Managing Energy

Rest

Where you can find five to fifteen minutes throughout your day, just simply rest. Close your eyes for a moment, or put on a guided meditation. If you’ve got thirty minutes, take a cat nap. But even if you don’t have time or patience for a full snooze, stillness for a few moments does a lot for our battery.

Reduce

We’ve talked about decision fatigue before, but reducing the amount of decisions and tasks throughout our day is so important. Making tweaks where we can (like Steve's black turtleneck), eliminating the unnecessary, delegating out tasks to others; all of these reduction strategies helps preserve our battery throughout the day.

Recharge

Certain things can juice up our battery midday, like exercise and food. It may sound counterintuitive to exert more energy to gain energy, but exercise really does provide more energy in the long run. Take a fifteen minute walk or pop into a kickboxing class for some movement. Additionally, eating a healthful meal or snack provides literal and metaphorical fuel to or body battery.

Play

Fresh air and a little FUN does wonders for our energy. If you’re feeling drained or fried, turn on some music and dance for ten minutes. Play catch with your family. Try out a crossword. These things help to remove our attention from our work, so our brains can take a little break. You don’t need to spend six hours on a 10,000 piece puzzle; just a few minutes here and there will do.

Now consider what you can do today to better manage your energy. How can you save just 5% more of your body battery today than you did yesterday? What is your favorite way to add energy to your day?