How High Performing Introverts Manage Energy

The world's highest performing introverts know how to manage their energy. They know that they need to protect it, enable to focus and able to be present in relationships in order to have the impact they want in their lives. Now, when high performance introverts master their energy, they become these unstoppable forces of creativity and productivity. Start your week. Great. Start your week with a coach. I'm your host, certified high performance coach coach Sean Butner. And we're going to talk about something that will help you advance in your life this week. So let's go. You know, you could think of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, a pair of introverts that really complemented each other's skills. And you know, one use their ability to really focus and notice how, you know, technology could be brought into the future. So I had that vision and could communicate that effectively. The other could really focus on building the engineering products and chips and, you know, the original homebrew computers to really allow others to play in the space and for, and make an impact in that industry. So when introverts don't manage their energy correctly though, they tend to get stuck in their head, they tend to get overwhelmed, they tend to get exhausted or they just feel miserable because they're just burning, you know, energy in unproductive ways. You know, there's an opportunity cost for every time we spend energy and so knowing where we need to spend it, where we need to focus it, how we can really make the impact that we want in the world is super important. So hi again, I'm Sean Butner, certified high performance coach. And, and we're talking about high performance introverts. Before we get into the steps for helping to manage your energy, we're talking about people that get their energy from, you know, within, right? So you can think about plants, right? You have plants that get water from deep in the earth, so they have deep roots and so they kind of, you know, have that inner focus. Or you have plants that rely on rain and precipitation and things happening out in the environment in order to get their energy. And that's a good way to think about introverts and extroverts. You know, some people really have to dig deep in calm spaces to get energy. Some people need the excitement of large, you know, gatherings and external experiences to get fueled. So high performing introverts are again, the people that tend to work behind the scenes. They tend to have a very intense focus or require, you know, quiet environments to be focused, whereas our extroverted friends tend to again, be More talkative tend to be a little bit more socially engaging for their energy and for their work. So that's high performance introverts. So how do you take care of your, your energy, introverted or not? Right, so, and these, since I'm a high performance coach, tend to be universal. But I'm going to talk to it in particular to introverts, because that's who I'm talking to right now. So, okay, so the first is to use your wellspring habits each day to create energy and preferably in the morning. And like I said, this is for both introverts and extroverts. But what the wellspring habits are things that fill you up, things that bring you joy, things that get you fired up for the day. Right? So it could be playing music, it could be socializing with a friend, it could be reading a book, it could be journaling, it could be all sorts of activities. But it's something that you do for yourself, to feel right with the world, to feel energetic, to feel happy. And so knowing what those are and then making sure you're doing that early in the morning will help you have an energy reserve as you go out through the day. And this is important because especially if you're introverted like I am, you know, you need, you start the day full and you slowly get depleted throughout the day. And so this is a way to kind of help you continue that energy. Also, planning pit stops during the day to do these wellspring activities or to take breaks that are helping you feel energetic, helping you reset and rejuvenate so you can get back to it are super helpful. Okay. Second thing is to review your to do list and use the DABS methodology or delegate, add, batch and subtract. Right. I use this concept as part of my energy audit idea that I've talked about a little bit before. But essentially what that is is, you know, there are things on our to do list, the things on our schedule that add energy to us or subtract energy to us. And so by knowing what, you know, gives us energy again, like those wellspring habits or takes away energy, maybe like a come meeting, maybe doing videos like this, you know, you really need to plan out and strategize when you're going to use, you know, the energy you've built out through the day. So you're going to do that from delegating tasks that are draining but not high return or reward. You're going to add those wellspring tasks throughout your day so you can replenish you're going to batch things that are high results but also expend a lot of energy. So I might in my business, do a bunch of videos altogether so I can ramp up my energy, be on and do what I got to do and then spend a couple hours playing music, reading, journaling or whatever to really reset my energy or to eliminate things that just don't matter. So meetings from team members that are just meetings to meet is a big aha thing that I had in my career. And being like, okay, I really need to watch out for this. These types of things ask for agendas. If I'm not going to contribute or if I don't need to know or be informed on it, it's why should I be in this meeting? Very simple like that. So, yeah, so use dabs to do your energy audit. Okay. Number three, it's called meds from one of my mentors, Brendan Burchard. But it's do you meditate each day? Do you exercise, move your body, get strong, do you eat nutritional food or pay attention to your diet? And are you getting enough sleep? Right. So it's a very, very kind of like base level of energy. But I like that idea. So I stole it. But so, yeah, you know, we talk about the release meditation. You can check my blog. I walk you through that. I think it came out a couple months ago. So