How to Effectively Manage Your Time and Energy

60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 8 hours in a standard workday, 24 hours in a day. 7 days in a week. 4 weeks in a month. 52 weeks or 12 months in a year. We measure time depending on how we spend it. I get a certain number of hours of Paid Time Off (PTO) each year, but when I want to spend that time, I tend to think in days or weeks. My work time is measured in hours. My leisure time is measured in “whatever is available.” In that band of “whatever is available, I am trying to learn tons of new stuff, launch a book, prepare a business for activity, spend time with my family, write for my blogs, and keep house. Does that sound familiar?

I used to work about 55 miles from my home, which meant an hour commute each way. Sometimes that worked well, but a lot of the time, it was just draining. Working from home means I get those two hours back for my own use. Since I usually get up at 4:30 and don’t go to work till 7:30 or 8:00, that gives me a lot of time to do stuff. I get off between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon, so I have a lot of time after work, too, broken up into “before supper” and “after supper”.

Free time is not all created equal, however. I’ve found that some things just don’t work in some blocks of time, and I’ve found that managing my energy is as important as managing my time, and that has to include my mental energy as well as my physical energy. I’ve also found that very often, managing my time is a matter of managing the expectations of others.

UNDERSTANDING TIME AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT

I’m not a physician, and if you are experiencing physical fatigue, you and your doctor should counsel together to find a course of treatment. Likewise, if you never feel anything other than mental and emotional exhaustion, I don’t have the answer to that, but a therapist probably would. If you are physically and mentally healthy, you can probably manage time and energy in a way that will help you do your best work when your best work needs done.

The accountability group page that I have on Facebook has helped me to track my progress on my goals, and by noting that in my posts, I was able to identify the fact that I am better able to absorb information in the morning before work than I am in the afternoon and evening after work. Often when we talk about managing our time, what we really need to manage is our energy. Perhaps that’s not quite correct, either. What we often need to manage is timing our tasks to match our energy. Yes, we do need to manage the time we have as well. Cleaning out my Email, as important as it is, will probably never be as important as the project my boss just assigned to me, that has a deadline of a week out. Even so, the one day of the week that you have five meetings may not be the best day to engage in Deep-Focus work. You’ll be just getting started good when the notification comes up that your next meeting starts in five minutes. You need to manage both your time and your energy for effective self-management.

LEARNING YOUR TIME AND ENERGY RHYTHM

In order to make the most of your time and energy, when they converge and when they diverge, it is helpful to keep track of both. You can use a journal you’re already working in, or you could get a brand-new one for this purpose. The downside of that second option is that you’re going to recognize your patterns well before you finish all the pages in the notebook, however small it is. You could create a chart or use an Excel spreadsheet with quantifiable elements for mood, physical energy, metal energy, etc. and then graph it out. I used the same planner that I use for all my appointments and meetings, and it enabled me to figure out that I experienced a greater loss of mental energy at the end of a day with five meetings than I did at the end of a day where my last of two meetings was over at 11 AM. The best method is the one you’ll use, and that’ll happen easiest if it’s somehow associated with something you’re already doing. Over time, you’ll begin to recognize patterns that emerge, and you can try switching something up to see how it affects your energy levels.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

We do manage our time to a great extent, but you will sometimes find that some time you have allotted to something you want or need to do has been usurped by someone else imposing their will on your calendar. In my case, there was no malice or discourtesy intended, people were just accustomed to having me available for nearly everything. This had the potential to get worse as my children moved out of the house, because while they lived at home, a great deal of my non-work time was spent at their activities. Telling people “no” is difficult for a lot of people, and if that’s you, don’t beat yourself up over it. I’ve got some ideas that may help you keep your relationships and your time.

One thing that can help is to recognize when people seem to need you. You probably have one or two people who seem to need more from you than most others in your circle need. Are there patterns there as well? Is it a certain time of year, a certain time of day, or are there triggers like birthdays? You can’t control how other people need, and you probably won’t be able to delete their triggers. They’re still going to need. Option one is to figure out if they need you or if they just need someone. If it’s “someone,” could someone else help them? If it’s you, you may be able to anticipate their needing, and if so, you can build them into your schedule. You may just need to say no – nicely, of course, and then maybe suggest who else can possibly be a resource.

Saying “no” to a good cause can be really difficult, but if the project doesn’t resonate with you enough to justify taking yourself off another project, you can try the “no” sandwich. Here’s how it sounds:

“Wow, that sounds like a great project, and it sounds like you’re really enthusiastic about it. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to help out on this one. But I wish you all success, and I hope they realize how lucky they are to get you involved.”  What you’ve done here is a positive expression, assertion of non-availability, and another positive expression. People do respond well to this, so don’t be afraid to say no to things that aren’t going to work well for you. Truly, most people don’t mind.

If it’s a great project that you want to participate in but their timing isn’t the best, you can suggest other times when your energy either isn’t demanded by other things, or you can suggest a time and express that your participation will be limited by other demands. Again, most people won’t mind. Here’s something else you need to keep in mind, though: someone else’s feelings about the fact that you’re protecting your high-value time – those feelings are their responsibility. You don’t need to feel guilty about making sure you’re using your time your way. As long as you’re polite and considerate, you’ve done what you needed to do.

