Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

Learning is achieved in many forms but the commonly observed contemporary categorisation is the “3Es”: education, exposure and experience. Empirical research highlights that learning is maximized through experience (70%) and that learning agility is further maximized when experiences are multi-layered, diverse and varied. But what happens when the experiences appear to be reaching a limit – the learner might feel that there are just too many experiences to effectively learn?

A straightforward answer might be to reorganize, reprioritize, reschedule or otherwise better manage your time. That might be a short term solution, but for the longer term it might be better to try and manage your energy. This is the essence of an article originally published in October 2007 in the Harvard Business Review where Schwartz and McCarthy proposed how to “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time”. Whilst not focused on learning per se, I nevertheless thought this might be useful for readers since learning is often considered the core of leadership…

Here's the summary followed by further implications ("et alors?").

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

What can be done instead of reducing sleep, quality family time and even skipping meals? The authors suggest there are four domains where the focus can be on energy rather than time:

Physical energy

·         Reduce stress by exercising: three times a week cardio; at least once a week strength

·         Eat small meals and regulate intake to every three hours; reduce alcohol consumption.

·         Take brief but regular breaks during the day; go to bed earlier.

Emotional energy

·         Fuel positive emotions by proactively engaging in positive feedback

·         Look at difficult situations through new “lenses”. Reverse lens – what would the other person say (which might be right); long lens – how important will this be in six months; and wide lens – how can I grow and learn from this situation?

Mental energy

·         Perform high-concentration tasks away from phones and email

·         Only respond to voice- and e-mails at designated times during the day

·         Every night identify the key point for the next day.

Spiritual energy

·         Identify activities for which you have a passion; and then focus on these.

·         Review what is most important to you and then focus on that.

·         Identify and then live your core values

Et alors?

Some of the points have a certain resonance but others seem a bit awkward. For “physical” energy the recommendations are reasonably obvious but the trouble is that it is always easier said than done! “Emotional” energy is interesting: firstly the focus on positive feedback – the more you give the better you feel; secondly, just taking a pause from the dynamic and looking at things through new lenses is a great way of assessing the situation objectively. “Mental” energy is something that is very challenging to manage at work in this era of instant everything, but a good tip is to only access email at pre-designated times during the day. “Spiritual” energy might be the most awkward for some readers. Nevertheless, focusing on tasks which instill your passion is sound advice for a long and sustainable career.

The advice might not resonate with non-Americans as much as the native market for which this article was written. Some cultures might believe that physical energy is achieved from different dietary regimes – high protein breakfasts; or big lunches rather than dinners; or high carbohydrate breakfasts; etc. etc. The point is that the references are quite often contextual. Latin cultures might better manage their emotional energy by actually occasionally letting off steam – but this would only work if the individual and the other members of the group subscribe to that behavior, i.e. the culture is accepting. Mental energy actually looks like a time-management theory and is orientated to cultures preferring monochronic time organization (i.e. one thing at a time as often seen in Northern European); rather than polychronic cultures where making phone calls and sending emails during meetings is considered energizing! Spiritual energy seems targeted to an individualist audience (common in Western cultures) rather than a collectivist audience (common in Asian cultures). In the latter “your” values and passions are only secondary to the group but complying with the group might boost your energy!

In summary, everyone has their limits and too much experience can start to reduce rather than add to the overall learning experience. It is therefore important to first know when a limit has been reached. Then reorganize your time to be as effective as you can but make sure that this is within your own cultural references. The reprioritize, then reschedule and then think about managing your energy. Everything helps! To go through a process of managing your time and your energy, it is actually one of the recommendations in the article which has most resonance: look at difficult situations through new “lenses”. Reverse lens – what would the other person say (which might be right); long lens – how important will this be in six months; and wide lens – how can I grow and learn from this situation? With the emphasis on learning…