if you do release meditation on my blog, you can find me walking you through that. That's a really quick meditation you can do in two minutes or up to 20 minutes or however long you want to do to really just find your center and calm down. It's really great for into a creative space, but maybe you need to get amped up to do a video, to do some type of communication. Then maybe you need to do some exercise, some jumping jacks, some moving around, getting the blood pump in. You'll walk outside, if that's your bag. That's the word I'm looking for. So what are you doing to feel strong and flexible and relaxed and energized? Third thing, diet. Are you eating nutritiously? Basically plant or things not in a box is a really good type of thing to think through. And with your exercise and diet, of course, always talk to your health professionals, right? I don't know your situation. They will have better advice for you. But in general, think about eating whole foods, real foods, things that don't come out of the box. And then sleep is just are you getting seven to nine hours of sleep, which is what most adults especially Here, here in the US really need, I guess it's everywhere. It's not just the US but most adults in the world need. So if you are really good in all those four areas, you know, your energy should be pretty high to base level and that takes care of most of the things, right? But you still need to do your dab for your energy audit. You still need to make sure you have those wellspring habits early in your morning and throughout your day, right? So that leads us to our fourth point, block time for focus. Right? So when it comes to being a weapon at what you do, really turning the dial on your projects, on advancing quicker or with more impact, with more effectiveness, block time is essential, especially for introverts, right? A lot of our superpowers come from our ability to focus on a task. And that's all this is for 50 minutes. It's focusing on one thing that's important to you, important to your project, important to your mission, important to you being out in the world. And so you focus that for 50 minutes. You have a 10 minute break for bio breaks, to rest your eyes, to meditate, to do a wellspring habit that we talked about again earlier and to just kind of recharge. So you have these little recharge moments throughout the day, little pit stops that help keep you on your A game, keep you happy, keep you productive, keep you moving forward. Okay? So that's block time. It's something we talk about a lot in high performance coaching. It's something I absolutely live and die by when I'm at my best, right? There are times that even a high performance coach like myself will forget to do this. They're like, why did my day not go so well? It's like time, block time didn't get my block time in. So I highly recommend it. Okay. Finally, the fifth point to consider is to communicate your communication hierarchy. And this is an idea I've had for a while, I talk on and off about. But the communication hierarchy is how urgent and how complex is something that you need to talk about with someone, right? If it's really urgent or really complex or a combination of both, it should be a face to face type thing either to a camera, you know, with a FaceTime or Zoom or some type of video conferencing or in person, right? That's because we can communicate really quick. We can pick up a lot of information from seeing somebody, seeing somebody's face. So I'm not sure if you ever like talk to someone on a video conference or on A video, and they're just kind of freaked out and wide eyed and like their energy is weird. Do you feel that energy shift? I hear that about this all the time. So you want someone, you know, you want that extra communication from seeing someone, from hearing someone, from noticing the little body language, things that give a lot of information. So especially if it's complex, you want to see that someone understands what you're saying, right? And if they're like, yeah, I think I got it. I'm like, well your voice went up and you kind of did the I squint thing. So maybe we need to explore this idea a little bit more. Like what did you hear? You can ask for that feedback in real time where it can get really lost in translation really quick via email or instant messenger. So yeah, the most critical things, the most complex things should be done face to face. Just having some rules around that helps you kind of decide how to take a meeting or not. And then if it's like, oh, I need to set a time for like to go get coffee with somebody or to touch base on a project real quick or you know, something that is really succinct and you know, it's, it's, you know, I'll share this in a second. So something really simple that requires one or two email exchanges or instant messages. Exchanges. Email is fine, instant message is fine. With the caveat that just because you send me a text message or an email doesn't mean I'm going to respond right away, right? So if it's urgent, if it's complex, make sure you call me, make sure you get the video conference or the meeting, if not, then I'll get back to you when I have my block time to do email and social media, right? So communicating your communication hierarchy is super important. And the expectations, like for me, if I go back and forth on an email more than twice, twice again, or the text message say, okay, we need to upgrade this maybe into a phone call or we need to increase the quality of the interaction. Right? That's kind of the idea there. So these strategies can all help you create the energy you need, protect your energy, and more importantly, use that energy in the most impactful way. Because there is an opportunity cost to where you focus your energy throughout your day, right? And if you want to have the most impact, you got to be putting that into the things that are that matter, the things that are meaningful, the things that help you reach your next level in your careers, health, relationships and well being. So that's it guys. If you enjoyed this video, just let me know. Send an email back or comment below if that's an option. This is Sean Buttoner saying live with more joy, more personal growth and more impacting communities. Talk to you guys next week. Take care.