Here’s a question for you: Can you live on 10,000 a year?
And NO, I am not talking dollars here, I am talking about hours.
The truth is: Yes, you can. In fact we all live on less than that a year; we only get 8,765.81 hours per year to be exact.
This is the exact number of hours you get each year whether you are a king or a homeless person, whether you are a boss or an employee, and whether you like it or not.
Now subtract the amount of hours you are sleeping, eating, watching TV, surfing the internet and you will be left with very little.
So, with so little time and so much to do, how are we supposed to get things done?
Productivity experts like Tony Schwartz say that the answer: First, manage your energy. Then, manage your time.“The Science of stamina has advanced to the point where individuals, teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done.” (Harvard Business Review, 2007).
Managing your energy increases your capacity to get things done in the face of increasing demands. We have seen that “time” is a limited resource, but personal energy is renewable.
Manage and replenish your energy and watch your productivity, health, and happiness sky rocket to levels you never thought possible.
Four Types of Energy
Your ability to perform and be fully engaged in what you are doing requires skillfully managing your energy in four separate yet connected important dimensions: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
High performance and full engagement means being “physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned.” (Schwartz, 2007)
Physical Energy
Physical energy is the most basic of the energies and it’s the foundation all the other energies build on. We all know that inadequate sleep, rest, nutrition and exercise diminish our ability to perform physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually.
Yet most people tend to neglect to rejuvenate and renew this energy source on a regular basses.
The best ways to manage your physical energy are:
- Decide now that your physical energy is a priority. Without this physical energy, your mental and emotional capacities are diminished and you will not be able to lead the productive and happy life you want.
- Establish a daily routine for exercise, nutrition, brief breaks every 90-120 minutes and adequate sleep time at night.
Emotional Energy
If you want more motivation, more enthusiasm, and more willpower to accomplish things in your life and work, you should pay special attention to your emotional energy.
Enthusiasm, motivation, and determination are positive emotions and need emotional energy to be activated. Unfortunately, so does sadness, stress, anxiety and all the other negative emotions.
The best ways to manage your emotional energy are:
Stop the misuse and waste of emotional energy on negative emotions. This should free up the emotional energy for positive emotions and willpower.
- Engage in activities that nourish and stimulate positive emotions.
- Know and honor your values in life (If you don’t know your values call me and I will help you discover them for free).
- Stop stressing out over the little things that drain your emotional energy.
- Replenish your physical energy regularly, because that will fill your emotional energy’s reservoir.
Mental Energy
It doesn’t matter how hard it is for you to focus and concentrate on any given task or project right now.
Replenishing and building the capacity of your mental energy will help you gain more clarity and focus. Mental energy is needed to calculate, plan and strategize. It’s essential for building a great career, planning for future goals, and doing a great job in your organization.
The best ways to manage your mental energy are:
- Stop multitasking. A recent study in the British Journal of Psychiatry demonstrated that multitasking reduces the IQ by an average of 10 points. Another study reported in the Harvard Business Review demonstrated the multitasking increases the time of finishing any given task by 25%.
- Start working in 90-120 minute blocks with breaks in between. This suggested time interval is grounded in our physiological biorhythm.
- Mange your physical and emotional energy. Let’s face it, if you are tired and emotionally drained it is very difficult for you to think straight.
Spiritual Energy
We don’t believe anything supernatural about spiritual energy. Spiritual is just the name we use due to the lack of a better name.
It’s an energy a lot of us experience daily and regularly. Unfortunately, some of us haven’t experienced it for a while.
Spiritual energy is the finer energy that gives us the capacity to connect with other people and feel part of the whole. It is the energy that helps us be at peace, feel grounded in our own being.
If you remember a time when you were calm, collected, aware and present, then you will get a feel for this spiritual energy.
The best ways to manage your spiritual energy are:
- Meditate, pray and explore your purpose and vision.
- Dedicate some of your time for something that is bigger than you.
- Manage your physical, emotional and mental energy well, for they are the foundation on which spiritual energy rests.
Optimal Combined Energy
Optimal results in your life require the greatest amount of energy in your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions.
Being fully engaged requires the use of all these dimensions.
Start your days by charging up and activating your physical energy reservoir, then the emotional, then the mental, and then the spiritual.
See yourself firing up, managing, and recharging all four cylinders every day for achieving maximum results and for leading a more productive and happy life.
I challenge you to start implementing the energy management strategies in your daily life tomorrow morning.
Only then will you wake up productive everyday of your life.
Wish you lots of positive energy in your life
Your Coaches,
Alan Ovson and Peter Khoury.
Leave a Reply