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Why Managing Your Energy Is Much More Important Than Managing Your Time

We race through our lives without pausing to consider who we really want to be or where we really want to go. The ultimate measure of our lives is not how much time we spend on the planet, but rather how much energy we invest in that time that we have.
Tired From Work Due To Lack Of Energy

I have a question for you.

On a scale of 1 – 10, 1 being very low and 10 being very high, where are your energy levels right now?

I’m going to take an educated guess and assume that the number you picked was probably less than 7. To which I’m going to ask you:

What do you think will help you take it to 10?

Your answer is most likely something along the lines of “eating some food”, “getting some sleep”, “drinking some coffee” or anything else in the form of a physical trigger.

To make sure we’re on the same page, I’m going to make a clarification. The word “energy” means capacity for vigorous activity and “capacity” means actual or potential ability to perform.

Simply put, “energy” can be defined as “capacity” to do work.

I want you to understand this. Energy is not only a part of the physical dimension. We have to go beyond the physical realm and look at the mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions to get a holistic understanding of it.

In the book titled The Power of Full Engagement, James Loehr & Tony Schwartz, two experts in high performance management wrote, “Sustained high achievement demands physical and emotional strength as well as a sharp intellect. To bring mind, body and spirit to peak condition, executives need to learn what world-class athletes already know: recovering energy is as important as expending it.”

What I’ve personally taken away from their work are the following:

1. If you have to perform at high levels over the long haul, you have to train in the same systematic, multilevel way that world class athletes do.
2. Build your secondary competencies (like endurance, strength, flexibility, and focus) on top of your primary competencies (like technical, communication & problem solving).
3. Increasing your capacity at all dimensions (physical, mental, emotional & spiritual). That allows you to bring your talents & skills to full ignition and sustain high performance over time, a condition called the ‘Ideal Performance State’ (IPS).

So, why is managing energy more important than managing time? It’s simply because:

Time Is Finite. Energy Is Not.

We know that time moves linearly, i.e., time only moves forward and you’re never getting it back. Which is why there are only so many things you can do over a period of time and everything you do takes up time. Everybody has to give time to:

1. Sleep
2. Eat
3. Take the occasional break
4. Spend time with people
5. Get some kind of physical activity
6. Indulge in some recreational activity

And so on and so forth.

Time Is Finite. Energy Is Not.

The funny thing is while this takes up your time, these things can end up dictating your level of energy.

If you sleep less thinking that you’ll have more time to get work done, you’re going to wake up tired and you’re not going to be able to work to the best of your ability or if you decide against taking the occasional break, you’re going to burn out faster than a candle.

Managing time can be extremely tedious and you’re going to end up being a slave to it. On the other hand, if you’re able to manage your energy properly, you can get more done in less time simply because your body, mind and spirit are up for it.

Now this raises the question:

How Do You Manage Your Energy?

It’s common knowledge that if you want to strengthen your muscle, then first you have to put it under stress to the point where it’s fibers literally start to break down. After that, you have to give adequate time for recovery (typically 48 hours). The muscle will heal as well as get stronger. But, if you continue to stress without any recovery, you will damage the muscle and end up with injury. On the contrary, if you fail to put it under stress, the muscle will become weak. Clearly, “stress” is not the issue. The issue is with energy, more specifically, it’s with energy expenditure and recovery. It’s like a pendulum, oscillating from one state to the other.

Effective energy management has two components:

1. The rhythmic movement (oscillation) between energy expenditure (stress) and energy renewal (recovery).
2. The rituals that promote this oscillation.

This is one of the primary reasons that athletes use interval training to perform at their peak.

In their research, James & Tony discovered that the best-in-class athletes use precise recovery rituals in the 15 or 20 seconds ‘between’ points for recovery even without being aware of it.

Their rituals may include concentrating on the strings of their tennis/squash rackets, taking a confident posture, visualizing the outcome for the play and so on. 

Chronobiologists suggest that the body and mind need recovery every 90 to 120 minutes, according to the ultradian rhythm.

That’s how you manage energy.

Now that you have an idea how energy is managed, let’s understand the concept of capacity in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions and how to develop them.

Physical Capacity

Physical capacity is your ability to perform with your body. It acts either as an accelerant or a drag on your performance. When your physical capacity is strong, you have more endurance and resilience. When it is weak, doing anything is more difficult because you’ll lack the energy and ability to overcome stress needed to excel.

Go For A Walk To Build Physical Energy Capacity

Diet, exercise and sleep (rest & recovery) are vital for building physical capacity. These are the three pillars of physical vitality. With a new kind of diet doing the rounds everyday, it may be difficult for you to follow the one that suits you. A good start is to be mindful of what you’re putting into your body. Your diet has a profound effect on your daily life if you make some positive changes in what you eat, you will quickly notice improvements in your energy and ability to focus.

