Energy

One of the great realisations is when you work out those things that give energy and those things that take it away. I think I was given the article Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time at some stage in the late 2000’s but didn’t really appreciate the message until much later in my career when time became an increasingly scarce resource.

The easiest way to think about it is instead of relentlessly working out how much to fit into a single day, thinking about the points of the day where you want or need maximum energy, and appreciating that it’s really, really difficult to be running at max speed all day. Some people can do it. Most people can’t.

I appreciate now that energy is the most important thing we have in any given day. To have optimised energy going into any situation, whether it be a meeting, a presentation or a 1:1 allows for focus and attention and will always lead to a better outcome. The greatest gift anyone can give anyone else is their undivided attention.

There have been countless meetings I’ve had over the years where I’ve watched distracted and overtired senior managers powering away at their laptops or watching their phones when they should have been focussed on something else. The end result typically is a worthless and unproductive meeting. Mostly because something else was capturing their attention that was supposedly more important than the moment they were in at that time.

I’ve worked out the following things give me energy

1. Talking on the phone to someone I like
2. Going for a walk
3. Coffee
4. Meditation

However these things take it away

1. A carb heavy lunch, or just poor food in general
2. Dealing with people that are difficult, or don’t share the same values as I do
3. Coffee

Caffeine works the same as fake news, whilst it initially gives the feeling of energy and alertness, but soon gives way as the overcompensation of adenosine kicks in resulting in fatigue about 3 hours later, hence the need to have more, which thereby starts a caffeine spiral to get up from feeling fatigued. ¹

Stolen Focus by Johan Hari has lots of thoughts on running at full speed. “We have to shrink the world to fit our cognitive bandwidth. If you go too fast, you overload your abilities, and they degrade. But when you practice moving at a speed that is compatible with human nature, and you build that into your daily life, you begin to train your attention and focus. Slowness, nurtures attention, speed shatters it.”

I wonder how much inefficiency exists because the average executive is running too fast and not managing their energy.

¹When you consume caffeine, the chemical that is suppressed is adenosine. Caffeine works by blocking the action of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep and relaxation. By doing so, caffeine creates a stimulating effect and helps to keep you awake and alert. However, feeling sleepy a few hours after drinking coffee can occur due to the body’s natural response to caffeine. Once the effects of caffeine wear off, adenosine can bind to its receptors, leading to a “rebound effect” that can make you feel even more tired than before. Additionally, the initial energy boost from caffeine can mask your body’s natural tiredness, causing you to feel sleepy once the caffeine wears off. So a caffeine spiral is when you need more caffeine from feeling tired from having caffeine. What makes it even worse is when you have coffee late in the day you risk not having a quality sleep, as it typically takes 5-6 hours to break down in your system. Poor sleep means you wake up tired. Therefore you need caffeine to wake you up…and the spiral continues.