The Importance of Managing Your Energy, Not Just Your Time

Research & Sources / Personal & Career Development

Imagine your phone has a perfectly organised calendar, every app updated, every reminder set. And the battery is at 2 percent. None of the organisation helps. The phone is about to go dark. Many professionals manage their time perfectly and their energy not at all.

Time is fixed, energy is not

Everyone has 24 hours a day. Time management tries to squeeze more into those hours. But there is a limit, and most high performers hit it long ago.

Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy pointed out that while time is limited, energy can be renewed. They described four kinds of energy: physical, emotional, mental and the energy that comes from purpose. Managing these, they argued, can increase what people achieve much more than squeezing more hours.¹

More hours, not more output

John Pencavel studied historical data on working hours and output. Output per hour fell sharply once weekly hours went beyond about 50. Beyond a certain point, extra hours added very little.² Tired people work longer and achieve less.

When exhaustion becomes chronic, it can turn into burnout. The World Health Organization describes burnout as a result of chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, with exhaustion, mental distance from one’s job and reduced effectiveness.³

The four batteries

Physical: sleep, movement, food, breaks. The basis for everything else.

Emotional: how you feel. Frustration and worry drain; appreciation and good relationships recharge.

Mental: focus. Constant interruptions drain it quickly. Gloria Mark and colleagues found that interrupted work leads to more stress and effort.⁴

Purpose: the sense that your work matters. Work that feels meaningful drains less, even when it is hard.

Simple ways to recharge

• Work in blocks of 60 to 90 minutes, then take a real break: stand up, move, look out of the window.
• Protect sleep like an important meeting.
• Put your hardest work in your highest-energy hours.
• Reduce interruptions during focus blocks: phone away, notifications off.
• Notice what drains you and what fills you up, and arrange your week accordingly.
• Take a walk. Stanford researchers found that walking boosted creative thinking compared with sitting.⁵

What this means for you this week

• Track your energy three times a day on a scale of 1 to 10.
• Find your best hours and move your most important task there.
• Add three real breaks to each working day.
• Remove one draining activity or meeting from next week.

A perfect calendar needs a charged battery.

Sources

1. Schwartz, T. & McCarthy, C. (2007). Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgTime is limited, energy can be renewed: rituals for physical, emotional, mental and purpose-related energy.
2. Pencavel, J. (2015). The Productivity of Working Hours. The Economic Journal, 125(589), 2052-2076. doi.orgIn historical factory data, output per hour fell sharply beyond about 50 hours a week; extra hours added little.
3. World Health Organization (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”. who.intBurnout defined as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed: exhaustion, distance from one’s job and reduced efficacy.
4. Mark, G., Gudith, D. & Klocke, U. (2008). The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress. Proceedings of CHI 2008, 107-110. doi.orgInterrupted people compensate by working faster, at the cost of more stress, frustration and effort.
5. Oppezzo, M. & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142-1152. doi.orgWalking increased creative idea generation compared with sitting.