6/14/2019 How to start managing your energy levels instead of your time

Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash

How to start managing your energy

levels instead of your time
The amout of energy you have should determine what
you do

Sebastian Martin Follow

Feb 13, 2018 · 6 min read

Most of us have been following a steady daily rhythm: getting up

somewhere between 6 and 8 in the morning, working from 9 to 5,
spending the evenings at home. In school, it was similar: school starts
in the morning and ends at lunch or in the afternoon. Most business
hours fit into that pattern (at least in western countries). Not even the
fact that we can communicate worldwide with little delay at all hours
of the day has changed much. The inherent problem presents itself

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at a closer look. We are expected to be alert, awake and productive

at certain times.

We are managing our time, assuming that we are

equally effective throughout the day — even though
we know we are not.

You should instead start to observe your energy levels throughout

the day and change schedules, meetings and work accordingly.

If we know when our energy levels are high (and how we can achieve
those levels), we can plan much better, putting tasks that require
creative energy or decision making in those “high times”, while moving
work that calls for routine into areas with lower energy.

There are three steps involved: first to identify your current energy
levels, second to plan your day accordingly and third to balance out the
levels, changing them according to our wishes.

1. Observing energy levels

You will notice that there are certain times of the day when you feel full
of ideas, ready to go and brimming with energy. Working on creative
tasks, making decisions and seeing the larger picture are all easy
in these high-energy times.

It doesn’t matter whether these high-energy times are in the morning

for you, or late at night. It seems trendy to “get up early to get things
done”, but it really is a matter of personal choice. If you work late on
high-energy and consequently sleep late, you will ultimately achieve
the same results.

Then there are low-energy times where you feel like your head is
full of sawdust and thoughts are slow and low. For some of us, these
states are in the mornings (before coffee maybe) and often right after
lunch. In those times, we don’t want to think so we surf, play games on
the smartphone and stare at the work like it’s ancient Egyptian (or if
you happen to work as an archeologist, like it’s quantum mechanics).
It’s of little use to force active engaging work in those times.

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6/14/2019 How to start managing your energy levels instead of your time

And finally, we have times where we need to relax and actually

switch off to do nothing, putting energy back into your body. It’s
important we honor these times as well, giving us enough time to
regenerate and rejuvenate.

You can keep a journal or calendar to track your energy levels, simply
mark the times of the day when you have higher energy, lower energy
and periods of relaxation. Of course, you can also add additional levels
and states, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ll keep it at three levels.

This is how my day might look, but I give myself the freedom to observe
and respond accordingly:

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2. Plan according to energy levels

After you have observed your energy for a while, you can plan
accordingly. If you have a rough idea of when you can expect certain
energy levels, put the tasks you have into those times.

For high-energy levels: creative work (coming up with novel ideas),

creative team discussions, making difficult or high-risk decisions,
planning for mid-term and long-term, actively learn new content, make
presentations and pitches, thinking and reflecting, experimenting and
trying new things, writing to-do lists.

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6/14/2019 How to start managing your energy levels instead of your time

For low-energy levels: routine work, maintenance and cleaning,

working through tasks that have clear goals and processes, writing
correspondence and emails, reviewing what you learned, writing
invoices.

For relaxing levels: eating, sleeping, sports, outdoor activities,

meditation, social times, gaming, shopping, movies etc.

3. Optimize your energy levels

When you start to put tasks into the appropriate energy levels, you
should see an increase in actual work output.

Doing 30 minutes of creative work in a high-energy

level will be as effective as trying to do the same
work in 2 hours when you have lower energy.

One important thing to do in high-energy times is to plan tasks for low

energy. That is why I put “writing to-do lists” in the high-energy time:
planning is much easier when you have an overview. The actual grunt
work can be done in times of lower energy — provided the tasks
don’t require much mental energy themselves.

There are many strategies to start the high-energy times, some

recommend getting up early, some start with sports, a certain diet or
another ritual. You can try any of those and use the ones that fit into
your lifestyle.

There are indicators that what you do in your relaxation time

determines how easily you can start high-energy levels. Sports,
sleep, healthy eating and meditation seem to contribute to
triggering and extending your high-energy times.

If you feel that your high-energy times are short and exhausting, take a
look at your food intake. High-energy work requires lots of mental
energy, which is ultimately body energy. Look for proteins and slow-
release carbohydrates that will provide long-term nutrition instead of
short bursts, like those from simple sugars.

Another important factor is to look at your habits and shift them

around if neccessary. One example: commutes are often seen as “dead

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6/14/2019 How to start managing your energy levels instead of your time

time”, but might in fact be a golden opportunity to do high-energy

work. If you are in your car, you have space to think and could use voice
dictation to get ideas down. On a train, the time could be spend reading
and learning — depending on how you feel.

If you notice that you are awake early anyway, your

head full of ideas, then get up and use that burst of
high-energy, even if it lasts only 20 minutes!

Remove distractions from your high-energy times, especially email

and non-verbal communication. If you are working on something in
your high-energy time, give yourself the time to fully immerse, focusing
on this particular task. External inputs like emails, messages and
menial tasks will fight for your attention, but they can easily be
answered in times of lower energy. I wrote another article about getting
into a high energy state in the morning by keeping a distance from
other people’s ideas.

Use your relaxation periods well. They might be able to recharge

energy fast: light lunch and 15 minutes of meditation might put you
back into a high-energy state, whereas heavy lunch and scrolling
Facebook for half an hour might leave you sleepy and uninspired.

You can relax more actively by spending mindful

time on your pastime activities. These might include
meditation, cooking and eating consciously, focusing
on sports and your body, taking baths with calm
music or doing outdoor activities.

Passive relaxation is more mental consuming, watching TV or

scrolling social feeds, surfing aimlessly and eating just to feed
yourself. The quality of your resting period is likely to influence
the quality of your productive time!

But as I mentioned above, you have to find what’s best for you, there
will be no golden solution for everyone.

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To wrap it up: be aware of your energy levels and try

to plan your day accordingly.

It will help you achieve better results in shorter time. You can try
different habits to trigger and maintain higher energy states, but
most important is listening to yourself in the process.

Thanks for reading! Let me know how your daily energy levels look!

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