Why Your Energy Is More Important Than Your Time

Have you ever reached the end of a day where you technically had enough time to do everything, but it still felt like you got nothing done? We talk a lot about time—how to track it, schedule it, and protect it—but time isn’t the only variable in the productivity equation. Time management has a fundamental flaw: it treats all hours as equal, but they aren't. An hour of work at 9:00 AM when you are sharp and focused is completely different from that same hour at 3:00 PM when you are running on empty .

This week, episode 312 of the Positively LivingⓇ Podcast is about energy management—the practice of paying attention to, protecting, and replenishing your energy so you can show up fully for what matters .

In this episode of the Positively LivingⓇ Podcast, I share how to identify your natural rhythms and why managing your energy is the secret to sustainable productivity.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand that a schedule cannot account for sleep, stress levels, or hormonal cycles, which dictate what you are actually capable of in any given hour.
• Pay attention when you start reading the same paragraph over and over; that is your clear signal that you lack the energy for the task at hand.
• Manage your capacity across four critical levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
• Align your most demanding work with your daily "peak windows" and save low-stakes tasks for your natural dips in energy .
• Build in "buffer days" and recognize that your motivation in January will naturally look different than it does in July.
• Use curiosity instead of judgment to document when you feel most capable and when you feel drained throughout the day.

Stop trying to fit into someone else’s productivity rules! Grab my free Productivity Toolkit, a collection of workbooks designed to help you explore how you work, uncover what truly matters to you, and create your very own energy-friendly systems. Get it here: www.positivelyproductive.com/plpkit

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LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Ep 215: Why You Need to Know Your Internal Productivity Rhythm 

Ep 119: Seasonal Energy

Ep 160: Seasonal Planning with Erik Fisher

Ep 245: Using Themes to Organize Your Life

Ep 249: 5 Energizing Habits to Make You More Productive

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Transcript

Lisa Zawrotny: 0:20

There are rhythms operating at every level of our lives, daily rhythms, weekly rhythms, seasonal rhythms, life, stage rhythms, even internal rhythms that are built in. When we ignore those rhythms, we expend a lot of extra energy just to do the same task. When we work with them, things get noticeably easier. You're listening to the positively living podcast. I'm your host. Lisa zarani, founder of positively productive systems and a productivity coach, certified in positive psychology and stress management, join me as we explore ways to live a more proactive, positive life with episodes on productivity, self awareness, mindset, entrepreneur, life, habits and systems, simplicity, fun and more. I understand overwhelm personally, as a multi passionate entrepreneur, wife and mom to kids and cats and as a caregiver, I'm here to help you choose what's right for you so you can do less, live more and breathe easier. Sound good. Let's get to it.

