Episode 1078: Energy Management versus Time Management

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1078 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Joel

[00:00:07] Joel Hawbaker: hall, baker, teacher speaker, and author of inverted leadership. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your car.

[00:00:22] Having the ability to lead through confident humility is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:33] Scott Maderer: And then of course you end up not getting it done, and that affects the energy that you have for the rest of your day. So the first step is to actually begin to pay attention to what is your energy? For different tasks and for different things. How does that AB and flow throughout the day and throughout the week?

[00:00:53] And how is it depleted by different tasks that you do? Welcome and thank you for joining us on [00:01:00] the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:01:14] We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that. Can impact the world.

[00:01:24] today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about the difference between time management and energy management. I share why energy management is more key than time management. And I also share why it's more about self-awareness than tactic. You've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books.

[00:01:49] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/audible to sign. And you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from, and you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible.

[00:02:15] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible. To get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Talk to a lot on the podcast about high don't really like the term time management, how the truth is. We all have a certain amount of time each and every day, but the way that we manage it is less about managing the time and more about managing ourselves.

[00:02:47] And one of the other things that kind of proves that is the idea of. I call energy management instead, because at the end of the day, energy management [00:03:00] is as important or probably even more important than most of what is talked about. When people talk about time management, the truth is energy management.

[00:03:14] When I think about that way, what I think about productivity. Through the lens of energy management. I suddenly recognize that is really revolutionary to the way that I work. It changes a lot about my productivity, about myself, care about all of those things. Basically energy management is the idea of managing your work and your productivity based in part on your energy levels, focusing on the level of energy, as opposed to using a calendar or a to-do list as the center of your project management system or your time management system, [00:04:00] it's changed.

[00:04:01] The focused from a calendar based task-based idea to recognizing that the truth is our energy levels fluctuate throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the month, even minute to minute. I'm including that when we're looking at our calendar, when we're looking at our to-do list, what are looking at our productivity and in also when we're looking at ourself care, recognizing that instead of just a collection of different strategies and techniques, we need to pay attention to our own energy.

[00:04:37] And what is happening inside of ourselves. It's about becoming self aware of your energy levels because managing your energy means that you have to admit that you only have a finite amount of. And what's more, that, that energy level isn't even completely [00:05:00] predictable. Have you ever had that day where you thought you were going to be really productive, but then you got up in the morning and for some reason you didn't sleep well the night before.

[00:05:11] And now your mental energy, your creative energy is drained. See, that's another point. We have different kinds of energy. We have physical energy, we have mental energy. We have creativity, we have emotional energy. We have social energy that can be drained, and each of these can be drained by what we do.

[00:05:32] And there's days that something that is a simple task can suddenly require much more energy than normal. There's a system that people that deal with chronic fatigue or lupus or other chronic disabilities and illnesses deal with called spoon theory. It's really just a way of framing the energy pool that you have available and then how your energy is depleted throughout the [00:06:00] day.

[00:06:00] So in this idea, that basically it's a way of saying that you start the day with a finite pool of energy. In this case, the woman that invented this went and gathered spoons from the cafeteria. So she said on a good day, she has about 12 spoons available. And then when she gets up and makes breakfast and gets ready for the day, that takes a spoon.

[00:06:24] And so she removes a split. From her pool of spoons and other days, maybe getting ready for the day and fixing breakfast to doing those things actually takes three spoons out of her. 12. The point is that it isn't just that you have a finite pool of energy it's even that different task and require different amounts of energy at different times.

[00:06:48] And recognizing this means that you recognize that energy management kind of comes first, because it's about self-awareness, it's about learning yourself, your [00:07:00] energy levels and how they ebb and flow throughout the day. How long a task can take is something that you can study and understand. And inevitably, we usually get it wrong when we first estimate it.

[00:07:14] They even have a name for that. It's called the planning fallacy. But the idea too is to recognize that sometimes it's your energy levels. That cause that change. If you try to do a creative task, when your creativity is low and that energy level is. You're not going to be as efficient or accurate as normal.

[00:07:33] You're not going to be able to get it done. And then of course you end up not getting it done and that affects the energy that you have for the rest of your day. So the first step is to actually begin to pay attention to what is your energy like for different tasks and for different things. How does that ebb and flow throughout the day and throughout the week?

[00:07:55] And how is it depleted by different tasks that you do? [00:08:00] And then you can begin to include that in your planning for the week and for the day you can pay attention to when are you at your most creative? When are you at your most energetic? And when are you at a level where you really shouldn't put those kinds of tasks and you can pay attention to the days that aren't like other days you can acknowledge the fact that not every day is going to be great.

[00:08:26] And sometimes when you have a bad day, you can set aside without guilt and say today, I'm just not going to get as much done as I would. I'm not going to get as much done as I had planned. And that's okay too, by becoming more self-aware you can become more responsive, not only to the external things, but also to the internal factors that drive your productivity.

[00:08:54] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:55] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship [00:09:00] podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time investor.

[00:09:41] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.