Managing Your Energy
SUMMARY
Do you go home exhausted every day after work and not have enough energy to be who you want to be in every other area of your life? This is something that, as I continue to work with people, they tell me all the time. It's not just that. Sometimes, you get up, and you've had a good night's sleep, but you still don't have a lot of energy, and by about nine or ten o'clock, you don't feel like you've been rested at all. Well, stick with me because this week, I want to help you with some key strategies on how to shift this.
You cannot manage time; it's not within your control, and yet it's the thing that everybody focuses on — time management.
"I don't have enough time."
That in itself creates a lot of overwhelm, which reduces your productivity.
Today, I want to finish this conversation around this shift by talking about a finite resource—and that is your energy. For me, this is the key thing that I want to manage and that I teach others to do the same, to enable you to go from that high-performance burnout to sustainable performance, to enable you to get more done but then still have enough energy left at the end of the day to be who you want to be for every other part of your life.
I want to introduce you to seven key strategies I’ve adopted and learned from other professionals and mentors. These strategies helped me get back on track and achieve more without burning out.
1. Match your peaks
2. Do one thing at a time
3. The principle of "done, not perfect"
4. Become a sprinter
5. Replenish regularly
6. Reset intention
7. Reflect and then realign
These seven strategies will only work if you take the strategies around expectations and environment and put them in place as well. There you have it—seven key strategies you can use to have more energy and get more done.
Well, that's it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue our conversation on the nine crucial shifts every leader needs to take by helping you to become more resilient—but in a healthy way. I'll see you then.
TRANSCRIPT
Do you go home exhausted every day after work and not have enough energy to be who you want to be in every other area of your life? This is something that, as I continue to work with people, they tell me all the time. It's not just that. Sometimes, you get up, and you've had a good night's sleep, but you still don't have a lot of energy, and by about nine or ten o'clock, you don't feel like you've been rested at all. Well, stick with me because this week, I want to help you with some key strategies on how to shift this.
Hi, this is Grant Herbert, leadership and sustainable performance coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around the shift in your productivity by helping you manage your energy.
Over the last few weeks, we have been talking about that old chestnut—productivity—and we have made sure to dispel some rumours and get rid of some old teachings that weren't serving us.
You cannot manage time; it's not within your control, and yet it's the thing that everybody focuses on — time management.
"I don't have enough time."
That in itself creates a lot of overwhelm, which reduces your productivity. So, a couple of weeks ago we talked about the fact that you're not going to manage time; you're going to manage, firstly, your expectations of yourself as well as the expectations of others. And last week we talked about managing your environment and ensuring it was conducive to getting things done.
Today, I want to finish this conversation around this shift by talking about a finite resource—and that is your energy. For me, this is the key thing that I want to manage and that I teach others to do the same, to enable you to go from that high-performance burnout to sustainable performance, to enable you to get more done but then still have enough energy left at the end of the day to be who you want to be for every other part of your life.
Work is not your life and something you need to balance with your life; it's just one part of life. I know from personal experience and from working with many people like you that it can become all-encompassing and take over your life. That's why I feel like sharing what I went through and how I made this shift will help you.
Most leaders I work with are sleep-deprived, fuel-deficient, and not eating correctly, if at all, during the day. A big problem is brain dehydration, where they hardly drink water. That can lead to burnout and a sense of, "I don't think I can do this anymore." I've been there and if you followed me at all, you would have heard my story of my physical and mental burnout which left me unable to help anyone. My motive for getting up and serving people was to help them. However, because of how I was doing it, I got into a position where I couldn't help anybody, including myself.
So, you need to do things differently. Exercise self-care, fitting your own mask first before looking after everyone else. Be fuel-efficient by putting good stuff in, caring for your body, staying hydrated, and being brain-friendly. Keep your brain optimised and use it in a way that allows you to get the most out of yourself.
This whole area of professional leadership I am talking about is about getting results from your own efforts. So, you need to make sure that you optimise your energy so that you can not only accomplish what you need to get done each day but still feel good and have the energy left to do other things. You can avoid becoming one of the statistics of burnout, which is so prevalent around the world again right now. To do this, I want to introduce you to seven key strategies I’ve adopted and learned from other professionals and mentors. These strategies helped me get back on track and achieve more without burning out.
Now, I need to let you know that I’m a work in progress in every single one of these, just like you will be. There are still reasons why you do things the way you do—those psychological underlying issues we’ve talked about before. So, it’s a work in progress, and it’s not a dichotomy where you go from having low energy to high energy. It’s a game you play every single day, and it’s about consistency. What I want you to do today is pick one thing you can start working on and then gradually increase your capacity in each area. It's not about taking on another seven things that you have to do because that's going to sap your energy as well.
The first strategy is to match your peaks.