Learning to say “no” to things that aren’t priority for you will enable you to say “yes” to things that are. In fact, every time you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to something else. If you say, “Yes, I will sit and watch four hours of videos just for fun,” you’re saying “No, I’m not going to clean my oven,” or “No, I’m not going to engage in this educational activity.” Look, there’s nothing wrong with doing that, as long as it’s value-driven. By the end of any given workday, watching a couple of hours of fun video is about all I’m good for. If I started my day with that, I’d be wasting that valuable high-mental-energy time. So at the end of the day, what I’m saying “no” to so that I can watch those videos isn’t something that would provide a lot of benefit for me anyway.

CONTROLLING EVENTS AND LETTING GO

There are events that are in your area of control, and there are events that you absolutely cannot control at all, and it’s important that you figure out quickly which is which. Events that are uncontrollable will require that you control only the aftermath, if there is any. Your best energy should really be focused on those events that you are able to control. You don’t absolutely have to let go of events you can’t control, but holding on to them isn’t going to help you gain control over them. We have hurricanes in our part of the country. I can’t change that. Worrying that hurricanes come changes nothing, but the controllable part of that situation is making sure that I have a plan for evacuation, supplies for the duration of staying put, a plan for return from evacuation, knowing where the insurance policies are and who to contact at the agency – you get the idea. But the hurricane itself isn’t something I can control. I’m okay with that.

BALANCING COMMITMENTS

While there are some things you can’t control, you can control how many things and people you commit to. I know, I know, it’s not always that simple. There may be pressures on you from others, and some people are “people-pleasers” for reasons that stem from incidents and environments from their past. For most of us, though, we just hate to be “that person” that says “no.” That can take its toll on you in every aspect of your life. Some of the physical signs of overcommitment include chronic fatigue, increased stress and anxiety, a decline in the quality of your work, difficulty in prioritizing tasks, neglecting your personal needs, and social withdrawal, and there are other signals as well.

Balancing personal and professional commitments can help here, and I’m going to give you some strategies for striking that balance. It’s worth noting that you can use these tactics for balancing just the personal commitments, if they’re the only problem.

1. Set clear boundaries between personal and work time, or between “Others” time and “You” time. Make sure you communicate these boundaries to everyone that wants a piece of you, and most importantly, you must enforce those boundaries. If you haven’t done this before, the people who are affected will expect that you will still be available to them on their schedule, and you’re the only one who can change that.
2. Create a dedicated spot where you do the things that are yours to do. If you work from home, have a spot that you use just for that, and only work from that spot. When you go to that spot, you’re at work, and when you leave that spot, you’re not at work. This can also work for your “you” time. When you walk into that spot, you’re on “you” time, and when you come out of it, you’re back on “everyone” time.
3. Use a planner or a digital calendar to schedule all your activities. I keep all my stuff on one calendar: work meetings, church meetings, personal activities like writing time, webinars I want to attend, my editorial calendar that lays out the blog posts I intend to write, and my marketing calendar for my business. It does appear at first glance that I’m busy from 4:30 AM till 10:00 PM, but many of those activities are “can do” activities. It also looks like there are a lot of meetings and things that overlap on time, but if one meeting cancels, I can drop into the other one. It’s important to have my work meetings on my personal calendar, so that I don’t schedule a teeth cleaning for a time when I have a critical meeting. Someone once told me that my calendar gave them a headache just looking at it, but the different colors of the calendars helps me know at a glance where I’m supposed to be and when I have some time I can just sit and write. I can print out my Google calendar, or I can transcribe my items into a paper planner, which I what I do using different colored pens. It takes me about half an hour a week to do a calendar reconciliation and update both calendars with new entries.
4. Include time in your calendar for yourself.  I cannot stress this enough – put your bath or spa day on your calendar in ink.
5. Learn how to identify the highest priority tasks. I’m going to do a bog post on this later, how to prioritize a bunch of items when you can’t figure out what to do first.
6. When someone asks you to do something, before you say anything, pull out your calendar. This is really effective if you’ve implemented the “different colors for different elements” calendar. When people see that your time is in high demand, they often reevaluate how important it is that it be you to fulfill the task. Only put new tasks into free time. If you have to say no, offer alternatives or suggest another person that may be able to help.
7. Have you ever tried time-blocking? It’s a strategy where you literally block out amounts of time during the day for certain tasks. For example, from 8 AM to noon is deep focus time, and from 12:30 to 4:30 is administrative tasks time. Oh, and no multitasking. There’s really no such thing as multitasking, anyway, as I explain in this post on Southern Fried Yanqui.
8. Take care of yourself. Get some form of physical exercise, try to eat well, and set a good sleep schedule.
9. Take time at least once a week to look over your calendar and reflect how things went and figure out what you can do better.

You matter. You matter to the people on your work team, you matter to your community, you matter to you family, and you matter to you. You have a right to make yourself a priority. You have a right to expect others to respect your time. You can do it in such a way that they’ll be okay with it. As long as you stick to your guns, they’ll have to be, and they’ll live.

YOUR TURN

What is the most difficult part of managing your time and energy? What has helped you make it happen? Drop a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going.