From an exercise standpoint, it’s important to do a combination of cardiovascular exercise and strength training of some kind, whether that’s weight-lifting, yoga, pilates or something similar.

Taking a 5-minute break every 1 hour and going for a walk, doing one yoga posture, dancing, doing a few squats or any form of physical movement will help you to re-energize and get your focus back to your work. You will eventually end up doing 30-45 mins of physical activity everyday without even realizing it.

Diet, exercise and sleep are the three pillars of physical capacity. Being mindful of what you eat, going for the occasional walk and getting adequate sleep will improve you energy levels.

Mental Capacity

Mental capacity is the ability to make decisions for ourselves. We all make decisions, big and small, everyday of our lives and most of us are able to make these decisions for ourselves, although we may seek information, advice or support for the more serious or complex ones and making these decisions takes energy.

Reading A Mentally Stimulating Book Can Help Build Your Mental Energy Capacity

When you are committed to growth, you will become a constant learner, rather than an intellectual “knower.” Pay attention to what information helps you grow, and what information makes you stagnate. 

Listening to an enlightening podcast, reading to stimulate your mind, solving a math/crossword puzzle for just 5 minutes every 1 hour will get your mental muscles to recover faster and your mind will evolve in wonderful ways.

Your mental capacity can be developed by stimulating your mind or accumulating practical knowledge. A thought-provoking podcast or movie, or playing chess or crossword can help your mental muscles recover faster.

Emotional Capacity

Emotional capacity is a measure of your ability to deal with your emotions (both negative and positive), beliefs (limiting and liberating), your ease in adapting to challenging situations, and the quality of your relationships. No matter how talented, or disciplined, you are, if you don’t have high emotional capacity (EQ), you’ll fall short of peak performance.

Listening To Music Can Help With Managing Energy

You can develop your emotional capacity by reading something light, listen to some soothing music, or talking to a loved one for a few minutes to uplift your mood, every couple of hours just for 5 minutes.

Low emotional capacity can be detrimental to your performance. Listening to some music or talking to a loved one can help you uplift your mood and build emotional capacity.

Spiritual Capacity

The term “spiritual capacity” describes the degree to which you understand who you are and what you want most. Building your spiritual capacity is a journey of self-discovery; it means taking time to understand your motivations and what brings you fulfillment. If you don’t know what you want from life, you may spend all your energy running in the wrong direction – and be left unfulfilled even if you’ve achieved something that you had worked very hard for.

Journaling Is A Great Way To Manage Your Energy

The first step in building spiritual capacity is to understand and develop your core values. Start by setting aside time, putting away distractions, and thinking carefully about yourself. Identifying your core values will give you an internal compass for decision-making in your daily life.

Rituals like journaling, meditating, praying or chanting for 5 minutes once every 3 hours can help you tremendously and fill up your spiritual energy tank.

Building your spiritual capacity is a journey of self-discovery and understanding your core values and what drives you. Meditation is a great tool to get you started.

Something that has worked very well for me is to get up from my seat every 90 minutes and walk a little. Each time I walk, I listen to an audio related to spirituality, or learn something new (outside the current domain of work), or listen to uplifting music (music can shift mental activity from the rational left brain to the intuitive right brain. It also gives relief from obsessive thinking and worrying). Doing so helps me complete my quota on all four dimensions.

You can refer to the Harvard Business Review article Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy for real life case studies.

Summary

Most of us have always believed that in order to be productive, you need to manage your time properly. While this is somewhat true, managing your energy happens to be much more important than managing your time.

Energy is the capacity to do work and it exists in the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual dimensions. You will only be able to perform at your absolute peak when you have high energy levels in all these four dimensions.

Here’s how you can raise your energy levels in the four dimensions:

1. Physical Capacity: Physical capacity is the ability to perform with your body. Diet, exercise and sleep are the three pillars of physical capacity. What you eat, how much physical activity you get and how much you sleep plays a huge role in how productive you are.

2. Mental Capacity: Mental capacity is the ability to make decisions for ourselves. Every decision we make tends to drain our mental energy reserves and research says that we make over 35,000 decisions a day. Doing something that stimulates your mind, like solving a crossword puzzle, can help build your mental capacity.

3. Emotional Capacity: Emotional capacity is the ability to deal with your emotions, beliefs and the quality of your relationships. You can build your emotional capacity by listening to uplifting music or speaking to a loved one for 5 minutes every couple of hours.

4. Spiritual Capacity: Spiritual capacity is the degree to which you understand who you are and what you want most. Building your spiritual capacity is a journey of self-discovery. It means taking time to understand your motivations and what brings you fulfillment. Journaling and meditating every 3 hours or so can help you fill up your spiritual energy tank.

Hi! I'm Coach Srikanth

Once upon a time, I felt stuck in my corporate career. So, I found myself a coach, got my life in balance and now I want to do the same for YOU.

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