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Professionals aspiring to be leaders really need to learn to manage and pace their energy. Time is important but without stamina, enthusiasm and drive to do your work, it’s simply not going to amount to much.

Rubina’s time management story sounded so familiar. The 80 plus hour weeks, logging onto the laptop on a Sunday evening hoping to organize things because Monday would be manic is one that many a dedicated professional has done.

Until one fine morning they realize they’re experiencing burnout or showing the symptoms that they are heading in that direction.

It can worsen – like experiencing palpitations, cold sweat, getting irritated with co-workers and being on a short fuse.

If you want to be perceived as having Gravitas, then your ability to maintain composure is important. Transforming into the angry Hulk will definitely raise your visibility in the workplace but not Executive Presence.

I patiently listened to Rubina and then asked her about her energy management.

As expected, her answer was a zero, perpetually exhausted and not getting enough sleep or rest.

I’ve done it too and so have my team members. In trying to perfectly manage my time, I ended up doing too much during a workday and taking work home.

We all worked overtime chasing unrealistic deadlines to please an important audit client and then boom, my team and I all collapsed.

We got the job done but it came at a very high cost – our health.

If only we had managed our energy instead!

In this 2-part blog topic, we’re going to explore both Energy Management and Time Management and see how to be productive without experiencing burnout.

In the first part, we’ll explore energy management and 3 methods to manage your energy for better mental, physical and emotional health.

Forget About Time Management – Manage Your Energy!

Time management is a popular subject in the corporate world as well as for sole proprietors and gig professionals.

But have you noticed that the more we try to manage our time to get everything done that’s expected of us, the less we enjoy our lives?

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve done Time Management workshops for professionals and have a full course on the same for optimal utilization of this precious resource.

Coaching clients also spend time improving their time management which is an important leadership skill.

But there’s another factor to consider.

It’s easy to manage your time for success and forget that we have to re-energize our minds and bodies, or we’ll become disconnected and dissatisfied with our lives.

Businesses are realizing that while time management is great to set productivity goals, energy management must be addressed too. Otherwise, the business will experience high turnover rates, distraction and medical conditions among their employees.

This isn’t a recent development that has come to light thanks to the pandemic. It’s been known for some time now.

Back in 2007, the Harvard Business Review shared their view that effective energy management offered far more benefits than time management training as a leadership skill.

“The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. [And] energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals – behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.”

Impact of running on low Energy Levels

While time goes on forever, energy doesn’t. It has to be replenished or it runs out and you lose your capacity to work at your top capacity. Distraction sets in when energies run low and costly mistakes are made.

Putting in longer hours sometimes to meet a deadline is one thing. However, when it becomes a routine, it will inevitably take a toll on you physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Depending on your constitution and support system, you might be able to delay your breaking point but not for long.

For the organization, it means declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees.

Giving up those habits and behavior patterns that zap your energy can reenergize you and shift the focus from time management to energy management.

For example, leaving work earlier and setting an earlier bedtime may be just the trick that helps you reestablish your energy and be much more productive during your working hours.

Role of our energy and vibrations in how we present ourselves

Rubina’s job involved making presentations for various stakeholders in her organization. She noticed she had started rushing through the presentations and her voice often went high pitched. Her audience too seemed to be disinterested.

That’s because our energy is visible to our audience through the tone of our voice, body language and our enthusiasm. How on earth are you going to be enthusiastic if you’re running on empty?

It’s a fact, your energy levels impact your vibrations and the non-language messages we send out.

When we’re feeling low, our thoughts tend to be of a low quality as well. Instead of thinking positively about a task, we try to find evidence to support any negative thought we’re having.

This in turn perpetuates our feeling low and sending out low vibrations which are picked up by others and they respond in kind. The cycle gains momentum and burnout is guaranteed.

Let’s now look at 3 different methods to manage our energy and increase it when required.

Let Passion increase your Energy Levels

Have you ever noticed that being passionate about something fills you with an energy that seems to be non-stop?

I have. I loved my work in the finance world and especially when we had special assignments. Like the industrial secondment to a prestigious London stockbroker’s firm to help settle accounts with clients before the 1986 Big Bang.

To put in context, the phrase Big Bang is used in reference to the sudden deregulation of financial markets.

It was coined to describe measures, including abolition of fixed commission charges and of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange and change from open outcry to screen-based electronic trading, effected by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986.

The kind of crazy hours our team put in will make you gasp but we loved our work. The energy just came out of nowhere. We knew we were part of history, and it was fun. I also earned enough overtime to cash in as leave for studies.

