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Get More Time by Managing Your Energy

What is important that you need to do? What will you plan to begin doing right now that will allow you to harness your energy and gain more time? Pick one thing you will do today and enjoy the renewed energy and time you gain!
Christy Geiger

Christy Geiger

5 Min Read

In the book, The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz offer a paradigm for time management which focuses on leveraging energy rather than time. Loehr says, “The ultimate measure of our lives is not how much time we spend on the planet, but rather how much energy we invest in the time we have.”[1] Based on the authors’ concept of harnessing your energy to be in FULL ENGAGEMENT,[2] here are some key strategies to help you to empty your plate and accomplish more:

1) Manage your energy, not your time.

Start paying attention to your body. If you experience afternoon fatigue, consider the source. Is it your diet? Are you getting only a little sleep? “Pushing through” tasks when your energy is low causes ineffectiveness. When you’re sharp and focused, you can complete the job more quickly.

  • When do you have the most energy? Tackle hardest projects at that time.
  • When do you have the least? Take breaks. Schedule power naps, workout, or other activities that require less focus.
  • Consider what is zapping your energy. Are you doing things that are not in line with your values? Are you procrastinating? Identify the times that you have energy and times that you don’t. What are you doing differently?

2) Downtime is key for your success.

While it would be great to run at 110% all the time, our bodies require food, rest and relaxation. Many successful people recommend one day a week that you do NO WORK, giving you more energy for the other six days of the week. Think of your body as a battery and your day off as the charger. Constantly unplugging it and using it will drain it, and you’ll never get fully charged if you keep unplugging the battery and using it. It takes three times as long to charge a dead battery than it does to keep it charged (and who wants to run out of juice mid-task), so don’t wait until you are dead; charge yourself weekly with downtime.

3) Rituals help to maintain focus.

When we are overwhelmed or overloaded, we operate less efficiently and waste time. The authors of The Power of Full Engagement recommend RITUALS for optimizing energy and time. Rituals set up a recurring time and pattern for needed tasks and behaviors. Coaches commonly suggest establishing 10 daily habits, or rituals, that support what you have to do anyway. However, by linking them together in a set time and pattern, you go on autopilot and accomplish them quickly and easily. Habits or rituals are daily tasks that take a short amount of time and add to your productivity, e.g., making to-do lists, confirming appointments, bill paying, clearing your desk, filing, returning phone calls, checking e-mail, drinking water, eating fruit, etc.

4) Purpose fuels performance.

Know why you are doing what you are doing. We get caught up in doing tasks because we always have done them, think we need to do them or just should do them. “Shoulds” are a performance killer. They never quite reach priority status on our to-do list. Why is the task important? Why do you care that it gets done? Things that we approach in a lackadaisical manner take longer to accomplish, stand to be interrupted, are likely to be put off or left undone or are completed with loose ends. When you work with purpose, you complete things quickly, stay focused and generate momentum. This will allow you to finish the current objective in less time and go on to accomplish even more.

5) Work in sprints (small bursts of focused energy).

Life is full of interruptions and urgent or unplanned tasks. How do you keep yourself from falling victim to a reactionary cycle of running from one urgent thing to the next, praying for a minute to last longer? Schedule sprint times where you are 100% focused on one thing. I recommend sprints be 30 or 50-minute time blocks. Close the doors, shut off the phone, have a full drink, and clear all distractions for your sprint time. Know exactly what you want to accomplish, and work only on that. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done, creating momentum and focus, which lends itself to building energy naturally. You will often get more done in this period than you can in an entire day of random interruptions and urgent demands. This is a great time to work on important tasks such as writing, billing, customer service, or things that if they don’t get done will not kill you now, but will require serious time and attention if neglected.

What is important that you need to do? What will you plan to begin doing right now that will allow you to harness your energy and gain more time? Pick one thing you will do today and enjoy the renewed energy and time you gain!

[1] (New York: Free Press, 2003), 4.

[2] Ibid.,6.

  • Get more time
  • manage your energy
  • The Power of Full Engagement
Published April 8, 2020

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Author(s)

  • Christy Geiger

    Christy Geiger

    Executive & Leadership Coach

    Synergy Strategies

    • LinkedIn
    • Personal Website
    Christy is an seasoned and certified Coach for executives/CXO, leaders, entrepreneurs and top performers with a truly refreshing and unique perspective. Since 2002, she has worked with over 1000 individuals to break through personal and business barriers to perform at their best. She is passionate about learning, challenging the status quo and helping her clients achieve their desired goals. With extensive background in human psychology, personality and strengths, Christy leads each of her clients to better understand themselves, their clients and their team to increase efficiency and productivity. Over the course of her career, Christy has helped her clients customize their approach to implement strategies which maximize personal strengths and styles, and to break through personal barriers and limitations to perform at their highest. With her approach, Christy has helped solopreneurs, business leaders, and CEO’s to grow start-up businesses or expand their organization into multi-million dollar companies. She has helped businesses and non-profits grow, developed leadership teams, and coached CEOs to leverage both their strengths and weaknesses to transform their leadership styles and that of their organizations. Whatever your goal is, Christy expands internal awareness and insight to break through personal barriers guiding individuals to reach new sales, marketing, or team production. Christy brings over 15 years of personal and professional experience to each of her clients. She has developed teams in the corporate world, earned a Master's degree in Psychology, and is certified in the use of the DISC personality system, Guerrilla Marketing approach and Rule the Room Financial system. Founded in her belief each person has God-given strengths and talents, she also works with those in career discovery, transition and advancement to better understand and leverage their gifts and skills to love their work and place in the world. She grew up in California but has lived on the East Coast (North Carolina), and in the Midwest (Minnesota) and now calls Texas (Austin) home with her husband and two children.
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