Understanding Energy

I used to focus exclusively on time as the penultimate resource of productivity, but I was wrong—energy is the ultimate resource. Why? No matter how much time you have, it means nothing if you don’t have the energy to use it.

Time is a treasure chest and energy is the gold that fills it.

I’m going to walk through three principles and a key process you can run to put each into practice. If you do this for a week, you will not only understand your personal energy better, you will work more effectively.

Identify Patterns

In order to notice anything, it starts by paying attention—by being a mindful observer. In order to understand how your energy fluctuates, you need to start by identifying patterns:

• When do you have the most energy?
• When do you have the least energy?
• What activities drain your energy?
• What activities energize you?
• How does your energy change?

Process: Energy Audit

For one week, observe your energy and answer these questions. Write down your answers and evaluate them at the end of the week. You’ll gain a better understanding of your energy, and have a process you can revisit when shifts occur.

Match Energy

Once you understand how your energy changes, you can match your work to your energy. This drives deeper alignment between what you work on and when you do it.

• High energy = deep challenging tasks
• Low energy = shallow administrative tasks

Process: Energy Calendar

Use colors for calendar events to indicate your energy levels. For example:

• Green = high energy
• Yellow = medium / neutral energy
• Red = low energy

Use this to identify which type of work should occur in which part of your schedule. This gives you a visual representation of your energy, and it pairs well with your energy audit. The goal is to get as much green in your schedule as possible.

Structured vs. Unstructured

When you go deep and focus for 90+ minutes, it can be draining, even when the work itself is something that energizes you. This is where I like to balance structured focus time with unstructured time to wander.

While this seems counter-intuitive, it more closely resembles the reality of creative work because we don’t experience aha moments while we’re working. It happens in the space between, when your brain is able to process and reflect on the information. This is why “shower thoughts” are a thing.

Process: 90-30 Rule

For every 90 minutes of focus time, follow it with 30 minutes of unstructured wandering. Take a walk, read a book, go down a rabbit hole. Let your brain recover and reflect on the work it just did. Even if you don’t feel comfortable putting “Unstructured Wandering” in your calendar, you can just build it into your rhythms of deep work. I promise you this time will be productive.