Unknown: 1:30

Welcome to the positively living podcast. I'm your host, Lisa, and if you've ever reached the end of the day where you technically had enough time to do everything, it still felt like you got nothing done. This episode is for you. We talk a lot about time. We track it, schedule it, protect it. Complain about not having enough of it, and I get it. Time is finite and visible and easy to measure, and it's precious. It makes sense that we would want to focus on it and how we spend it. But time isn't the only variable we need to consider when we want to make the most of our days. Here's the thing, two people can have identical schedules and get completely different results, same hours, same tasks, totally different output. Why? Because it's not about the time. We're not just about the time, it's about the energy to take action within that time. Time management is a very popular topic, and I talk about it because it is important. But here's the thing, it only gets you so far. Time management is a useful skill, knowing how to prioritize batch tasks and protect focused blocks of your day. All of that matters, but time management has a fundamental flaw. It treats all hours as equal, and they're not the hour you spend on a complex project at 9am when you're sharp and focused is not the same as the hour you spend on that same project at 3pm when you're running on empty and running to find coffee or chocolate, and an hour of uninterrupted solo time looks nothing like an hour spent juggling kids, caregiving or helping anyone else who needs something from you while you're trying to tackle a task, the calendar doesn't know the difference, but you do, because your brain and body are connected in ways. A schedule can't account for how much sleep you got last night, what you've eaten, where you are in your hormonal cycle, how much stress you're carrying, all of it affects what you're actually capable of in any given hour. If you've ever read the same paragraph over and over again, but you couldn't possibly tell me what was in it, that's your sign that you don't have the energy to do the task, and that's the kind of thing we need to be paying more attention to our energy ebbs and flows for many reasons, and some of those fluctuations are actually built into us. Research on what's called the ultradian rhythm your body's natural 90 to 120 minute cycle of higher and lower alertness throughout the day. It shows us that our capacity for focused work rises and falls in predictable patterns, and then other things that happen within our lives add the unpredictableness. So we're getting it from all ends. By the way, I covered the ultradian rhythm side of things in Episode 215 why you need to know your internal productivity rhythm. And if you haven't listened, I encourage you to do so. The science is fascinating and genuinely useful. So what all of this tells us is that your energy isn't random. It's shaped by your biology, your body and your circumstances, everything happening in your life, and the more you understand it, the less you have to fight it, and the more you can do with that information to be more productive, that's energy management. So the answer is, less about time management and more about energy management. So what is that? Energy management is the practice of paying attention to your energy but. Protecting it, directing it and replenishing it so that you can show up fully for the things that matter. And it's not just about physical energy, though that's part of it. There are actually several layers to consider. So the first physical energy is probably what you would think of when I say energy management. It's your body's baseline capacity, things like sleep, movement, nourishment and rest, all feed this. Or if you don't have those things, we'll take away from it. It's often the first thing we notice that's gone when we don't have the physical energy, the fatigue, the heaviness, the sense that everything requires more effort than it should, that it feels like a slog, and yet the physical energy drain is also the one we're most likely to push through rather than address. It's become familiar to us. You know, to be constantly tired. We're constantly tired when we're new parents, we're constantly tired. I think for parenting in general, we're constantly tired when we have a new business and we're working extra hours. To be tired is kind of a given. Now, it's familiar, it's the norm in society, and we wear it like a badge of honor, because it's all about the hustle. The next one to consider is mental energy. This is your capacity for focus, decision making and complex thinking. When this one fades, it's easy to assume you're just distracted or unmotivated, but the cause often varies. It could be physical depletion, lack of food, rest, hydration. Could be hormonal shifts, and it could be stress response. All of these things impact your brain. There's also emotional energy. That's the energy it takes to manage relationships, navigate stress, hold space for others, process your own feelings. We become emotionally drained when our emotions go unrecognized and unresolved, and when we struggle to express our emotions in a healthy way, that's a sign our emotional energy is off. This aspect of our energy is likely one we don't even think of because it's inextricably wrapped up in the physical and mental energy sides, and it can be masked by those. And the last one I want to mention is spiritual energy. That's your sense of purpose, meaning and connection to something larger than your to do list. Now this doesn't have to be religious. It's about feeling aligned with what matters to you, something bigger than you. When it's present, it can carry you through even the hardest days. It's like the idea that your why can drive you forward, but when it's missing, even easy tasks or tasks that you are determined to do can be a struggle, because it feels hollow, like something's missing when you consider those aspects of energy as humans, you can see why focusing solely on our time spent misses the mark. Unfortunately, most productivity systems and advice tend to focus on how to structure, protect and fill time with energy as an afterthought. This is likely because time is more universal and easier to quantify, but it's also why energy management is the better focus. It asks a different question, not, how do I get more done, or how do I do the thing in the time that I have, but rather, how do I make sure I have what I need to do the thing and do it well. The key is working with your natural rhythms. One of the things to consider when trying to work with your energy levels is that there are rhythms operating at every level of our lives, daily rhythms, weekly rhythms, seasonal rhythms, life, stage rhythms, even internal rhythms, which I just mentioned. When we ignore those rhythms, we expend a lot of extra energy just to do the same