60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 8 hours in a standard workday, 24 hours in a day. 7 days in a week. 4 weeks in a month. 52 weeks or 12 months in a year. We measure time depending on how we spend it. I get a certain number of hours of Paid Time Off (PTO) each year, but when I want to spend that time, I tend to think in days or weeks. My work time is measured in hours. My leisure time is measured in \u201cwhatever is available.\u201d In that band of \u201cwhatever is available, I am trying to learn tons of new stuff, launch a book, prepare a business for activity, spend time with my family, write for my blogs, and keep house. Does that sound familiar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I used to work about 55 miles from my home, which meant an hour commute each way. Sometimes that worked well, but a lot of the time, it was just draining. Working from home means I get those two hours back for my own use. Since I usually get up at 4:30 and don\u2019t go to work till 7:30 or 8:00, that gives me a lot of time to do stuff. I get off between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon, so I have a lot of time after work, too, broken up into \u201cbefore supper\u201d and \u201cafter supper\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free time is not all created equal, however. I\u2019ve found that some things just don\u2019t work in some blocks of time, and I\u2019ve found that managing my energy is as important as managing my time, and that has to include my mental energy as well as my physical energy. I\u2019ve also found that very often, managing my<\/em> time is a matter of managing the expectations of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UNDERSTANDING TIME AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not a physician, and if you are experiencing physical fatigue, you and your doctor should counsel together to find a course of treatment. Likewise, if you never feel anything other than mental and emotional exhaustion, I don\u2019t have the answer to that, but a therapist probably would. If you are physically and mentally healthy, you can probably manage time and energy in a way that will help you do your best work when your best work needs done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The accountability group page that I have on Facebook has helped me to track my progress on my goals, and by noting that in my posts, I was able to identify the fact that I am better able to absorb information in the morning before work than I am in the afternoon and evening after work. Often when we talk about managing our time, what we really need to manage is our energy. Perhaps that\u2019s not quite correct, either. What we often need to manage is timing our tasks to match our energy. Yes, we do need to manage the time we have as well. Cleaning out my Email, as important as it is, will probably never be as important as the project my boss just assigned to me, that has a deadline of a week out. Even so, the one day of the week that you have five meetings may not be the best day to engage in Deep-Focus work. You\u2019ll be just getting started good when the notification comes up that your next meeting starts in five minutes. You need to manage both your time and your energy for effective self-management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LEARNING YOUR TIME AND ENERGY RHYTHM<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to make the most of your time and energy, when they converge and when they diverge, it is helpful to keep track of both. You can use a journal you\u2019re already working in, or you could get a brand-new one for this purpose. The downside of that second option is that you\u2019re going to recognize your patterns well before you finish all the pages in the notebook, however small it is. You could create a chart or use an Excel spreadsheet with quantifiable elements for mood, physical energy, metal energy, etc. and then graph it out. I used the same planner that I use for all my appointments and meetings, and it enabled me to figure out that I experienced a greater loss of mental energy at the end of a day with five meetings than I did at the end of a day where my last of two meetings was over at 11 AM. The best method is the one you\u2019ll use, and that\u2019ll happen easiest if it\u2019s somehow associated with something you\u2019re already doing. Over time, you\u2019ll begin to recognize patterns that emerge, and you can try switching something up to see how it affects your energy levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MANAGING EXPECTATIONS<\/p>\n\n\n\n We do manage our time to a great extent, but you will sometimes find that some time you have allotted to something you want or need to do has been usurped by someone else imposing their will on your calendar. In my case, there was no malice or discourtesy intended, people were just accustomed to having me available for nearly everything. This had the potential to get worse as my children moved out of the house, because while they lived at home, a great deal of my non-work time was spent at their activities. Telling people \u201cno\u201d is difficult for a lot of people, and if that\u2019s you, don\u2019t beat yourself up over it. I\u2019ve got some ideas that may help you keep your relationships and your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One thing that can help is to recognize when people seem to need you. You probably have one or two people who seem to need more from you than most others in your circle need. Are there patterns there as well? Is it a certain time of year, a certain time of day, or are there triggers like birthdays? You can\u2019t control how other people need, and you probably won\u2019t be able to delete their triggers. They\u2019re still going to need. Option one is to figure out if they need you<\/em> or if they just need someone.