Power Tool: Energy Management vs. Time Management

A Coaching Power Tool created by Karen Folino
(Personal Wellness Coach, UNITED STATES)

There is more to life than increasing its speed. Mahatma Gandhi

We all become obsessed with “managing our time”.  Many times, we become bogged down with this concept.   We all have the same amount of time…24 hours in a day.  Tony Zipple, a fellow ICA Executive Coach said

We cannot manage time.  It just is.  We can, however, manage ourselves.

Have you ever challenged yourself to think that if all your focus on is time, you might be held back by transactional things — DOING vs. BEING?

Have you ever noticed how certain activities, people, and subjects ignite your interest, energy, and passion more than others? Have you ever wondered why that’s so, whether there’s a pattern behind it, and how you could put this pattern to use for yourself? In contrast, what if we thought about how much energy is required to achieve our goals and how having abundant energy could change the outcome of our choices?

This shift of emphasis can be important to an individual and/or a coach.  The average life expectancy of a human is approximately 80 years … but you could lose your energy as early as 60.  Each of us have 24 hours in a day, but if after five hours, you fizzle out, it doesn’t matter about the other 19 hours.   The issue is not the amount of time you have; it is the amount of energy you have and how you spend the energy.

What difference should this make to us, you ask?   If you do not have the energy, you cannot execute.  We are all like batteries.  Sooner or later, we will lose all our energy.  That is why it is essential to place your energy in something worthwhile.

Self-Application

I recommend you take care of the minutes for the hours will take care of themselves. Lord Chesterfield

Here are 5 suggestions to enable the placement of your energy in something you consider worthwhile:

1. Focus on activities that contribute to the greatest value in your life and do more of those.  Eliminate the activities that contribute little or no value to your life and where it is a meaningless investment of one’s energy.
2. Identify and understand your individual strengths.   When you know what you are good at and perform from that position of strength, you will use far less energy, be able to sustain it longer and enjoy what you are doing as well as having a sense of well-being.
3. Eliminate “high-fat hangover” from eating fatty foods.   Research has indicated that eating fatty foods lowers memory function in the brain and could also slow us down and impair our thinking.
4. Exercise – a little goes a long way.  Research has suggested that each additional day of exercise in a given week continues to boost energy levels.  You could achieve levels whereby it would take up to six days before  reaching a point of diminishing returns.
5. Meditate or Pray – Taking time out during our busy days has the effect of creating internal space and energy.  Each day take at least five to ten minutes to either breathe consciously or to meditate, pray and be thankful.

Experimenting

Here are a series of experiments that one could use to assess the impact of time management vs. energy management:

• Regarding energy and time, learn to think in terms of units---a unit equals five minutes.   Never think of an hour—an hour is 12 units.   To use 12 or more units, an activity has to be something that is really worthy of your energy…and that is determined by the results it leads to.
• Ask people who send you emails to limit them to six lines or less with one question per email.  This can give you an opportunity to answer them quickly with a “yes, no, or maybe” and enable you to get through 300 emails a day and stay in touch with a lot of people.
• Consider conducting some of your selected meetings standing up and in the other person’s office.   That way, you can leave when the mission is accomplished.
• Keep time in meetings to a minimum--Attend only meetings that are necessary.  Insist on starting on time, getting and sticking to the point, limiting the agenda, and ending on time.  Meetings can be big time wasters.
• Use every minute (or unit) to pursue your goals—What do you do when caught in a traffic jam?