#GrowYourLife #BuildYourBusiness
Life Area: Physical and Personal
Topic: Energy Management
Why You Need to Manage Your Energy Not Your Time
Every day we feel the pull from every direction. Your home life demands your time. Your work life demands your time. And when do you get that so needed “me” time? Managing time can feel like the right solution. But if you’re mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted, more time won’t help.
So how can we become more productive without risking both our mental and physical health? We manage our energy of mind, emotions, body and spirit: our mind energy, our emotional energy, our physical energy, and our spiritual energy. CEO of the organizational performance consultancy group The Energy Project, Tony Schwartz, author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working and co-author of the book The Power of Full Engagement, puts it this way in his Harvard Business Review article entitled “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time”: focus on how you cultivate more energy, instead of obsessing over your time.
Mental Energy – Our Mind
Reduce interruptions during your day by only checking emails at designated times. Here’s the key. Make sure your team knows those times. If everyone knows that they won’t hear from you until 1pm, you’ve created a buffer for deep work. The more long stretches of deep work, the more you’ll be able to get into flow, and create higher quality work. I’m sure you have read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, and if not, order it here from Amazon and you will find it a valuable read.
Emotional Energy – Our Emotions
Meditate. Start with an awareness of your breath. When you breathe in make sure your belly expands. Not the other way around.
If you have trouble clearing your mind, make sure you at least have a mantra, an affirmation. When I began meditating I would simply say “One” on the inhale and “Two” on the exhale.
One of the most valuable things I’ve ever done for myself and my career was to start meditating every day. The mental, emotional, health, AND SUCCESS benefits of daily meditation are truly amazing. Traditional meditation can take a long time to master (and even longer to start enjoying the benefits). But now you can start to reap all the incredible benefits of meditation from the very first day, in only 10 minutes!
Check out my FREE 7-Day Guided Mindfulness Meditation Audio Series where I will personally guide you through seven 10 minute meditations. You can access them anytime, from anywhere, from any device, right from that page OR you may download them and listen to each of the seven sessions any time you want.
________________________________________________________________________
One of the most valuable things I’ve ever done for myself and my career was to start meditating every day.
________________________________________________________________________
Physical Energy – Our Body
Our bodies need good fuel, lots of motion, and plenty of sleep. When it comes to nutrition, I’ve written hear before in my blog post entitled 8 Ways To Gain Energy Naturally, the energy value derived from eating right. Regarding exercise, you’ve heard me say it time and again, “The best exercise to do, IS THE ONE YOU’LL DO. If you like basketball, then don’t drag yourself out of bed to go for a morning run. Hit the gym for those pick-up games and the at Wednesday night basketball league. Do what you love and you won’t need much breakthrough motivation to stay on track. And lastly, sleep. Listen to your body. Most of us require six to eight hours of sleep to maintain a productive next day. Perhaps an afternoon nap will give you a needed second wind. Find your sweet spot and your body will thank you.
________________________________________________________________________
If you are looking for a roadmap to achieve any goal and create the life you want, look no further than my Create The LIFE You Want Workshop. In this workshop, I’ll walk you through the steps needed to create a crystal clear vision of what you want, choosing a BIG, ambitious goal, and putting together a complete plan of action and achievement. This workshop is often held in an exotic location (last year we were in Santorini, Greece. This year we are in Sedona, Arizona!), so if you want to plan for a vacation with a purpose, this is the one for YOU!
________________________________________________________________________
Spiritual Energy – Our Spirit
Protecting your spiritual life starts with self-awareness. Knowing what you’re good at helps. Live your passion, your God-given talents. I like to think of the things I’m good at as my super powers. Once you understand your super powers, focus on doing more of that.
If there are edges of work that you’re not good at, delegate, or ask for help/reassignment. The more super power work you can get to, the more spiritually aligned you can be at work. And, yes, it is possible to be spiritually aligned at work. It’s called “doing what you love” and “Living your purpose.”
And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t advise you to connect with your higher power. If that’s attending church services, meditating, or simply praying each day, when you make that energetic connection your own energy increases.
Please share this post with your family and friends.
My mission is to inspire people and organizations to live their highest vision.
I am a Success Strategist and Master Coach. I provide transformational coaching and training for individuals and organizations to help you Grow Your Life and Build Your Business by getting clear and focused on what you want, why you want it, and how to create it. Learn more about me at SuccessSeriesLLC.com.
There is no better endorsement than that of a friend, so if you like what you’re reading or are using my many FREE resources, tell a friend to join the Tom Hart Success Series Community, to receive email notifications of new blog posts and Talk with Tom podcast episodes, learn of upcoming events, and other news, by visiting my website and clicking on the offer to receive my FREE monthly resource by leaving their email address OR forward this to them and have them simply click here (we respect your privacy and do not tolerate spam and will never sell, rent, lease or give away your information to any third party).