<\/em> If it\u2019s \u201csomeone,\u201d could someone else help them? If it\u2019s you, you may be able to anticipate their needing, and if so, you can build them into your schedule. You may just need to say no \u2013 nicely, of course, and then maybe suggest who else can possibly be a resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saying \u201cno\u201d to a good cause can be really difficult, but if the project doesn\u2019t resonate with you enough to justify taking yourself off another project, you can try the \u201cno\u201d sandwich. Here\u2019s how it sounds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWow, that sounds like a great project, and it sounds like you\u2019re really enthusiastic about it. Unfortunately, I\u2019m not going to be able to help out on this one. But I wish you all success, and I hope they realize how lucky they are to get you involved.\u201d What you\u2019ve done here is a positive expression, assertion of non-availability, and another positive expression. People do respond well to this, so don\u2019t be afraid to say no to things that aren\u2019t going to work well for you. Truly, most people don\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it\u2019s a great project that you want to participate in but their timing isn\u2019t the best, you can suggest other times when your energy either isn\u2019t demanded by other things, or you can suggest a time and express that your participation will be limited by other demands. Again, most people won\u2019t mind. Here\u2019s something else you need to keep in mind, though: someone else\u2019s feelings about the fact that you\u2019re protecting your high-value time \u2013 those feelings are their responsibility. You don\u2019t need to feel guilty about making sure you\u2019re using your time your way. As long as you\u2019re polite and considerate, you\u2019ve done what you needed to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning to say \u201cno\u201d to things that aren\u2019t priority for you will enable you to say \u201cyes\u201d to things that are. In fact, every time you say \u201cyes\u201d to something, you\u2019re saying \u201cno\u201d to something else. If you say, \u201cYes, I will sit and watch four hours of videos just for fun,\u201d you\u2019re saying \u201cNo, I\u2019m not going to clean my oven,\u201d or \u201cNo, I\u2019m not going to engage in this educational activity.\u201d Look, there\u2019s nothing wrong with doing that, as long as it\u2019s value-driven. By the end of any given workday, watching a couple of hours of fun video is about all I\u2019m good for. If I started my day with that, I\u2019d be wasting that valuable high-mental-energy time. So at the end of the day, what I\u2019m saying \u201cno\u201d to so that I can watch those videos isn\u2019t something that would provide a lot of benefit for me anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CONTROLLING EVENTS AND LETTING GO<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are events that are in your area of control, and there are events that you absolutely cannot control at all, and it\u2019s important that you figure out quickly which is which. Events that are uncontrollable will require that you control only the aftermath, if there is any. Your best energy should really be focused on those events that you are able to control. You don\u2019t absolutely have<\/em> to let go of events you can\u2019t control, but holding on to them isn\u2019t going to help you gain control over them. We have hurricanes in our part of the country. I can\u2019t change that. Worrying that hurricanes come changes nothing, but the controllable part of that situation is making sure that I have a plan for evacuation, supplies for the duration of staying put, a plan for return from evacuation, knowing where the insurance policies are and who to contact at the agency \u2013 you get the idea. But the hurricane itself isn\u2019t something I can control. I\u2019m okay with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BALANCING COMMITMENTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n While there are some things you can\u2019t control, you can control how many things and people you commit to. I know, I know, it\u2019s not always that simple. There may be pressures on you from others, and some people are \u201cpeople-pleasers\u201d for reasons that stem from incidents and environments from their past. For most of us, though, we just hate to be \u201cthat person\u201d that says \u201cno.\u201d That can take its toll on you in every aspect of your life. Some of the physical signs of overcommitment include chronic fatigue, increased stress and anxiety, a decline in the quality of your work, difficulty in prioritizing tasks, neglecting your personal needs, and social withdrawal, and there are other signals as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Balancing personal and professional commitments can help here, and I\u2019m going to give you some strategies for striking that balance. It\u2019s worth noting that you can use these tactics for balancing just the personal commitments, if they\u2019re the only problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You matter. You matter to the people on your work team, you matter to your community, you matter to you family, and you matter to you. You have a right to make yourself a priority. You have a right to expect others to respect your time. You can do it in such a way that they\u2019ll be okay with it. As long as you stick to your guns, they\u2019ll have to be, and they\u2019ll live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n YOUR TURN<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the most difficult part of managing your time and energy? What has helped you make it happen? Drop a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Discover effective strategies for balancing time and energy to boost productivity and well-being. Learn how to set boundaries, prioritize tasks, and manage commitments in our latest blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[324,1136,1254,1316,869,1525,1575],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bold-and-better","tag-balance","tag-boundaries","tag-energy-management","tag-growth","tag-relationship","tag-self-care","tag-time-management"],"yoast_head":"\n\n