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. 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.

Effective leaders and managers know the value of time and utilize this precious resource effectively and efficiently to create results.

Things can go haywire when our productivity is dependent on others. That is what happened with this particular client of mine.

During a recap of the previous week’s action plan with a client of mine, a new problem surfaced which he had not associated with the original need to get a grip with his time mismanagement.  

A hardworking individual who managed to fit in a lot during the course of the day, but still wondered where his day went, there was utter chaos. Our common goal was to bring order back into his day so that he had a chance to step back and look at the big picture like a true business owner and leader.

A whole session of brainstorming with 22 action points was produced. The client was given the option to implement any 3 of them based on his own priorities and what he thought he could achieve.  One of the actions he chose was the To Do List.

A week later, he was able to confirm that the days when he prepared his To Do list were much better and more productive for him. He was directed to celebrate and give himself a pat on the back.

But by Friday of the week, he had slipped from the wagon. He hadn’t prepared the list since his Thursday had been a day from hell.

Even with a robust To Do list, why did the day become so bad?

There were many reasons, which included putting in too many things for action.

But more importantly, there were tasks that had to be urgently completed. The employee responsible for preparing it had not done it. The excuse?

He had other things to do compelling him to go into a firefighting mode at 6 pm since the documents had to be submitted to a statutory authority.

This brings me to the point for this week on two aspects of efficient time management:

Firstly, the number of tasks on a To Do list should never be more than 8 or 10 unless the tasks can be completed quickly. More than 12 in a day is a sure way to fail and the associated feelings are not worth it.

Secondly, where a particular task requires inputs from others, make sure that the other person knows the necessity of his input to get the task done.

What may be an urgent and important task for you may be an urgent but not important task for the other person who will find ways to be busy with less important tasks which are worth doing but which are low on the priority list for you.

This is the combination of the arts of delegation and assertive behavior.

In other words, the strategy for time management where your success depends upon others requires, they be made aware of their responsibility to get the job done.  Be more specific, give timelines and THEN follow up at the specific appointed time.

Do not sit down to do the task yourself but insist that it be done. Your subordinate or colleague or even family member may slip up a couple of times but the message that you are being firm and assertive will get through.

Assertiveness is a key ingredient in this type of time management.  

Instead of doing the task, you have a talk with the other person. Do not ask why the task was not done, which would put the other party on the defensive.  Excuses such as ‘I was busy doing other things’ or ‘Sorry, I made a mistake’ will only provoke you into further frustration and reaction which you might not like when the dust has settled.

Instead, say ‘This document/report/letter had to have gone out by the end of today. What exactly stopped you from completing the task?

The answer could be anything from their not realizing the importance or even that someone else had delegated a task to them with a clearer sense of urgency.  Worse still, they might know that if they delay it long enough, they won’t have to do it since you will get around to it.

In the meantime, reassess your method of delegation. Give clear and concise instructions and set deadlines. Having been assertive, stick to your guns no matter what the provocation.

More importantly, the message that you are sending out will be clear.

As you can see, my client’s efforts at time management hit a roadblock when it came to managing others to manage his own time and he had to set up boundaries and conditions while delegating tasks.

What barriers come up for you when your productivity is dependent on other colleagues?

Are you a career professional, independently practicing professional, consultant, or freelancer who’s overwhelmed with all the tasks you need to complete during the day?

If yes, then you need to check out this course

5 Simple steps to win your Time Management Challenge

This post originally appeared on my blogger blog back in August 2011 and has since been updated for relevance.

Written By: Vatsala Shukla

Do you use efficient Time Targets?

I ask because during a recent conversation with a friend on Twitter, we discovered that we both use Time Targets although differently. The Twitter friend uses a Monthly planner whereas I use a Weekly one. The beauty is that we both achieve what we set out to do and are on top of our game when it comes to time management. We use Time Targets.

