Energy vs Time Which One Matters Most?

I'm sure you have read the tale of every day you get 86,400 dollars in a bank account, you have to spend the money each day and you cannot carry any forward to the next day. The concept is that this is not money but the numbers represent the number of seconds in each day and how we should consider how we spend each and everyone of these seconds.

As true as the maths is for the number of seconds, minutes and hours we have in a day is focusing on using all this time the correct approach when living our lives?

The idea that you must use every single second of every day to maximise your life I think is over the top. Now, don't get me wrong, using time effectively is a great practice to have, however we can't be going at 100% all the time. This leads to overworking, over stimulation and eventually burnout.

To me, the idea that you need to doing "something productive" all the time can lead to negative self talk and stress. We can beat ourselves up when we think we are "doing nothing". There of course is a balance between being productive, resting and relaxing. I think the problem is we can be quick to label rest and relaxation as being lazy!

So, what does Energy have to do with this I hear you ask.

Time cannot be changed, despite what Marty and Doc Brown did in their delorean, but what is different for all of us is the energy we have on any given day. I would suggest that how you spend your energy is far more important than focusing on your time.

You must be able to remember a day when you were on fire! You could get out of bed, complete some exercise, have a brilliant day at work, meet up with friends or family and feel like you could go on forever. You must also experienced?a day when the alarm beeped all you wanted to do was tell it to F Off, it can't be time to get up yet! On that day everything feels like an effort and everything that could go wrong, will!

The time you had on both these days was exactly the same, but your energy levels were miles apart. On the days when you are feeling sluggish, tired and completely wiped this is your body telling you something! Your energy is spent!

So, how do we spend our energy effectively?

Firstly, everything you do uses energy. And I mean this literally. From all the involuntary movements your body does to keep you alive to going for a 30 minute walk all use energy. So if we know everything we do uses energy, we must also acknowledge different activities use different amounts of energy.

Do you ever get to the end of a day feeling exhausted but think to yourself "How am I so tired, I didn't really do anything today?" When I experience this, I try to challenge this question and reflect on what I had done that day and on the days previous. What I have found is when I have something very important on my mind I can spend a huge amount of energy thinking. And these are the days when I feel a lack of energy.

When my brain is working constantly thinking about this one thing I begin to question events from the past that could have impacted the thing I am thinking about. I then start to think about the future and my imagination creates countless "What If" scenarios regarding the thing that is occupying my mind. All this thinking about past events and the potential future is spending energy.

If we acknowledge that everything we do including our thoughts and feelings uses energy maybe we can plan better on what we are realistically able to do on any given day, week, month or even year.

If you have an important event coming up in your life you need to acknowledge that this will take up more energy than normal. For example, you have a big presentation at work. Hours of work are required for the material, your speech and the logistics of setting up the day. However there is a huge mental and emotional investment with an important event like this, so would it be better to spend your energy on things at this time that will benefit you instead of costing you?

Can you generate more energy?

This is an interesting question because compared to time, which we cannot increase or decrease, we can increase the amount energy we have to spend.

So, what can contribute to generating more energy?

A constant supply of coffee? Possibly, but probably not recommended in the long term.

The answers are possibly underwhelming and predictable but are very clear.

Being physically active, drinking enough water, getting enough quality sleep, being in nature, eating quality food, taking time away from work and practising being present all impact on our energy levels. However, increasing the amount of physical activity you do has the biggest positive impact.

At this moment you may counter my suggestions and say how can increasing physically active generate more energy, surely it is costing more energy! Energy that you don't have to spare!

As counterintuitive as it may sound but when it comes to physical activity, this is a great way to generate more energy. The challenge is, if you are starting from a point of zero activity you may not feel the benefits immediately and feel even more tired. You will come to the quick conclusion that physical activity does not help with your energy levels and give it up. This is when you need to persist and allow your body to adapt.

When I think about this idea of energy vs time it reminds me that we don't have to do everything. I wrote about this in a previous article but it is worth repeating in this context. If we know that we have a certain amount of energy to spend each day within the fixed time available surely it would make sense to be very specific on the things we want to do?

What could you stop that is draining your energy?

What could you start that could generate more energy?

How could spending your energy on the things that are really important to you benefit you?