Time and Energy

I love learning from leaders and creative people how they protect their time and energy. A leader once told me that the most important resource to protect is your time. And a mentor reminded me that as you age, your greatest resource to protect is your daily energy.

One of my friends knows exactly how to protect her energy, especially when she needs that energy for a vital reason. She limits draining conversations. She says no a lot. She structures her day to protect whatever might unnecessarily rob her of energy.

I want to get better at this.

I want, too, to learn to enhance things in my life that energize me. Certain people I spend time with simply energize me; I leave their presence more excited, more inspired, and more happy. Certain activities also do this.

And certain activities don’t. Certain people don’t because of what we’re choosing to discuss and how negative the conversation turns. It’s worth taking inventory of our own moods and energy before and after various experiences to see how we feel.

Recently another wise friend reminded me how draining decision-making is. It sucks all the energy out of me. And it takes up my time. That’s why doing things like packing a lunch the night before, laying out your clothes in advance, and pre-loading as many decisions as you can protects your energy and time. You’ve eliminated decision-making during your morning routine. This explains why meal-planning matters so much to me. It explains why I need to keep a very simple and repeatable daily schedule while completing a manuscript. After all, the task of writing involves a million decisions with each sentence. Can you imagine the possible permutations of any given paragraph? No wonder I have decision fatigue!

Living with flair means we learn how to protect the precious personal resources of time and energy so we might truly bless others with our presence and input.

 

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