By Heather Cluley Bar-Or
Time is such a funny thing. It can be exactly calculated down to the tiniest increment and, therefore micro-managed through precise tools and technology. Many of us use time management to break our day into work and non-work time buckets, then fill them up with meetings and tasks until the buckets reach capacity (or run over).
I took this approach for years, only to find that I would very regularly get to the point in my day when I didn’t feel like tackling any of my tasks or attending any more meetings. No matter what the clock said, the feeling of time seemed to erratically ebb and flow. I was acting as if all time is created equal in my time management approach, but my mind and body were trying to tell me otherwise. When I learned about energy management, everything changed.
Understanding Your Energy Cycles:
Energy management has to do with matching your tasks with your natural energy cycles as well as finding your best approaches to restoring energy that is expended. My husband is a true morning person, I am too but more like normal person hours, and I have one brother who is a night owl. According to research and Dan Pink in his book When, my husband, my brother, and I should be allocating time to do our most focused work during different parts of the day.
I’m among the majority of people who are at their best – mentally sharp and ready for the toughest challenges – mid-morning, while my husband and brother are among those who peak very early in the morning or late in the evening. There is also a predictable slump in focus and energy about 6 or 7 hours later. If we align our tasks with our energy, we find efficiency and flow.
Match Your Tasks to Energy Levels:
Have you ever tried to solve a challenging problem or write a technical report during a slump? You probably noticed it’s like swimming upstream with your hands tied behind your back. The idea is to prioritize your most demanding work during your peak energy times. Use the slumps for tasks like clearing out your inbox, returning phone calls, attending nonessential meetings, and other low risk, low attention tasks that can safely be done when vigilance is low.
Invest in Recovery Breaks:
We should also break up stretches of work with recovery breaks that reenergize us, particularly ones where we get moving, get outside, or get social. I find I can do movement tasks like chores or walking the dog to reenergize in the midafternoon. I used to try to push through and do more work, but now I respect my natural energy cycle and look for ways to restore energy rather than trying to perform on empty.
There are many ways to do this. One of my colleague takes a long walk around campus during lunch break when at the office. Some people take mid-day naps (Pink recommends a nappuccino – a shot of espresso followed by a 20-minute nap). As tempting as it is, staring at a glowing screen is not a great way to restore energy. Try to step away from your computer or your phone for a few minutes between periods of focused work.
The basics of self-care are super important for energy management (as they are for everything else). These include a full night’s sleep, an overall healthy diet that works for you, movement, and daily, weekly, and yearly times where you turn off work completely. This may mean working less overall, but doing so more productively and intensely – which is kind of what most humans are built for anyway.
As an introvert, I have also noticed I have to budget my social time and have a quiet workspace. For me, art projects can be immensely energizing when my energy feels stuck on low. Sadly, I tried the experiment of cutting back to one glorious cup of coffee per day and that helped me sleep better and avoid a deep midday slump (it’s sad because I really liked my afternoon latte).
Personalize Your Energy Management:
These are the things that work for me for managing my energy. Your energy cycle is unique to you and it’s worth figuring out what takes energy and gives energy so that you can manage your work and personal tasks and self-care with energy cycles in mind.
All time is not created equal. When you manage your energy as well as your time, it feels like time makes sense again. You spend more of it being awesome and less of it trying to convince yourself that more coffee and a peptalk is going to get you motivated.
Thank you Heather Cluley Bar-Or
Heather Cluley Bar-Or is the Associate Director and an Associate Teaching Professor of the Graduate Program in Human Resource Development at Villanova University. She teaches courses on organizational development and change, strategic human resource management and the work, family, and career considerations of inclusive organizations.
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