by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
My husband and I decided that it would be a good idea to get our 2 kids and 2 dogs to my parents’ house in Minnesota.
This little mini vacation is usually exactly what I need at this time of year. Getting out of the small town where we currently live, shutting off my phone, hanging out with family, playing a lot of board games, and drinking a few beers is exactly what I need to get refreshed, rejuvenated, and recommitted to my work with Busy Coach.
It’s the old metaphor of sharpening the saw: when you’re sharp, you work better and faster, but when you’re dull from overuse, you become slower and less efficient. For example, remember the last time you tried to read a book when you were tired. If you’re like most people, you had to read and re-read, and maybe re-read again, the same paragraph over and over.
I think most of us coaches with smartphones realize it’s easy to carry work into our evenings and weekends which, if you tracked how many hours you were working, could put you easily at a 70-80 hour work week. The problem is, in the long run, overworking drives down our productivity. Why? Because it depletes our energy.
For me, managing my energy levels really has been key to my productivity and getting things done. If you want a great book on the subject, read the book The Power of Full Engagement, by Tony Schwartz
The fact of the matter is that there’s an inverse relationship between how much you work and how much energy you have. When one rises, the other falls, and vice versa. You might be working 70 hours, but you’re not really getting 30 hours’ worth of productivity out of those last 30 hours, right? I think we’ve all experienced this phenomenon. It comes back to Parkinson’s Law: “work expands to the time allotted for it.” If we’re not careful, we’ll confuse busyness with productivity and wear ourselves out.
Some coaches experience this every single day. They start the day with so much energy, and they get so much accomplished in those early morning hours. Then after lunch, their energy begins to wane. Or they have great energy on Monday and Tuesday, but by Thursday and Friday your energy is down. Well, that’s the result of energy flexing the wrong way: more hours, but less accomplished.
Here’s the good news: energy is a renewable resource. It can easily be replenished. You just have a have the right recipe, which means that just because you’re currently on empty, doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. Even if you have a pattern of frequently finding yourself on empty, it’s fairly simple to change. By the way, it may not be easy because it will require some change in your behavior. But it’s not complicated. We just have to be intentional about rejuvenating ourselves.
The great news is that this is completely within your control! I have talked in previous posts about how to rejuvenate your energy through what you eat and drink, through getting more sleep and exercise. Go to www.busy.coach if you want more info about that.