• Forward looking Time Targets in the presentations prepared by listed companies for their investors
• Business plans whether by start-up companies or those seeking funding for expansion
• If you are being interviewed for a job, sooner or later you will be asked the question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
• Setting up Professional Development Plans at work – Performance Time Targets for the coming year

Effective time managers know the value of time. They use time efficiently and effectively to achieve goals. They know that simply setting up SMART goals is not enough. Success lies in the fine print.

Here are 5 suggested tips for managing your own Time Targets.

Know your final objective and timeline

Tip #1: When setting up your goals, think ahead about what you really want to achieve. Break it into smaller time bytes and min-bytes with milestones to monitor your success.

Eliminate your time-wasting activities

The best managers I have met are territorial about their time. They know their time management quadrants on the back of their hand and focus on those activities that are either important but not urgent or ones where they alone can do a task. All other activities are delegated to those who can perform the task competently to achieve results.

Tip# 2: Record your activities during the day for 1 week and analyse, which activities were productive and which ones could have been avoided or were simply time fillers. Eliminate those activities from your routine which waste time or can be reduced. A good example is the phone calls from people who call and talk on hours for end with complete disregard for the fact that you might be busy. Politely tell the caller that you are in the middle of something and will call back later. Of course, do make it a point to return the call!

Know your time vampires- strategise to get rid of them

Others call them time encroachers; I call them time vampires as they leave me drained of energy!  These vampires think only of themselves and will thoughtlessly take up your time if you allow them to.

This could be in the form of telephone calls or emails. I had one vampire attack a few weeks back where I received 13 emails within the hour and 7 more the next day from someone who was trying to create a business alliance. No second guessing that the vampire was told politely that there were no mutual benefits in the proposed alliance and the potential business deal which if given the gift of time to understand, went down the drain.

Tip# 3: An effective Time Target manager learns to use the gifts of instinct and observation powers to size up the people they come into contact with and help them to get to the key point quickly. Be alert when communicating with others, particularly by email otherwise you will get stuck in unnecessary correspondence without achieving much for either party.

Do unto others as you would want done unto you

Sound familiar? It is great to complain about time wasting people but how about your own actions? Do you encroach on others time? Do you ramble on and first discuss the state of the nation and other matters before coming to the reason for calling? Are you acting like a time vampire? When you call, do you make it a point to ask the other person if it is a good time to talk? Unless you have Superman vision, you would not know what the other person is doing when you call. If the person is in front of you, observe body language as a cue for timing.

Tip# 4: When dealing with others, respect their time. Don’t “drop in” and encroach on the time of a busy person. If the other person finds value in what you are proposing, they will make time to understand the opportunity and discuss it further either right there and then or plan for a more constructive meeting at an opportune time. Win-Win is the name of the game.

Be fluid and flexible with your Time Targets

Even the best plans can go wrong or off track. This often happens because new factors come into the picture which was not there when you were earlier setting up your Time Targets.

Companies know that which is why they assess their business plans and targets on a regular basis and tweak their plans to incorporate these new factors. It does not mean that the Time Targets have failed, just that with the passage of time, the targets have shifted and require a revisit..Instead of rigidly sticking to the original plan, they modify it to achieve the ultimate goal – Success.

Tip# 5: Understand that you can only impact things that you can control. When factors that you don’t have control over crop up, then the best way to deal with them is to make action plans that play around these factors. Keep your focus on the ultimate goal at all times. Be fluid and flexible willing to change in the light of circumstances.

These are just 5 tips. There are lots of others than we learn from experience. Do you have any of your own? Please do share in the comments box below!

Time Target tips

www.karmicallycoaching.com

Have you checked my Kindle book on Goal Achievement Simplified? It will help you to get your goals done in a timely manner – the way Messi does! Click the link below or on the image to learn more. The book includes some extra goal getting tools too.

Goal Achievement Simplified: When Your Actions Give Results

Written by: Vatsala Shukla