Everyone is different. Some people are morning people, some are evening people, some function best in the middle of the day, and others can maintain their energy throughout the entire day. Matching your peaks means that when you know you are at your best energetically, you do the tasks that require the most energy. You can focus on less intensive activities when you're not at your peak. Now, I understand you can't always follow this because there are other people involved, and sometimes you need to do things at a certain time. It's not like being able to go, "Well, hey, I'll come to work in the morning, and I'll go home in the afternoon," because that doesn't give you a collaborative team environment. However, where you can, I want you to match your peaks and utilise that high energy level to get more done in your day.
The second strategy is really important, and that's to do one thing at a time.
It’s like driving down the road and texting—it doesn't get you where you want to go. You end up off the road. Focusing on one task at a time, not just physically but mentally, means you're going to get more done. Multitasking is not a good strategy. It’s been proven that doing more than one task at a time decreases productivity by at least 40%. Your brain is designed to focus on one complex task at a time. Yes, you can walk, talk, breathe, and have your heart pumping all at once, but when it comes to tasks that require focused energy, you need to focus on one thing at a time.
The third strategy is the principle of "done, not perfect."
If you're a perfectionist—and that is often linked to performance trap or approval addiction—you may invest more energy into an activity than is necessary. This isn't just about physical energy; it’s about emotional and mental energy too. It’s like when you go to the supermarket and see a basket of imperfect vegetables. They still have the same nutrition and can go into the same recipes—they just don’t look perfect. It doesn't stop them from giving you their full value. For some of you, 80% needs to be your new 100%. I'm not talking about stepping away from a spirit of excellence; I’m talking about shifting from perfection to progress.
The fourth one is to become a sprinter.
We're not talking about running around the office and seeing who can get the best time—that’s just going to use more energy than you might want to give. The sprint I'm referring to is based on how the brain works. Your brain can focus for about 50 minutes, plus or minus, depending on the person and how well they look after their brain. So, becoming a sprinter means investing 50 minutes in an activity where you're totally focused on it—both physically and mentally—and then taking a 10-minute break to shift your environment. We're not necessarily talking about a 10-minute break here, but what you are doing is taking a 10-minute break from that focus and concentration on that one task.
What I love to do when I'm doing this is use that time to walk out and get a glass of water, go to the bathroom, and check my messages (if that's appropriate). If I'm working with my team, to check in with one of my team members—something that's a different activity—and then come back to that main activity that I was working on and focus again on another 50 minutes, at the end of that, to do another 10, do another 50, and then do a 30, where now you're sort of in the middle of the day where you need to have more fuel and a little bit more of a break. The key takeaway here is that how you spend those 10-minute breaks will depend on your level of discipline and the choices you make during that time. Now, the one key that I want you to take away with this as well is that in those 10 minutes, that will depend on your discipline level and what you choose to do.
As for me, whenever possible, I avoid checking emails because if you're the type of person who tends to get mentally or physically caught up in them, it can be hard to refocus on your other tasks. Instead, focus on becoming a sprinter by working in focused intervals, and you'll accomplish more.
The fifth strategy is to replenish regularly.
If you're driving a high-performance car, it could be the best car in the world, but if you don't put fuel in it and top up all the other levels, it's going to be just like a small car that definitely wasn't designed for high performance, and you are the same. Because your energy is not an infinite resource, so you need to replenish it. This means taking breaks, hydrating, and consuming the right fuel. Beyond that, be mindful of what you allow into your ears and mind. Keep out the negative, and replenish with positive inputs. Putting yourself in a positive space will allow you to get more done.
The sixth strategy is to reset intention.
This is especially helpful when you get distracted—and let’s face it, distractions happen. It’s also useful when you're doing 50-minute sprints, as it allows you to come back and reset your intention for the task. I used to think this stuff was a bit “woo-woo,” but after practising it for many years, I’ve seen the benefits. A simple activity like closing your eyes, taking three deep breaths, breathing out anything that you were thinking about and letting go of any distractions will help you focus 100% on the task at hand. It also calms the vagus nerve and puts you in the right mental state to give your full attention to the task.
“This is my purpose in this next period of bandwidth of energy. I'm going to give it to this and nothing else.”
The seventh strategy is to reflect and then realign.
This involves taking time to reflect on what you got done and what you didn't, but doing it in a forward-focused way. It's not about going, "Oh, another day where I didn't get things done." That is going to deplete your energy as well. It's about going, "Hey, what did I get done? Why did I get that done? What did I focus on? What techniques and strategies allowed me to get that stuff done?" Then, do exactly the same thing with the things that didn't get done and realign them in your day. I love to use a thing called buffer time, where I've got a blocked-out period that helps me know that I've got a contingency. So, it's not about cramming everything in and having a high expectation of myself to get everything done.
So, you can see now how these seven strategies will only work if you take the strategies around expectations and environment and put them in place as well. There you have it—seven key strategies you can use to have more energy and get more done. As I said, this will help you go home at the end of the day with enough energy left to be who you want to be in every other area of your life. You can avoid becoming one of the statistics of burnout by shifting how you think and act during your day.
Well, that's it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue our conversation on the nine crucial shifts every leader needs to take by helping you to become more resilient—but in a healthy way. I'll see you then.
