that are a natural part of how you show up at work and in life. 
• What are the things that drain your energy? For some people, it may be administrative meetings, writing reports, or handling the operational side of a business, like bookkeeping and accounting—the stuff you dread, that feels exhausting.

Everyone is different, so there are no wrong or right answers here! It’s about figuring out what works and what doesn’t work for you as an individual. 

#2 Protect your energy boosters

Once you’ve done an audit, be intentional about protecting those things that boost your energy. You can block off time and add those activities to your calendar to help make them a part of your daily life. 

As Fletcher explains, “If we’re not intentional about protecting the things that give us energy, we don’t do them, and over time, that leads to burnout. It leads to chasing the wrong stuff.” And that’s when we end up not showing up as our best selves. 

The goal is to do more of the things that boost your energy and less of those things that drain it. And that means having the discipline to say “no” to what drains you. 

“With the clarity around the things that lift you up, it gives you the confidence, the courage, and the discipline to say no to something,” says Fletcher. She thinks of it this way: “When I'm saying no to something, I'm saying yes to the things that matter most.”

#3 Don’t let yourself reach empty

A big part of managing your energy is doing more of what fills you up and less of what drains you. But strategic timing of those same activities also plays a role. 

Let’s say you have an energy drainer—the dreaded administrative meeting—on your calendar for 2pm. Rather than going into it with an empty tank, think about how you can refuel immediately prior. 

Go for a brisk walk outside, take 20 minutes to read your book, or schedule a coffee break with a colleague—anything from your ‘energy booster’ list that lifts you up a little bit in advance of those draining moments. 

And remember: put it on your calendar and protect it!

How to start managing your energy and not your time

Think that managing your personal energy would work better for you than time management? Here are five steps you can use to start managing your energy instead of your time.

1. Start by setting your boundaries

No one knows your energy limits better than you. By setting boundaries for yourself, you simultaneously protect your energy levels and motivate yourself to achieve your goals.

Greg McKeown covers this extensively in his book Effortless. He explains that you can create boundaries for how little or how much you want to accomplish in a specific day, depending on your priorities.

For example, let’s say your priority on a given day is to develop a story for a magazine as a journalist. You can decide never to conduct fewer than one, or more than four, interviews in a single workday.

Setting these boundaries for yourself can help you stay accountable for your goals while helping to prevent burnout. You have some room to adapt depending on how much energy you have in a day.

And you can still stay on track, even on days when energy may be low. There’s always the next day to get more done.

Keep in mind that you may need to adjust those boundaries over time.

For instance, if you find that one interview a day is too little time to keep your momentum, you may decide to increase it to two.

You could also find that you’re capable of increasing your maximum number of interviews per day without feeling burnt out. On the other hand, you may find it necessary to decrease your numbers too.

Perhaps three interviews are as much as you’re able to take, even on the best of days. Or maybe one interview over a two-day period is enough to keep the momentum going for your work.

2. Include rest and recovery in your plans

When managing your energy, it’s important to think about downtime and recovery. These shouldn’t be an afterthought. Instead, they should be planned out so that they’re part of your schedule.

While it’s true that recovery takes up valuable time that could be otherwise used to work on tasks, it’s an invaluable part of a routine for high-performing people.

Time isn’t what matters most when you’re concentrating and focusing on managing your energy. Instead, your energy levels are what matter the most. There’s a reason why leaders like Buffet and Gates schedule downtime in their days.

When you give yourself time to rest, you’ll replenish your energy levels and become more productive when you’re back at work. You’ll also improve your well-being and experience more positive emotions if you’re rested.Because of its benefits, rest and recovery can be an important part of mental fitness.

Keep in mind that it’s important to add this rest and recovery time directly into your schedule. This is important if you tend to get distracted by work.

Treat your rest and recovery time just like you would a doctor’s appointment. Even if you’re running behind on other tasks, resist the temptation to work during your scheduled recovery time.

3. Schedule time for deep and inner work

There may be days where you’ll need to attend meetings back-to-back. But doing this over the long-term isn’t sustainable if you want to accomplish great work. This is why scheduling designated time for deep work is important.

Deep work is an uninterrupted period when you can fully focus on high-impact work.
Deep work requires a lot of energy, but you can be much more productive when you’re fully focused on what you’re doing. Make sure to schedule your deep work at a time when your energy is highest.Here’s an example. If you have more mental energy in the morning, try scheduling a two-hour block for deep work before lunch.

The length of time you’ll need for deep work should depend on your energy. For instance, if you find yourself exhausted after doing deep work for three hours or more, make sure to protect your energy by scheduling in shorter periods.Remember that you need to manage your energy to have some left over for the rest of your day. Longer hours won’t always mean better deep work.

In addition, you should also set time apart in your day to do inner work. When we typically think of work, what we are thinking of is outer work, such as work tasks. In contrast, inner work explores our inner world and personal experiences.Though it does require energy, inner work is important for understanding ourselves. By learning more about ourselves, we can better manage our energy levels. Therapy and coaching can teach us how to do inner work.

4. Keep a journal of your energy levels

Unlike time, energy isn’t a constant. Everyone has 24 hours in a single day. But energy levels will vary from person to person and from day to day. This is true for emotional energy, physical energy, and mental energy.

There are several factors that will influence how much energy you have.
To help you better manage your energy and get more done, keep a journal of what energizes you and drains you. You can track these elements in your work life and personal life. This can include:

1. How much sleep you get

1. Your diet

1. The frequency of your breaks

1. Who you spend your time with

1. Physical activity (or lack thereof)

1. Types of tasks you perform

You can track what gives you negative emotions as well. Managing negative emotions can take up a lot of your energy.Keeping a journal will serve several purposes to help you manage your energy. First, you’ll become more aware of what you can realistically accomplish, depending on what your day looks like.

Here’s an example. Let’s say teamwork takes up a lot of energy for you compared to solo work. After too long in a team, you begin to have difficulty concentrating.
If you have several tasks that require teamwork in your day, you’ll know that you need to schedule more breaks and take it easy for the rest of the day. This will make sure that you can be productive during your teamwork.

Second, you can make changes in your lifestyle to maximize your energy levels. For example, if you find that doing exercise energizes you, then you can schedule more time to work on your physical health every morning.And if you discover that long and infrequent breaks don’t work for you, you can take shorter, regular breaks instead.

Keeping a journal can also help you keep a pulse on your core values. What do you really value and want to spend energy on?

5. Learn to delegate

Once you know what energizes you and what drains you, you can better plan your day to make the most of your energy.One of the things you can do to improve your energy management is to delegate when you can. This is also good to develop your leadership skills.

You won’t always be in a position to delegate. There are some tasks that you’ll be required to do at work, no matter what, especially if you have an entry-level position.However, you can discuss with your colleagues to see if they have energy needs that complement yours.

For example, let’s say you work in quality assurance and bug regression drains your energy. If you have a colleague who gets energized by bug regression, you may be able to delegate to that person and help them with other aspects of their work that drain them instead.

Manage your energy, not your time, and become more fulfilled at work
By managing your energy instead of your time, you can not only become more productive but also more fulfilled in your work.You’re in a better position to accomplish your goals when you’re not overworked and exhausted.