Why You Should Manage Your Energy (Not Time), Burning Out and a Sustainable Life
Why You Should Manage Your Energy (Not Time), Burning Out and a Sustainable Life
“Just because you take breaks doesn’t mean you’re broken.” ― Curtis Tyrone Jones
Time Management has an attractive replacement — have you heard of it?
It’s embarrassing to admit, but I failed at the fabled Time Management. I thought I could ace it with ease, and confidently put up tasks with the respective timings in my day’s schedule.
It seemed that being strict and unmerciful with myself would work the best.
After all, without pain, what is success?
Yet, following the timetable became another story. Managing studies (with exams near), writing on multiple platforms, and playing sports together began to seem impossible.
Circumstances were draining me emotionally.
All of these tasks take energy and focus to navigate properly, which I wasn’t able to provide. I disregarded sleep to feel productive enough. I ate food without relishing it.
Anyone can guess what happened.
I crashed. The productivity burned out. For the following days, I couldn’t do any of the above-mentioned tasks properly. Recovering took its time, on top of making me feel guilty.
And this isn’t a one-time thing.
We all hear from self-help gurus about making our day’s schedule as productive and perfect as possible, beginning the day at five. Yet, I wondered how other humans managed it so well and why I couldn’t.
There seemed to be a vital skill lacking in me.
What we all often do wrong
This time, I realised my mistake.
You may have 24 hours, but you do not have the same energy levels throughout the day, and it's foolish to expect your body to work as productively all the time.
As Cory Muscara says,
If you want to build a great life, slow down.
Anyone can caffeinate and push hard toward their next goal. But it's not sustainable. Long-term energy comes from alignment. And alignment requires feeling the subtle difference between energy created from anxiety and energy created from inspiration.
The way out is not exhausting your body to the edge by blindly going after your goals. Rather, the key is managing your energy and aligning tasks with your energy levels.
Do you wonder how men of the Renaissance period accomplished so much?
The emotional and physical labor necessary to maintain the lifestyles of Renaissance and Enlightenment polymaths was shunted almost entirely to their uncredited servants, slaves, wives, and daughters.
They had all the time and money to engage fully in creative endeavours.
When it dawned on me, my approach towards planning my day changed.
While I still occasionally fall short of executing all my planned tasks, the majority get done without draining me to the core.
What to do if you burn yourself out
We've all been there.
You are exhausted physically and mentally, there’s a severe lack of motivation to continue, and guilt weighs over your shoulders because you aren’t working.
Don’t beat yourself for it.
Rather, use the time to introspect. Ask yourself what you did wrong this time — track all the places your energy got spent and cut some of them for the next time.
Reducing your mobile usage can help too.
We all talk about sustainable development for the world — why not seek sustainable lives for ourselves first?
To achieve our goals, we need to have a better lifestyle, not a strict timetable.
Your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.
(Source)
Without good sleep, you cannot function well. I try to get it as much as I can, respecting my body’s needs. I have embraced the fact that one cannot do everything — some things have to be prioritized.
Getting out of your comfort zone doesn’t mean that you need to put yourself in pain.
It’s an unsustainable and stupid life.
However, sometimes bad experiences are necessary to teach you a life lesson.
To conclude,
If you manage your time without caring for your energy, the day won’t go as planned.
In trying to attain greatness, people often forget the basics.
Here’s a reminder to care for your health. You are not a machine; you cannot do everything. Set realistic goals. Socialize. Take breaks for recreational activities and try to enjoy the present.
Sustainable living may seem slow, but the turtle wins the race, doesn’t it?
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