4 Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance
It's not how many hours you put in that determines how productive you are—it's how much energy you're able to invest during the hours you work. Master this one simple concept, and you'll not only be more effective, you'll also be much happier.
Illustration: Malte Mueller/Getty Images
Too often, we take our energy for granted. We assume that if there's more demand, our capacity to meet it will just naturally expand. But if you often find yourself feeling tired or overwhelmed or stressed out, you know that's not true.
The challenge is not to get better at managing your time, which is finite, but rather about managing your energy, which you can systematically increase and regularly renew. The fact is that if we're not intentionally finding ways to increase and renew our energy, we're depleting ourselves. If we're not getting stronger, we're getting weaker.
As human beings, we need four very different sources of energy to operate at our best: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. None is sufficient by itself, and they all influence one another.
Just for starters, consider these four strategies, one for each of the four energy dimensions:
Physical
It makes sense that the bigger the demands in our lives, the greater the need for renewal. We do just the opposite. Start taking a break at least every 90 minutes. You can get a lot of renewal by completely disengaging from work even for very short periods of time.
Emotional
Start paying attention to how you're feeling, moment to moment. How you feel profoundly influences how you perform. When you notice yourself moving into negative emotions, apply this principle: Whatever you feel compelled to do, don't. Instead, smile, take a deep breath and wait to act until you're capable of thinking clearly.
Mental
Stop trying to multitask. You can't, efficiently or effectively. Instead, work as much as possible in short, uninterrupted sprints. Focus intensely for no more than 90 minutes, and then take a break. At a minimum, do the most important thing first every day, for at least 60 minutes.
Spiritual
It's very easy, under pressure, to do whatever will solve the problem in the moment, without regard for the long-term consequences. Instead, ask yourself this simple question when you have a difficult decision to make: "What's the right thing to do here?" The more intentionally you make decisions, the better they'll be.
Is there an area of your life you feel more challenged than others when it comes to personal energy? What are your struggles? Take just one behavior that you're not currently doing but know you should, and start doing it at a specific time every day for a week. You'll notice a difference in your life.
Tony Schwartz is the author of The Way We're Working Isn't Working and president and CEO of TheEnergyProject.com.
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