Managing Your Energy

Energy & Attention Effect Your Time Management

Let’s talk about a key ingredient to time management – your energy. You can perfectly craft a schedule that squeezes in all your tasks, activities, meals and social time but if you haven’t taken into account your energy levels it may be wishful thinking. Our energy ebbs and flows throughout the day. If your energy is at a low point then you may have a hard time paying attention and staying focused. For example, if you have scheduled a task or meeting that requires brainstorming or data analysis or an important medical appointment and you’re not focused, you could miss something important or forget to ask a key question.

Tracking Your Energy & Attention

Not everyone has the same energy and attention cycle. When you work with a team and have several energy levels to manage it can become a challenge. To start, let’s focus on YOU and figure out when your energy & attention levels are high and laser focused. It’s time to get tracking. Set a reminder in your phone to go off every hour or every other hour and record how you’re feeling. You can give yourself a score between 1 and 5, with 5 being high energy – you are in the zone. Do this for a few 3-7 days to get a sense of your typical levels. This is similar to the time management exercise I talked about in last month’s blog How to Boost Productivity.

…Now What?

You’ve completed the exercise and tracked your energy and attention for a week – now what? Look at the trends – are you feeling tired and sluggish during the same 2-3 hour period each day? Are you a productivity rockstar in the early afternoon? This is important information. Your energy and attention levels will help you manage your time more effectively.

“Attention management is the art of focusing on getting things done for the right reasons, in the right places and the right moments.” – Adam Grant, The New York Times.

The last part of Adam Grant’s definition is key – the right moments. Armed with your energy level patterns, you can decide what types of tasks to do at certain times in your day.

Managing Your Energy Going Forward

You’re probably asking yourself – how do I manage my time with my energy? Think of your tasks and activities in two ways. 1. Highly Focused 2. Autopilot. The ‘highly focused’ activities should be scheduled when you know your energy is high and your attention is at its peak. When you have low energy and running on ‘autopilot’ do the activities and tasks that don’t need a lot of brain power for like reading emails, folding laundry, or tidying up your space.

Keep in mind life events, illness and stress affect your energy so take those into consideration as you examine your energy and attention levels. It’s a good idea to re-examine your energy levels periodically to make sure you’re maximizing your time.