Forget Time Management – Try Energy Management 

I used to teach a time management workshop. I still get tons of requests for the topic though nowadays; I assign it to someone who is more passionate about the topic. Clearly this is an evergreen challenge.

Time has always been a fascinating and often frustrating topic. Time is the one thing you are always consuming, whether consciously or passively, in the choices we make about how we spend it. Afterall, we all get the same 24 hours in a day.

I’ve read the books, including my favorite, Eat That Frog. To this day I refer to things I don’t want to do as a “frog”. I have studied the models sorting tasks into A, B, C priorities and categorizing activities based on the Urgent Vs Important matrix.

These methods are undoubtedly valuable for specific days or projects. However, I’ve come to believe that something even more fundamental underlies our effectiveness: energy management.

Your Internal Battery: Aligning Tasks with Energy Flow 

Instead of solely focusing on where to spend your time, what if we paid closer attention to our energy in two ways: 1) the energy we have around doing certain tasks, and 2) our natural energy fluctuations throughout the day.

• Task Energy: Think about the energy you have around a task. Pay attention to the emotional and mental state you bring to it, and how that might affect your ability to complete the task successfully. Notice if you’re approaching the task with enthusiasm and focus, or with negativity and resistance.

If the latter, are you able to intentionally shift your energy to be more productive? Could thinking about the task differently help shift your energy? Try to reframe the task around learning, or advancing toward a goal, or simply getting to feel that sense of accomplishment or relief when it is completed.

• Daily Energy: As someone who doesn’t drink coffee, I tend to be a bit slower to get going in the morning. So, I select early tasks best suited for that lack of A.M. energy. I like things I can quickly clear off my plate because my focus isn’t yet at its peak. Deleting the email spam or responding to quick hits.

Late morning is my prime focus time – that’s when I schedule coaching calls and tackle design work. Post-lunch, I often experience a bit of a lull (AKA food coma) before my afternoon high-energy spurt, which usually coincides with a little chocolate treat!

Shifting from Avoidance to Accomplishment

Start to tune into your natural energy flows throughout the day, then design your work around your daily energy flows. This will help you from feeling like you are constantly swimming against the current.

I still utilize those time management tools to identify the energy I need to tackle specific tasks. A few questions that help me select, prioritize and focus are:

• What truly is important now?

• What’s that “frog” I’ve been avoiding that will bring a great sense of accomplishment once completed?

• What is the one task that if I complete today, I will feel like I accomplished something?

• What do I need to put a little energy toward and make some progress on?

The key here is to shift your focus from the feeling of avoidance to the positive vision of completion, while matching your task and daily energy – that will enable you to generate the necessary drive to tackle the task.