All of us live incredibly fast-paced lives, so managing our energy has become a necessary skill. Finding the balance between productive work and relaxing has become an art in today’s world. How to master it?
This post is part of the series about making an annual review of the most important areas in your life. Before you read it, have a look at the introductory post I published here.
In the previous post, I did an annual review of Career, Personal Finances, Physical Health, Mental Health and Emotions, as well as Relationships.
Productivity has been a major topic on my blog and in my newsletter in the last few months for two main reasons.
First, many of you started working remotely during the pandemic, so you felt the need to organize your days in a different way than earlier.
Second, the extraordinary situation in the world in 2020 probably made many of you rethink your career and goals in life. Last year made people realize that there’s no safety in today’s economy anymore. The only way to create a better future for yourself is to work hard on your goals.
You can read my previous posts on the topic of productivity here, here, and here.
In this post, I’ll sum up all the essential things you should regularly review to boost your energy levels and work effectively.
Optimize your work by observing your energy levels throughout the day.
Most of us don’t care about energy management because we don’t have control over our daily schedules. But things have changed, and many people started to work remotely, some of them for good. And that creates new possibilities.
Observe your day and find out when your energy levels are at the highest. Are you a morning person, like I am? Then wake up early and do as much work as you can during morning hours. I love this system because it makes me feel I accomplished something before noon 😉
I feel the least energy in the middle of the day, during lunch hours, and I don’t force myself to do difficult tasks then. Instead, I choose going out with my dog or doing some physical exercise.
Of course, I know that you may not be as flexible as I am … for now. If your day is full of meetings, then there’s only so much you can do. But try to take a step further. Maybe you can do something about your meetings? Are all of them necessary? Many successful businessmen insist that meetings are usually a waste of time.
Build your own routine.
I know that you probably want to escape the 9-5 routine and feel free at last.
In fact, you probably don’t want to escape routine, but to create your own perfect routine—the one that enables you to work effectively and have enough rest.
We all are creatures of habit, whether we like it or not. Our bodies like routine: getting up, consuming meals and going to sleep at the same time every day. We are the most productive at certain times of the day, depending on our sleeping patterns (early birds vs. night owls).
Your routine should fit you. It shouldn’t feel like a treadmill; it shouldn’t be exhausting.
Fight procrastination once and for all.
Procrastination can kill every positive change in our life. I’ve dealt with procrastination for years before I truly understood what caused it in my case.
There are usually two main reasons why we procrastinate: perfectionism and a lack of goal-setting skills. They both can be dealt with.
I shared my experiences and tips about fighting procrastination effectively—you can read it here.
Remember about the Pareto principle.
The Pareto principle states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. For example, 20% of your online business clients would bring you 80% of the revenues; 20% of people around you causes 80% of your problems; 20% of your actions lead to 80% results.
The 80/20 rule is surprisingly accurate in many aspects of our life, and you can use it to your advantage. Find out which activities are the most effective (some people call them “power actions”) and focus on them. Also, eliminate those actions that feel like you’re spinning your wheels.
For example, if you have a blog and want it to bring you income, you need to create a product you can sell. That’s it—you should put the most of your energy into making that happen; everything else is secondary. Besides, find out which social media outlet brings you the most readers and focus on them instead of being present everywhere.
Close open loops.
Open loops are all unfinished tasks you have on your mind. In short, it’s anything that you want to do, but you haven’t done yet.
Open loops are harmful to your productivity and mental health. First, they reduce your productivity by taking focus away from whatever you’re working on at a given point in time. Second, they cause stress because you always feel that you still have a lot on your to-do list.
I first read about this term in David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done.” I immediately wanted to implement the habit of closing open loops in my life. I started to write down my list of tasks on the piece of paper and to do less time-consuming tasks right away so that I wouldn’t have to think about them again. I planned the rest of the actions, or I crossed off the tasks I knew I wouldn’t ever do.
This simple system worked! It reduced my mental load, which boosted my creativity and increased my effectiveness. Since then, I close open loops regularly, and I strongly encourage you to do so, as well.
Learn to rest, not quit.
Is your life so busy and chaotic that resting is often the last thing on your mind? If yes, then you’re doing it wrong. A lack of rest is a straight path to burnout, chronic stress, and other mental problems.
Besides, when you’re overworked, you’re more likely to give up your ambitious goals. You don’t have the energy to fight for whatever you find important, so you settle for less.
So, whenever you’re tired, just slow down and rest. Take a nap, get a cup of coffee, watch a movie, take a bath, go for a walk, etc. Whatever makes your body and mind feel at ease.
There was a time when relaxing made me feel guilty, but that’s in the past. Even a long to-do list can wait these 15 minutes so that I can drink a cup of coffee to boost my energy in the morning. The world won’t stop if I don’t clean my apartment right away. There is a purpose in pleasant idleness—or, as Italians would say, dolce far niente.
The pace of living is crazy right now, so relaxing is something we all need to learn and practice deliberately every day.
How about you?
How do you take care of your productivity every day?
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!