Around this time last year, I was told by a doctor that they thought I had a brain tumor. My right eye had started to bulge strangely 6 weeks earlier, and I had been feeling, well off. It turns out, thankfully, I didn’t have a brain tumor (but that was a fun 3 weeks of anxiety), but I do have an auto-immune disease. Graves’ disease to be exact. (You can read more about that here.)
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year working to get myself healthy again, learning to manage my auto-immune disease, lots of doctors appointments and medication tweaks, and the whole shebang.
Then in the spring, I got pregnant. Yay! But that also threw a whole new set of curveballs at me. 4 months of debilitating nausea and exhaustion, followed by horrible sciatic nerve pain, on top of the low-energy that already accompanies an active auto-immune disease… this has been my most difficult pregnancy by far.
At the same time, I’ve been running two businesses, mothering my four kids and dealing with a house that is in an active remodeling state. I can’t just check out from my life, (no one can), and the thing I’ve learned in the last year, dealing with drastically different energy levels than I ever have before, is that good energy management is MUCH more important than time management.
No matter how well you schedule your time, if you don’t have the personal energy to fulfill your commitments things may not get done.
What is energy management?
Where time management focuses on the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities, energy management about being aware of how much mental and physical energy you have throughout your day to do your planned activities. The problem with using just time management is that it ignores the physiological side of things. We all have ebbs and flows when it comes to energy and focus, so learning to manage energy is key to productivity and effectiveness.
Manage your energy, not your time. So how do you do that?
Here are a few things that have been helpful to me for having good energy management:
Do an energy audit.
If you take a moment to think about it, you’ll probably realize that you have different levels of energy pretty consistently at different times of day. You will also probably notice that you are better at doing certain tasks at certain times. Spend a day or two doing an energy audit, observing what your energy levels are throughout the day, when you feel most productive, when you get distracted, feel burnt out, etc.
Determining your energy levels throughout the day will help you understand when you should get certain tasks done, based on the energy level required for those tasks. Find your creative energy time and defend it ruthlessly.
Put first things first.
Even with the audit, energy isn’t always predictable when you’re sick, or pregnant so having your priorities figured out, ensures that you’re getting the most important stuff done while you have energy. At the beginning of each month, week and day I figure out what my priorities are for accomplishing in that time period, and also what kind of energy they’ll require from me. That way I know which house project to start with when I get a burst of physical energy, or which business project to work on when I have creative energy.
I also save mundane tasks like answering emails, or folding laundry for low-energy times, when I know I need a physical or mental break.
Say no to more.
The truth is, (and this took me years to acknowledge to myself) that no one can do everything. If you want to be more effective in your life, you’ll have to learn to say no to some things, (even good thing), in favor of better and more important things. This is vital especially when it comes to energy management, and goes back to prioritizing what you are putting on your energy schedule. Cut out or out-source unnecessary things that you don’t need to move the needle forward with your goals and priorities.
One of the things I found really helpful in doing this was asking myself what things leave me feeling drained of energy, that I dread doing, procrastinate, etc. Then asking myself whether or not those things can be eliminated from my life. Most of the time they can. And I’ve found that as I’ve removed those energy draining activities, and prioritized what’s really important for the life I want to live, my energy levels and productivity have dramatically improved.
Prioritized your health.
A quick word on this. Because I made the mistake of having bad health habits for too many years, and I’m paying for it now. It doesn’t matter how good you manage your energy if you aren’t taking care of your body. I didn’t get enough sleep and lived in a constant state of extreme stress for years and years and it destroyed my body. I’m paying for it now. Learn from my mistake.
Get enough sleep, eat nutrient rich foods, manage and eliminate stress wherever possible, exercise.
I hope these tips help you out and if you find yourself feeling constantly tired or drained, not as effective as you would like to be, or feeling overwhelmed, I really encourage you to try energy management. It has been life-changing for me.
Read about the three things I started doing to get better sleep here.
Read about how I increased productivity and stopped being late here.
