The other day a friend of mine sent me an email saying; ‘apologies for my low energy yesterday’. I was thinking; ‘why does she apologize’? It wasn’t a problem for me…
I’m sure you have heard the same from a friend or a colleague, I certainly have several times, and I find it puzzling. Why do we need to apologize for having various levels of energy? Or rather: why do we expect to be on top level all the time? Things happen to us and not every day is the same. As far as I know, only machines run on even speed, but even a machine needs to be changed out now and then…
At work we need to stay professional, no matter the energy level, which is fine – we all have a job to do. I’m wondering though, maybe there are more occasions to respect own energy levels than we think? There might be possibilities to adapt certain activities according to energy and creativity levels. E.g. we could ask ourselves: ‘Is today the right day to do prospecting?’ ‘Or should I write that report instead?’ ‘Or maybe today is the day to catch up on that reading I should have done a while a go?’
We have different energy levels depending on the time of the year, weather, external 
happenings, health, job load, etc – but we also have energy changes during the day. There is a good exercise one can do to get a better understanding of the regular ups and downs in a day: During a week you review and note down when you have energy peaks and lows in the day. Additionally, you observe when you feel creative and when you prefer to do ‘no-brain-tasks’. This can help you to organize your day such that you maximize your energy levels to do the “right things at the right time”. The result might be something like this; ‘I have a more efficient day if I organise to do':
- Creative work between 09:00 and 12:00
- Admin or reading between 14:00 and 16:00
- ‘Difficult tasks’(e.g. finding solutions to a dilemma) some time after 17:00, but no later than 19:00
Everyone has their own cycle; this is just a possible result. Apparently many people have a ‘dip’ around 14:00.
Another thing to consider is the cycles of nature. Are you ‘in sync’, do you notice the natural changes around you throughout the year? It is possible that you are like most other modern people, that you expect to have the same speed all year round, and just drink more coffee and add some more lights during the winter period. Thing is that we need more sleep in winter, and we need different kind of foods. Having a green salad when it’s dark and minus 10 Celsius is probably not what your body needs…
So, considering all of this, how can you become friends with your own energy levels? How can you respect your natural rhythm and use it to your benefit? How can you manage your day and your tasks accordingly?