In those days, trainee Chartered Accountants didn’t get paid overtime, we got precious time off for studies.

Entrepreneur and powerful businesswoman, Oprah Winfrey, once said, “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”

Oprah created a billion-dollar-plus business from her passion. We can’t all do that, but we can use passion to increase our energy levels to the point that we’re doing what excites us and that makes us healthier in the process.

The more passionate you are about what you do the more positive energy you exude. Passion inspires us and makes your life more abundant.

Whether you’re passionate about your personal life, your work or anything else, passion is what will fuel your inner fire to happiness and sometimes, greatness.

No one who is successful today has gotten to where he or she is without an outpouring of passion for what they’re doing. Being creative is one of your most basic needs. If you’re creative and feel passion for what you’re doing, you’re going to experience prosperity and health.

Perhaps you don’t really know what you’re passionate about?

Here are a few ways to determine what your passion is.

If you try it and find you aren’t as passionate as you thought you were, go back to square one and try again. It’s important for you to find your passion.

• What excites you? If you have a hobby or job that excites you, you’re well on your way to finding your passion. Spend some time thinking about the answers to this question.
• What are you good at? You may have been told that you have real talent as a writer but have ignored it until now. Spend some time thinking about what you’re really good at. Think about how you could turn that into a passion that could take you far.
• Do you enjoy reading about certain subjects? You might be passionate about reading about history and various cultures. Spend some time thinking and researching what you could do with those subjects.

Passionate energy invites success for that passion into your life. It’s within all of us and we just have to dig a little bit to make it come out.

Don’t waste the rest of your life in a job or a pursuit that just isn’t meant for you and that you feel no passion for.

Oprah Winfrey also said about passion, “If you don’t know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.”

Once you do, happiness and success will follow.

Increase your Energy by managing your Solar Plexus Chakra

I recommend balancing our chakras for good health as well as stress management.

For the purposes of managing energy, let us focus on our third chakra, the Solar Plexus Chakra, also known as the power or naval chakra.

This chakra is related to fire, ego, identity, transforming knowledge, solar/cosmic force, will, self-definition, autonomy, metabolism, and masculine principle. It brings us energy, effectiveness, spontaneity, and non-dominating power.

When this chakra is overactive, you become prone to overwork and exhaustion. A sign this is happening is the desire to control everything and anxiety if you can’t.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it is most likely due to your over-extending ourselves.

Rather than energy moving through your chakra system, it is being siphoned off to other projects, people, and situations. Too much of yourself is being given away to external matters.

In such a situation you have to assert energetic boundaries, so you do not become depleted. You need to bring your energy back to you and resist the urge to control everything imagining catastrophic consequences if you don’t.

This requires balancing your solar plexus chakra. Try this simple exercise.

Begin by taking a seated position and rocking back and forth a few times. Intentionally shake off any excess energy lingering in your auric field.

Close your eyes. Drop into your solar plexus chakra just above your navel and notice how it feels.

Breathe into this yellow ball of energy for a minute. Then imagine all the energy slowly being drawn inward. Feel this chakra become the same size as your other chakras and come back into alignment.

When you feel it becomes balanced, breathe three more times.

Open your eyes and continue to remember to keep your energy inward.

There may be times when you have too much energy that’s making you hyper. If that is the case, use the exercises in this post to store the energy for when you really need it.

Increase Your Energy by Working with Your Natural Rhythms

The entire world seems obsessed with productivity.

In fact, working harder and spending more hours and work may actually reduce your productivity.

It’s much better to find out what your natural rhythms are and work with those.

Working with your natural rhythms to increase your productivity makes sense because it gives you breaks so that you don’t burn out. It also helps prevent energy blockages that arise during the course of the day.

Here are some ways that business management is finding works to increase the energy levels and productivity of the workplace:

• Break up the work session into blocks of time. For example, you’ll work hard to focus on the task at hand if you know there’s going to be a mandatory break at the end of the session.
• Take naps. This may sound contrary to everything you know about the workplace, but experts are finding that short naps (30 minutes or so) during your low-energy times can actually spike your energy level and make you more productive for the rest of the day.
• Learn how to be in sync to your natural rhythm. Working with your natural rhythms mean that you’re concentrating when your energy is high and resting when the energy level is low.

Realize that pushing yourself to continue working during low energy times can cause low performance and dissatisfaction with yourself and your work.

Unless you take steps to rejuvenate yourself during the day, you’ll be holding yourself back from all you can accomplish.