Managing your Energy

POST 9

Welcome to the ninth Post and the end of Week 3!

A more traditional approach would mean this post might be called ‘Managing your Time’, but time isn’t ‘managable’. We all have 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week – it passes by at the same steady rate for everyone, and no amount of ‘management’ can change that…. at least not unless you reach the speed of light!

It therefore pays great dividends to turn your attention to, and manage, your energy and your actions. In post 3 there were some tools for building up your energy reserves – breathing consciously, drinking more water to hydrate yourself, getting plenty of sleep and eating healthily. Today is all about ensuring you are able to use those reserves in ways that best serve you and your goals.
Napoleon Hill, in Think and Grow Rich, has some pointed words and sage advice to offer about this subject, in the Principle he calls ‘Budget your Time and Money’.
• Tell me how you use your time and how you spend your money and I will tell you where and what you’ll be in ten years from now.
• Take regular inventory of yourself to learn how and where you are spending your time and money.
• The secret of getting things done is: DO IT NOW!
• Time is too precious to be wasted on arguments and discontent.
• Some mistakes can be corrected, but not the mistake of wasting time. When time is gone, it’s gone forever.
Time and energy are just like money in one respect – if you don’t keep an eye on where you’re spending it, it will run through your fingers with nothing to show for it.
If we waste our time, then we are wasting our life!
This post is about giving you the means to ‘take regular inventory’ of how you spend your energy, your time, and your life.

TASK

For the purpose of this task you can purchase the Energy Management Sheets or make notes in your journal. Carry out the following points so that you can build your awareness about what is happening – or is not happening – in your life.
• Record how you spend your time, in as much detail as possible, throughout the next days and weeks.
• Because this is more about managing energy than time, remember to note how you feel as well.
• Are your activities draining or energising? Would changing your perspective on certain activities have a better effect on you? For example – housework?
Perspective A: I hate housework, it’s boring – you have to do it again by the time you’ve finished it.
Perspective B: I enjoy the process of cleaning my home; using the time to listen to something uplifting, whilst appreciating the things I am cleaning. And I feel great when I’ve finished, as there’s a fresh flow of energy about the place, which helps to clear my mind and gives me a sense of space.
Keep a log of your time and energy expenditure for the next few weeks. You’ll be revisiting this later in the Blog – in the meantime use the notes you make straight away to start planning and streamlining your energy use.

What am I looking for?

Your time and energy is used up in three major ways:
• Things you HAVE to do.
• Things you CHOOSE to do.
• Things you do because OTHER PEOPLE want you to.

Analysing your Energy Management

Think about the things you feel that you have to do – maybe going to work, feeding the kids, shopping, cleaning the car… the list can seem endless. How many of those things can you, with some conscious thought and appreciation, shift into the group of things you choose to do?
Remember that choice empowers you and puts you in the driving seat, whereas the ‘having to’ dynamic feels more like it’s dragging you reluctantly after it.
Almost everything you have to do will have a satisfactory outcome at the end of it, and can be made a choice. What remains can be turned into routines and rituals that are so automatic that you barely spend any ‘energy’ at all doing them.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, who’s first Principle I gave you in the third post, have another on this very subject:

“Positive energy rituals – highly specific routines for managing energy – are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.”

They expand on this as follows:

“We use the word “ritual” purposefully to emphasize the notion of a carefully defined, highly structured behavior. In contrast to will and discipline, which require pushing yourself to a particular behavior, a ritual pulls at you. Think of something as simple as brushing your teeth. It is not something that you ordinarily have to remind yourself to do. Brushing your teeth is something to which you feel consistently drawn, compelled by its clear health value. You do it largely on automatic pilot, without much conscious effort or intention. The power of rituals is that they insure that we use as little conscious energy as possible where it is not absolutely necessary, leaving us free to strategically focus the energy available to us in creative, enriching ways.” Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement

Another way to analyse how your day is spent is to use the Time Management Matrix devised by Steven Covey as part of his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit 3 is “Put First Things First”, which involves prioritising your ‘to dos’ and sorting them into four groups.
Covey’s Matrix forces us to decide which of our activities are important or unimportant, and which are urgent, and which not urgent. You’ll find a free download on the resources page that gives you a blank matrix and explains how to use it.

Choosing Well

Having increased the list of activities that you choose to undertake, ensure that you are making good choices! You can ‘choose’ to buy a takeaway and sit on the sofa in front of the TV all evening, but would your new conscious and aware self really call that a ‘good’ choice? An evening out with friends and foods that support who you are now would be better.
When making those choices, bear in mind Loehr and Swartz’s second Principle:

“Because Energy Diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.”

‘Balance’ is the key word here. You have to rest and replenish your energy, but too little activity can be as tiring as too much. That’s why a note of how you feel at the beginning and end of each day is important for monitoring how you are truly affected by what you do. If you’re being drained of time and energy by poor choices, it’s time to change your routine.

‘Have to’ or Choice? There’s only one answer!

The next group to deal with, are those you have done because other people have asked you to do.
Review those activities as you note them down – if you’ve genuinely chosen to help a friend, do the school run, or eat what your partner wants to eat then that activity is in the right group. If you resent time spent on this group, if you have missed important opportunities because of it, or if you are not being true to yourself, then consider carefully why you choose to spend your time and energy here. Do you have trouble saying no?

You know what is good for you – balance your time and energy – give great service to others when you can – learn to say no when you suffer from it.

“The quality of the service rendered, plus the quantity of the service rendered, plus the mental attitude in which it was rendered, equals your compensation” Napoleon Hill.

Mind the Gap

Unless you are highly organised and efficient, there will be gaps in your energy log – they will result either from your being really busy, or perhaps from procrastination. How true is the saying ‘procrastination is the thief of time’? Just ‘getting around to it’ often takes far longer than the task itself – I’ve lost count of the times I or my friends have put off a task or decision or action, suffering the energy draining consequences for ages, only to dive in and come out the other side thinking ‘well, that didn’t take anything like as long…’ or ‘that wasn’t so hard’ – and almost always – ‘boy I feel better now that’s done!’

Planning and Actioning your way to Balance

Knowing where your energy comes from, and where it goes, and whether you waste too much of it, gives you back control as you progress towards your goals, and through everyday life.

“People who successfully navigate change take action. They have a plan and know how to take care of themselves. Actions come in many forms. Some are big and obvious; some are so small you may think they are irrelevant. But any good action you take is a choice to move forward.” Ariane de Bonvoisin

Setting goals gives you a reason to organise your time – you have things to achieve! You have a plan, and you are learning how to take care of yourself.

Pacing your Energy Expenditure

I love this analogy from Loehr and Schwartz again, comparing sprinters with long-distance runners:
bcb_runners_on_road

“Think for a moment about the look of many long-distance runners: gaunt, sallow, slightly sunken and emotionally flat. Now visualize a sprinter such as Marion Jones or Michael Johnson. Sprinters typically look powerful, bursting with energy and eager to push themselves to their limits. The explanation is simple. No matter how intense the demand they face, the finish line is clearly visible 100 or 200 meters down the track. We, too, must learn to live our own lives as a series of sprints—fully engaging for periods of time, and then fully disengaging and seeking renewal before jumping back into the fray to face whatever challenges confront us.”

Keep your goals – your milestones – your finishing line – within sight, and whatever you have to do to get there – DO IT NOW!
A marathon of a post today!