Quit only managing time and start managing this instead

I don’t know about you, but the older I get the more I realize I don’t have the same energy as I used to have.  We all have been a teenager before.  This is a time where you can stay up all night, get fours hours of rest, and be ready to go the next day.  For me those days are long gone.  If I don’t get my seven to eight hours of sleep everyday, I am not as good that day.

In the business world, everyone is focused on time and money.  And you know what, you should be.  Those two things are very important. However, the one precious resource that is just as important, or in many cases, even more important is your energy.

What I have learned about myself, is that there are certain things that I must do when I have the most energy, which is obviously in the morning.

I have written about this before.  See this article here for more about that topic and my thoughts.  Here is another one as well.   It goes right along with this blog as well.

Let me give you an example of managing energy.  You and I both have more energy in the morning than we do at any other part of the day. It may not feel like it when we first get up, but you do.  Especially, if you got the amount of hours of sleep that your body needs.  For me, it is seven to eight.

In the morning, I get my workout done because that is when I know I have the most energy and I get it out-of-the-way.  I also use the time immediately right after a workout to do the more tedious things and tasks that require me to think.  Things such as writing, prepping for training I might be delivering, planning some marketing efforts, etc.  These kinds of tasks require me to think a lot, which takes a lot of energy.

What I have found is that If I try to do these tasks in the evening or late in the day, I am not as good at them.  And when I say not as good, I mean this.  The actual end products are not as good.  The reasons they aren’t as good is because I am not as creative.  And when I am not a creative, I tend to get more frustrated.  And when I get frustrated I don’t produce as well as I do when I am not.

I don’t have children, but I have been around a lot of children.  And what do parents say about a cranky toddler, or a cranky baby sometimes.  “Oh they didn’t have their nap”.  “They didn’t get as much sleep”, etc.  We as adults are no different.  We are more crankier when we are tired, which means we aren’t going to be a productive as we can be when we are not.

I have designed my days around my energy.  I work out in the morning, I plan in the morning, I prep in the morning.  As a manager of people, I would write reviews in the morning.  If I had a spreadsheet or something that I needed to work on, I would do this in the morning.  I would plan my day based off of my energy levels.

As I have gotten even older, I have now tried to even fit in a nap when possible.  Yes. A nap.  I don’t need much sleep.  Maybe twenty minutes or so, around 12:30 or 1:00.  Keep in mind, if you are getting up as early as I do, by the time, noon or so rolls around, I have been up for a while.  By including this little nap, when I get back to work I have about a two to three-hour time span where my energy level is really high again.

I am not smart enough to tell you how food and diet contributes to your energy, but we all know it does.  What I do know.  Is that you must eat the right kinds of foods and take in the right kinds of liquids to maintain your energy levels as well.

I have tried to point out to you that managing time and money is really important, but don’t forget how important it is to manage your energy as well.  I manage my time, based off of my energy levels.  And you should to.

For the sports fans out there.  If your favorite quarterback or point guard for your favorite college or pro sports team gets an injury.  And you know they are injured.  You wouldn’t want them to play, or you shouldn’t want them to play until they are one hundred percent healed from the energy.  Because you know if they are not one hundred percent healed, that the chances of getting hurt are higher, or it could prevent the injury from healing the way it needs to.  And lastly, you know because of that injury they aren’t going to be as good when they are playing.

This is no different from us trying to do things through out our day without considering our energy levels.  We try to do hard tasks when are energy is at its lowest.  This puts us a an extreme disadvantage of being successful, just like an athlete trying to play through an injury.

I encourage you to think about your days and how you can start managing your day, not only around the time you have, but consider managing your day around the energy you have as well.

To your success and your future.