Practical Ways to Manage Your Energy to Work and Live Effectively

Most people wish for extra time in the day to complete everything they want to accomplish. The proactive ones manage time. The effective ones, according to The Power of Full Engagement, manage energy to best use the 24-hours we have each day.

But what does energy management really entail? We can easily see the time we save but it's harder for us to know if we're managing our energy well. A helpful visual to use is a personal energy tank. As you complete activities, energy is depleted and when you rest, your energy tank is refilled.

Three key strategies for managing your energy is to (1) prevent your energy tank from becoming empty, (2) increase the size of your tank, and (3) decrease the amount of energy you deplete per activity. 

Below are a few practical ways to manage your energy effectively:

Take care of your body

Your body is the machine that does your work and your job is to keep the machine maintained and running at max efficiency. To ensure your energy tank is at full during the start of your day, the most important thing you can do is to get 7-9 hours of sleep. To increase the capacity of your energy tank and to lower the amount of energy you expend for each activity, exercise frequently and eat well. The better your physical conditioning, the more you'll be able to do. There are many resources you can use to optimize your individual fitness routine and diet - choose one and get started. Here is a regime I use when I want to get back into shape.

Understand how emotions impact your energy and vice versa

As humans, we constantly feel emotions. Most of us are not aware of how our emotions drain our energy and how our energy impacts our emotions. 

The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has created a mood meter app which divides Emotion vs Energy into the quadrants below:

From an energy-use perspective, high energy emotions drain more energy than low energy emotions. This is true for both positive and negative emotions. You may be feeling "motivated" or "inspired" but remember these high-energy emotions are quickly depleting your energy. The way to recharge your energy is to rest, which means staying in the low energy, high pleasantness quadrant (gratitude or meditation is a good way to get there). Another powerful way to use emotions is as a marker for your energy level throughout the day. Ask yourself: What emotion am I feeling right now and is this a high or low energy emotion?

From an emotion-management perspective, first, identify which emotion you're feeling and which quadrant you're in. For example, if you're feeling "miserable", you're in the low-energy, low pleasantness quadrant. To break out of this emotional state, find ways to increase pleasantness by re-reading thank you letters from others or watching videos of your kids. If you want to restore your energy, consider sleeping early or going for a light run.

Learn to control your attention

What you experience in life is directly related to what you focus your attention on. Your ability to shift attention towards what you want to do and away from distractions will allow you to do more with the energy you have. Meditative practices, like yoga, meditation, or running long-distance, can help you better guide your mind to where you want it to go.

Whenever you can, avoid multi-tasking, which is simply task-switching, and tackle your most important activity first.

Work on something that matters

Most if not all of us want a meaningful life. What is difficult about reaching this goal is figuring out what will make a difference and give us a sense of purpose. During a recent talk, I heard the following three elements of meaningful work that I found useful:

1. Do something that helps people - most people think of this element when they think of meaningful work. If what you're doing can directly improve someone's life without making another person worse off, you'll probably find it meaningful.
2. Do something that uncovers the truth - when your activities unlock a truth about you or how the world really works, you may find yourself infused with purpose. This search for truth may be the reason so many researchers devote their lives to their narrow field of study for little to no social rewards.
3. Do something that makes the world more beautiful - whether it's a painting, song, computer program, mathematical proof, etc., spending time to add more beauty to the world can fuel you when there is seemingly little else to gain from your efforts.

When you do work that you find meaningful, you'll find that you'll increase your energy capacity significantly. This will allow you to accomplish more than others who may not be supercharged by the type of work that they do.

As you think about your day tomorrow, consider getting a good night's rest. After you wake up with your energy tank full, work only on your most important task for about 60-90 minutes. Then take a mental and physical break by taking a walk or eating a light snack. Continue your meaningful work but monitor your emotions to gauge your energy levels. If you're feeling depleted, consider a 20-minute power nap or another way to rest so you can recharge. Complete your workday with less important but necessary tasks and reflect on how you managed your energy. End your day with a good night's rest and repeat.

(Originally published on Embrace Possibility)

About the Author

Robert Chen is a partner at Exec-Comm, a global communication skills training consultancy focused on helping Fortune 100 leaders and their teams communicate and work more effectively. In addition to his corporate client work, he currently teaches Managerial Communication, Impromptu Speaking, and Advanced Persuasion and Storytelling at the Wharton Business School. He is also the founder of Embrace Possibility, a digital media site focused on personal effectiveness. Robert writes for Fast Company, Business Insider, Training Magazine, Top of Mind, and the Wharton blog. He is based in New York City and holds a BA in Chemistry and Economics from Cornell and an MBA from Wharton.