Transform Your Day by Taking Control of Your Energy

"Think strategically about where you place your energy… Every battle is won long before it is fought."— James McPartland

I often say that we don’t really manage time; it comes and goes as it pleases. What we can manage, though, is our energy.

Energy is a finite but renewable resource. Where our attention goes, our energy goes.

So, let’s take a moment to think about how we allocate our energy throughout the day. Imagine it like a tray of ice cubes with 12 little blocks. Each morning, we get a fresh tray, and it’s up to us to decide where to place each one.

Think about it: there’s our family, work, clients, emails, commuting, meals, self-care, household chores, TV time, social media, and even the mental energy we spend worrying. Each of these consumes some of our precious energy blocks, and we need to replenish them.

Without a deliberate focus on where we place our energy, it will get dispersed into random acts of distraction. We’re either nurturing the garden of creativity and productivity or just treading water, bogged down by procrastination or mindless tasks, or simply evaporating.

Every night, we have the opportunity to refill our trays with water, preparing for the next day. But the quality of that water—our energy—depends on things like our diet, exercise, alcohol, sleep, stress, and any toxic people or conversations we surround ourselves with.

If we don’t give that water enough time to freeze properly, our energy will be weak and less effective for whatever we attempt to focus on.

How can we possibly give our best if we are not at our best?

Energy that has not been maximized for high priorities will inevitably be drained by low priorities. Fatigue often stems from internal stress as we try to create something outside ourselves.

The good news? We can raise our energy levels, essentially maximizing the purity of the water molecules and ensuring we give our energy blocks enough time to replenish.

Stay tuned next week as I dive into some practical principles we can use to energize ourselves and keep that fatigue at bay!

See you then!

Mac 😎