Running a successful business is an energy game.
We all experience peaks and troughs of energy throughout the day, week, and month. It’s a natural rhythm, as inherent to us as our heartbeat.
Too often, though, we ignore these ebbs and flows, pushing through fatigue or holding back during moments of peak energy.
We’re told that consistency is the key to success, but what if we’re consistently working against our own bodies? What if we could instead harness these natural rhythms to enhance productivity and well-being?
In this blog post, we’re going to explore the concept of energy mapping – understanding your personal energy patterns, and aligning them with your tasks and commitments.
This is a strategy that could change not only your workday, but your life.
It’s about working with your natural energy, not against it.
It’s about switching from simply enduring to truly thriving.
Ready to ride the wave? Let’s dive in!
The 3 Phases Of Energy Waves
Each person has a unique energy rhythm consisting of 3 primary phases.
1. High energy phase – This is when you’re feeling your best, and all the tasks you take on feel possible. Your thoughts are clear and your enthusiasm is high.
2. Medium energy phase – During this stage, your enthusiasm has waned and your focus begins to drift. You’re still capable of getting work done, but it might require more effort.
3. Low energy phase – This is when you feel exhausted and overwhelmed. Your productivity will be lower, so try not to do any challenging tasks during this time.
These phases don’t necessarily occur in a linear fashion – they may overlap, fluctuate, and vary from day-to-day.
Your challenge is to recognize your personal pattern of energy fluctuations, so that you can plan wisely.
What Happens When You Ignore Your Natural Energy Waves
When you ignore your energy patterns and attempt to push through fatigue, you’re making things harder for yourself.
For example, let’s say that for a woman named Sarah, her energy waves follow this sort of pattern…
- 7am: High energy
- 11am: Medium energy
- 2pm: Low energy
- 6pm: High energy
It would be a mistake for Sarah to schedule her most challenging tasks during the period of low energy (2-4pm) – she should instead save these for when her enthusiasm and focus are at their peak.
However, what most business owners do is they schedule their easiest tasks during their high-energy times.
And I get it – it feels really good when you tick off a whole bunch of tasks at the start of the day, and that sense of momentum can sometimes carry you through the rest of your workday.
But this strategy doesn’t work unless you’ve got high energy throughout the entire day.
In reality, like with Sarah, what happens is that our enthusiasm and motivation starts to wane in the mid-afternoon despite all those wins at the start of the day.
And when faced with our more challenging tasks during our low-energy phases, we either:
- find ourselves taking longer
- become overwhelmed
- or procrastinate – justifying to ourselves that it’s okay to take a break since we had such a greatly productive morning smashing all those easier tasks
The result? Either burnout from too much work, or lack of progress on our more important tasks.
How To Harness Your Natural Energy
The key to leveraging your energy waves is to plan ahead.
Start by mapping out when you have high, medium, and low levels of energy each day. If you’re like most women in business, you won’t be aware of this at the outset – it’s something you’ll need to observe over a few days, weeks or months.
Once you have an understanding of your energy pattern, use that information to plan out when you do your most challenging tasks, and when to do your easier tasks.
Peak Energy: Challenging Tasks
When you’re at your peak energy levels, use that burst of enthusiasm to tackle the tasks where you need to make decisions, create content, or have difficult conversations. These are often the tasks that move you and your business forward.
Mid-Energy: Organisational Tasks
When your energy is medium, use this time to do the tasks that require a bit of thought, but not too much creativity. This could be anything from organising your schedule, tidying up your inbox, or finally getting around to those small administrative tasks you’ve been putting off.
Low Energy: Easy / Mindless / Repetitive Tasks
Now when you’re feeling low energy, don’t feel guilty about prioritizing tasks that you can complete quickly or on auto-pilot (usually repetitive and mindless tasks). Examples include scheduling social media posts, handling paperwork and emails, or completing mundane admin tasks.
Alternatively, you can also use this time to take a short break or do something you enjoy to charge your batteries back up. Just make sure you switch gears back once you’ve regained your energy – otherwise, you’ll be trapped in that ‘low-energy procrastination cycle‘!
Work Smarter. Not Harder.
By taking the time to plan ahead based on your energy levels., you’ll get more done in less time – and more importantly, squeeze more out of your work day.
Schedule your most challenging tasks when you have peak energy, and your easier tasks when you have low energy. Focus on the task at hand, without worrying about the other tasks you could be doing.
Working smarter doesn’t mean slacking off – it means taking the time to create an effective strategy that works with your natural energy waves. It’s about taking the time to invest in yourself, so you can be more productive and maximize your effectiveness.
So what are you waiting for? Start taking control of your energy levels and watch as your productivity takes off!
Jen Edge
P.S. If you’d like some help with figuring out your energy waves and how to use them to your advantage, I’d like to invite you to claim your free Energy Optimisation Session and get started on taking back control of your energy!
It’s a 1-on-1 call with me, and during that time, I’ll help you identify your peak and low-energy times, recommend strategies to use those energy waves to your advantage, and provide you with customised action steps that you can start implementing right away.
Ready to take back control of your energy?
Click here now to schedule your free Energy Optimisation Session with me!