Managing Your Energy Vs. Managing Your Time
When it comes to your business, there is a lot to do. You are likely already busy in your personal life, so managing it all can feel a little overwhelming sometimes.
We are all familiar with the concept of time management, but there is also something else to consider which is managing your energy.
When you’re conscious and intentional about how you’re spending your time and you’re aware of what is draining your energy vs what makes you feel happy and energized, you’ll notice a big difference in how you feel – your mood, your productivity and enjoyment of what you do.
Today, we are talking about managing your energy vs managing your time, and we’re having an open and interesting conversation to give you some ideas on what you may want to implement or try.
In order to manage your energy, it’s important to start with the things you know tend to drain you, vs what doesn’t. Things that drain you can also be things you enjoy doing, but because it takes mental or emotional energy, you have to limit how much you do in a day or a week.
Kathleen: For example, I enjoy doing livestreams in my Facebook group, but after 30-40 mins, I need to take a break. I could not do livestreams every day or probably not even every week, and I’m aware of that and I schedule accordingly.
Also, because I know I will feel tired afterwards, I know not to schedule other appointments or tasks that take a lot of brain power. So, after doing a livestream, I wouldn’t plan to outline a podcast episode or do something that takes a lot of creativity.
Another thing that helps me manage my energy is not overbooking my calendar. I spread out appointments during the week – whether it’s lunch with friends, doctor appointments, interviews, recording podcast episodes, I’ve learned that if I overbook my day, it wipes me out.
Karen prefers to work in longer blocks of time, so she can power through and get the most important things done by noon.
We have some helpful tips to share to help you better manage your energy, and we’re going to cover 7 of them:
- This is obvious, but still important to point out – get enough sleep. If you don’t prioritize sleep, you are going to start your day feeling tired, and it goes downhill from there.
- Tune into what gives you energy, so you can incorporate that, such as exercise, meditation, spending time in nature or whatever you enjoy.
- Arrange your schedule whenever possible to focus on maintaining your energy rather than overbooking and overscheduling yourself. If you notice you are wiped out by 3 pm each day, it’s a good sign to listen to your body and take a break or end your workday then if possible.
- Take mini breaks during the day. This could be doing something as simple as stretching, doing some breathing exercises, stepping outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air and sunshine or it could be going for a quick 5-10 minute walk.
- Limit multi-tasking and focus on completing one task before moving to the next one.
- Limit distractions as much as possible – this means leaving your phone in the other room when you’re working or turning off push notifications.
- Look at tasks that you can outsource to free up more of your time and protect your energy.
When we focus on managing our energy, managing our time tends to fall into place because we will likely get more done while feeling better.
Tune into the things that deplete your energy and decide how you can work around it, delegate it or break it up during the week.
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