Episode 788 Manage Your Energy More than Your Time
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 788 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hi, my name is Erin Walker, I'm president and founder of the mastermind playbook. You know, masterminds are a great way to intentionally grow yourself and invest in others. And one way to be inspired to serve others well is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my good friend, Scott Mader.
[00:00:35] and as you don't pay attention to your energy and you get less productive, you begin to get less and less productive. It's either a positive spiral or a negative one. And oftentimes it takes some assistance from outside of yourself to break that cycle. So where are you? Are you maintaining your energy?
[00:00:56] Are you maintaining your productivity by paying attention? Welcome [00:01:00] and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. 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.
[00:01:16] We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you. Can impact the world.
[00:01:31] And today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why I believe in productivity and energy management, much more than I believe in time management. I also share some ways that you can go about managing your energy. And I talked to you about why this can be challenging, especially in stressful times, as we talk about stewarding your time.
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[00:02:11] If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. One of those concepts that you hear over and over again, is the idea of working on time management. You've got to manage your time. You've got to make sure you're using your time. Well, and I've even talked about that here on this podcast, and it's definitely true.
[00:02:35] You want to pay attention to how you're using your time, but I would argue you don't really manage your time. You manage yourself. And you manage things about yourself to use your time wisely, but it's not managing the time itself. Instead. I like to talk about either productivity. Are I like to talk about energy management?
[00:02:57] See the truth is we all have [00:03:00] rhythms to our day. We all have things that we can be doing that are important, and we all have a certain amount of energy that we can expend to do those things. And if you've ever had one of those days where you just try to suck it up and will yourself through getting a whole bunch of things done, even when you're exhausted, you know that when your energy is low, it's very hard to have your productivity be high.
[00:03:24] But one of the reasons I think so many people focus on time management instead is because energy management and productivity is a very personal thing. It has a lot to do with how you see the world. It has a lot to do with your own physical and mental capabilities, your age, your sleep levels, your nutrition.
[00:03:45] Do you exercise? How are you physically fit all of these things feed in to your ability to be productive and that your ability. To use your energy. Well, and in fact, if you're not paying attention to these things, if you're [00:04:00] not getting enough sleep, if you're not eating well, if you're not paying attention to exercise and movement during the day, if you're not getting enough fun in your life and finding way to unplug and ways to plug back into work, then you're not going to be as productive as well.
[00:04:17] So think about this for a minute. Have you ever tried to have one of those days where you just stayed on the computer 24 hours a day and tried to get everything done, or you got off the computer then immediately got on your phone and then got on the TV screen and then got on the computer upstairs and then did this and did that.
[00:04:34] And you're tied to technology all day long and you became exhausted. One of the ways of managing your energy is to pay attention to those cycles, to pay attention to what depletes your energy and pay attention to what gives you energy pay attention to, if you're somebody that's sitting all day long, tends to drain your energy, then schedule time when you can stand.
[00:04:59] If you're not [00:05:00] getting enough, exercise begin to schedule time into your day to actually get some physical. Extra touch size if you're not eating as well as you should begin to do some meal planning. See the interesting thing is your productivity and your energy comes more from mindset and actions that at first glance feel like wasting time.
[00:05:23] If I spend time meditating every day, or I spend time on meal planning, oftentimes you feel like I'm not getting time to do the things that I think are really important. I'm wasting this time that I could spend in other ways. But the irony is if you spend that time on those things, your productivity goes up and during the time you do spend getting things done, you get more done and you get them done at a better level of ability.
[00:05:51] If you're consistently working 70 hours a week, 80 hours a week, 60 hours a week, you're draining your energy banks and what's happening [00:06:00] is you're getting less and less productive. You're getting less and less effective over time. This is so important, especially in a time when it's challenging in a time when your emotional stress is high, what happens is as your emotional stress goes up, your body produces stress hormones.
[00:06:20] And as you produce those stress hormones, what happens is it actually depletes your energy because your body begins to wander. Defend itself. Your mind says I'm feeling stressed. I need to unplug. I need to move away. I need to stop feeling this way and it tries to move you towards doing other things.
[00:06:40] This is one of the reasons that when you're under stress, oftentimes people will both feel exhausted and worried and unable to sleep. Your brain just gets in this weird trap. Where it's keeping you awake because it wants to protect itself. It wants to pay attention to possible harm. But you also [00:07:00] feel like you need sleep because of the stress hormones draining your energy.
[00:07:04] And so it's this weird feedback loop. This is why during those times, sometimes it's worth it to get coaching or therapy or otherwise get some actual help from a professional to help you deal with that stress so that you can begin to focus in on your energy. Get that back up and begin to get productive.
[00:07:24] Productive again. What's funny is you get feedback loops. They could be negative feedback loops, or they can be positive feedback loops. As you pay attention to your energy and increase your productivity, it helps you become even more productive. And as you don't pay attention to your energy and you get less productive, you begin to get less and less.
[00:07:45] Productive. It's either a positive spiral or a negative one. And oftentimes it takes some assistance from outside of yourself to break that cycle. So where are you? Are you maintaining your energy? Are you maintaining your [00:08:00] productivity by paying attention to your energy and how you use it? Are you stuck in one of those downward cycles and need a kick?
[00:08:07] Our jumpstart to break free and be productive again. Thanks for listening.
[00:08:18] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship 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 your calling. If you like 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 four four, two, two, two time tips.
[00:08:55] And that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time [00:09:00] until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .