Alisa Cohn - Manage your energy, not your time

If you're feeling drained or burnt out at work, step back and think about not managing your time but managing your energy. Two ways to do that. First of all, look at all the activities you do in a week or two period and write down the things that really energize you, that you're excited to do, that you're eager to tackle. And then also write down those energy drainers, the thing you hate doing, the thing that really kind of just brings you down. And once you have a sense of that, the truth is you probably can increase the time and energy you spend on those energy multipliers, on the things that you love to do. And I bet that you can find a way to minimize the time you spend on the drainers. Can you delegate them to someone? Can you find ways to automate those things? Spending time really looking at your energy drainers and then finding ways to decrease the time you spend will automatically free up energy in your workday. The second thing you should do is actually think about when am I at my most energetic, my most creative, the times where I can do deep work. Maybe it's the morning, some people it's the afternoon. Schedule in your deep work, your creative work, the things that really will help you make progress during those periods. And then let's assume there are times in your day where you're kind of down, when you're kind of low energy. Well, schedule your email in those times, schedule your rote tasks. That way you can make your whole day more in flow with your natural energy. So manage your energy and not your time to help you recover from burnout and keep yourself nourished and replenished.