task. When we work with them, things get noticeably easier. It's like paying extra for something versus getting it at the lowest possible price. So here's what this can look like in practice at the daily level. Notice when you're naturally sharper and when you tend to fade. Most people have a peak window in the morning and dip in the early afternoon and have a secondary rise later in the day. This could be part of your ultradian rhythm. It could be part of your circadian rhythm. These are things you want to pay attention to and then schedule your most demanding work during your peak time and save administrative tasks email or low stakes decisions or easier things to do during your. Lower energy windows. This is an approach that will take some awareness and trial and error, but the signs are usually there if you pay attention, even just thinking about this. Now, I'm sure you can think of moments where you have a dip in energy during the day, and so placing easier tasks during that time is one simple step you can take that will make a big difference at the weekly level, some days will naturally have more capacity than others, whether because of what scheduled or how you slept, or simply how the week is going. So anticipating that by building in a buffer a lighter day, that means that you have somewhere to go when things run over, which they always do, and where you can have built in rest if you are on schedule, and that's something we don't tend to schedule. By having that lighter day, you're giving yourself that gift as an example. For me, I use Tuesdays as what I call my self care Day, which means sometimes they're busy with medical appointments, sometimes they involve some kind of pampering. My special quarterly hair salon visits, things like that, and sometimes they're open, and that's when I give myself permission to do less. And at a seasonal level, your energy and motivation will look different in January versus July. Your capacity will be different during a busy stretch at work, or when someone you love is going through something hard, or when you're in a growth phase. Expecting consistent output across radically different seasons of your life isn't realistic. It's a trap. It's a setup for shame, and shame is not a productivity strategy, at least not here. You can start with seasons of nature that's built in already, so winter would be slower hibernating time, and summer would be more vibrant and energizing, so you'll want to make plans accordingly. You can consider school seasons as well, if that applies to you, and those have built in hectic points where you need to schedule a lot less in other aspects of your life in order to balance out what's going on. May sember is a great example of that. You can also consider your own personal season of life, if you have a toddler, or if you're now a caregiver, your schedule and goals need to be considerably different than if you're child free or building your career. And I might as well bring up perimenopause. I'm going to bring it up again. That's a great example, or menopause, I mean times in your life where energy is being pulled in different ways and you don't have the same energy resources, they need to be considered when you are planning what you will do, and as you build an expectation of what you're able to do. So in terms of the seasonal planning, if you're curious about this idea, be sure to check out episode 119 on seasonal energy, and in Episode 160 with Eric Fisher on seasonal planning, I think you'll find that especially helpful for neurodivergent minds. Plus he is the podcast host of beyond the to do list, and he is a wonderful guest. You may also want to listen to episode 245, on themes as well. With all of this, just as I said in the very first episode of this podcast, well over 300 episodes ago, self awareness is the starting point. If you want to focus on energy management, you need to focus on you. You can't manage what you haven't noticed. So self awareness is where it must begin. Start paying attention to when you feel most focused and capable, when you feel drained, scattered or resistant, what activities leave you feeling energized versus depleted? What's happening in your life right now, and how is that affecting your capacity? When you do this, you'll need to be honest, and you'll need to come at this with curiosity, not judgment. You are looking for clues at this point. And then once you have a baseline for your energy or the things that impact your energy, you'll want to consider what you can do to boost it as well. And if you'd like ideas, you'll want to listen to episode 249, five energizing habits to make you more productive, where I talked about how overall well being directly impacts productivity, rest, nourishment, movement and creative outlets, those things aren't luxuries. They aren't options. They're direct inputs to your productivity. So I. Energy Management. How do you start? Let's keep it simple. You don't need to overhaul your schedule to begin working with your energy better. Start with one day this week to observe and document, to be curious. Pick a day and pay attention to how your energy shifts throughout it. When did you feel clear? When did you feel foggy? When did you feel motivated? When did you feel like you were slogging through wet sand? And what kind of sleep did you have the night before you know, what other things affected that? Was it a standard day? And if so, what did it look like for you? And what were you doing? There's tracking at first, so that you can gather the data and figure out what's really happening, so you can pay attention to something you probably weren't even looking for before. So write it down, if that helps. Or make voice notes as you go. If that's easier, if you like to externally process, you just grab your phone hit record and make a note of what's going on. Even a few observations at the end of the day can start to reveal patterns that you've been moving too fast to see. From there, you can begin to make small, intentional adjustments, protecting your peak hours for the more difficult tasks, scheduling in recovery time and extra buffer time, building in the kind of flexibility that makes your system work on hard days, not just on good ones. That's what sustainable productivity looks like, and that's what you're going for. I encourage you to try it this week. Pick one rhythm, daily, weekly or seasonal, and observe it without judgment. Just notice what's there, and from that awareness, everything else can follow. And if you'd like a thinking partner, as you figure out what energy management looks like for your life, how you can fit that into your personality and your strengths and other aspects of who you are and how you work best, I welcome you to visit positively productive.com/coaching this is what I do. It's what I'm here for. Your energy is worth protecting, and so are you. You've got this.