How to Manage Your Energy – Part 1

I’ve found there to be an overemphasis on “time management.” There’s no shortage of books, products, tools, and apps that can help you use your time productively.

However, I say there seems to be so much focus on time management, but there is a piece that is often neglected, not on purpose, but because most don’t know about it. It’s something I call “energy management.”

Energy management means you understand the activities that personally bring you energy and those that drain your energy.

There are general activities that bring most people energy – things like sleep, exercise, healthy foods in an appropriate quantity, “Me time,” hanging out with good friends, etc.

Obviously, some general activities that drain your energy can be the reverse of the things I mentioned – lack of sleep and exercise, over-consumption of unhealthy foods, little to no “Me time,” spending time around negative people, etc.

There are other areas that are more personal. For example, for some, watching TV brings them energy, while it drains energy for others. Another example could be spending time with people; even positive people brings energy to some, while too much of it may drain energy for others.

It’s important to understand the activities that consume YOUR daily life so that you can begin to evaluate and do something about devoting more time for things that bring you energy and less time to things that drain your energy.

A few years ago, I took my retreat attendees through an exercise involving this that I’d like to share with you today. It includes a PDF download so that you can actually go through the exercise yourself as well.

Next week, I’m going to share the second part of this exercise with you. Today is the evaluation piece and next week will be the execution piece.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Again, your time is best spent on activities that bring you energy and less time should be spent on activities that drain your energy.

But first, you have to “get in the weeds” a little bit and see where you actually are. That’s what I had the ladies do at the retreat.

I gave them a worksheet where they recorded what they spend their time doing all day everyday. The sheet provided Monday through Sunday across the top and 15-minute increments of time down the left side.

Their job was to insert what they spend their time doing, from sleeping to eating to working to lounging and everything in between.

Next, I gave them two colored pencils: one green and one red. I asked them to color in all the activities they wrote in that bring them energy (in green) and drain their energy (in red).

For example, usually activities that bring you energy are those I shared in the beginning – they are those that not only bring you energy, but also bring you health, things like sleep, spending time with good friends, exercise, healthy eating, etc.

The activities that tend to drain your energy are usually those you don’t enjoy doing: for some that’s work-related obligations, wasted time on social media, hanging around negative family, friends, or co-workers, watching too much TV or the news, etc.

After they filled in all their activities in either green or red, I asked them to evaluate how they spend their time as if they were an observer. I like asking them to evaluate in this way, because oftentimes we are our worst critic and when we are asked to evaluate our own lives, it often leads to negative self-talk and a downward spiral that doesn’t lead to any solutions; rather we stay focused on the negative.

On the other hand, when you look at your schedule and how you spend your time from an observer’s eyes rather than your own, you are more likely to not be so judgmental; instead you’re better able to look at it objectively and therefore come up with solutions rather than just focusing on the problems.

I gave them some time to jot down notes as an observer:

• What general observations do you notice about how _____ spends her time?
• At a glance, how much green versus red is on the page?
• Anything else you observe?

If you’re interested in doing this exercise, you can download the PDF of the timetable I gave my retreat attendees here and fill in what you spend your time doing and then fill in the activities that bring you energy in green and drain your energy in red.

Remember, next week, I’ll be sharing the second part of this exercise and what you can do with your schedule that will help you take it a step further so that you can begin to create a life that has as many green activities and as few red activities as possible.

Can’t wait to share them with you.

Until then, go ahead and download and print out your timetable and fill in your green and red activities.

It’s your turn to take care of you,

 

 

 

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