Effective
Energy Management
It is 7.30pm. At work, there are deadlines for you to complete by
tomorrow. Meanwhile, your Pilate class is starting in half an hour
time. You have two choices: 1. Pack your bag and head to the gym, come
to office one hour earlier tomorrow and complete your work. 2. Put in
the extra one hour to finish your work, forgoing your Pilate class
which you really need it because you have been putting on some weight
lately.
Suppose you decide to go for your Pilate class. Very likely, you may
not be able to enjoy the class fully because half of the time, your
mind keeps shifting back and forth thinking about the deadlines. On the
contrary, if you choose to stay in office, you might work till 10pm,
after which, dragging your exhausted body home; carrying the guilt that
you miss another Pilate class again.
Sounds familiar? Alarmingly, this is one of the many similar decisions
that PMETs have to make frequently. It could be finding time to go
exercise, spend time with family or friends, or simply take up an
evening self-improvement course.
Work-life balance is always a challenge. Time management comes as a
quick-fix to free up "extra time". Some personal effectiveness gurus
will proudly proclaim that time management tool helps individuals
prioritise and set aside time for quality effective activities.
While writing this, my colleague Kylynn peeped on my laptop screen and
commented, “Given the current work schedule that we have, no
matter how we manage our time, there will always be not enough time for
anything and everything.”
I laughed and absolutely agreed with her. In reality, we only have 24
hours a day. We spend at least 7 hours sleeping and that leaves us with
17 hours of waking time. We spend almost 12 hours commuting to
workplace and working. With five hours of the remaining time, most
individuals would spend at least two more hours going online to chat on
MSN orYahoo messenger, read and reply personal emails, poke and send
hugs to virtual friends on Facebook. That would effectively leaves us
with 3 hours for the day. Then, another 1 to 2 hours is spent watching
news and your favourite reality shows on television. You are now left
with 1 hour, not taking into consideration of meal time, shower,
meditation, play time with your kids and quiet time with God (for some).
Looking at this seemingly routine lifestyle of most individuals, no
wonder so many people are complaining that they have no time for
family, friends, exercise and volunteer work.
“Haven't we still have the weekends and public
holidays?”
Some may argue.
Unfortunately, by the time it comes to the weekend, we are so exhausted
that we really do not want to do anything. Before you know it, Monday
is here again.
How can we find extra time to do something that we truly enjoy like
painting, picking up ballroom dancing, reading a book, hitting back to
the gym, or volunteering at old folks home? While making effort to
balance and free up extra time for such activities, time management
becomes even more stressful and unmotivating.
In their book "The Power of Full Engagement", Jim Loehr and Tony
Schwartz recommended to get more things done in life, it is not about
managing time, it's about managing one's energy.This means that if you
want to get the most out of your life to gain success and happiness,
then you must learn to increase and renew your energy level; managing
it well for work and other daily activities. If you do not manage your
energy well, you get burnt out easily and your performance will suffer.
Your family, health and social life will suffer as well. Soon your
whole life crumble down and you lose the passion to do anything.
Increasing energy level is like a bodybuilder trying to train his body
muscles. If he wants to become stronger and develop well-defined
muscles, then he has to put in effort to train his muscles diligently.
Twice a week, he will workout on a particular group of muscles to the
max and then rest for a few days before training the muscle group
again. The push and rest factor plus healthy diet make him stronger. At
the same time, resting is important for the muscles to grow and
develop. However, if he rests too long, for example, more than 2 weeks
before training the same muscle group again, his performance will
suffer.
Now let's look at the four sources of energy which we need to manage:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Mental
- Spiritual
Similar to the bodybuilder, to increase our energy level, we need to
cultivate good habits to strengthen these four sources of energy so
that we can always feel energetic throughout our waking hours.
1. Physical Energy
Our bodies use up energy in any activities that we engage in. Like
petrol is used as fuel for cars, our bodies need food as a source for
physical energy. Eating right is the first step to increase your
physical energy. Start your day with a hearty high-carbohydrate
breakfast. Most people know it but they do not practise it. Instead of
starving yourself till lunch hour at 1pm and dinner time at 8pm, most
healthcare experts and dietitians will advise you to take five small
balanced meals throughout the day. Your body needs time to digest the
food. By having small portion of food, energy gets generated much
faster for usage.
Try to have at least two 45-minutes cardio-vascular exercise (be it
walking, running, swmming or cycling) a week. Exercise increase
metabolism and is proven to make a person feels better and reduces
stress and anxiety.
If you are able to inculcate a good habit of eating and drinking right,
weekly exercise and have at least 7 hours of sleep daily, you will be
sure that your physical energy will increase by 30 - 50 percent.
2.
Emotional Energy
Setbacks and failures can lead to emotional exhaustion. Ever heard of
someone saying: "I am so tired of life that I don't care about anything
anymore". Anxiety, fear and feeling of indifference come from a
person's within . They are learned behaviours. We probably picked them
up when we were children through past bad experiences and situations.
Confront your negative emotions and rediscover your personal goals. Ask
yourself, "What is it that you truly enjoy doing and what do you want
to achieve in life?" If you can align your personal goals with what you
are doing, you will find that sudden gush of energy flowing from within
you to perform things that you would probably be surprise and amaze by
yourself. Emotional energy is like the hope that will keep you going
until you reach your destination.
3.
Mental Energy
While at work, learn to take small breaks. An average person has a
concentration time-frame of 90 minutes per session. If exceed 90
minutes, concentration and focus level will drop drastically. Mistakes
will be made easily. It would be good to get up from your seat and walk
to the pantry to have a drink and light snack. That 5 minutes of break
will definitely be worthwhile as it will keep you going for the next 90
minutes before you take another small break again.
Drink regularly to avoid dehydration. Dehydration can cause lost of
concentration which may take away your focus at work.
Stress is common in our hectic worklife. It can be good or bad. A dose
of good stress motivates and pushes individuals to work harder.When
stress gets too much to handle, it becomes bad stress. Meditation, yoga
and exercise are good way of destressing. Try to make it a habit to
find time and unwind yourself daily.
4.
Spiritual Energy
Spiritual Energy is our belief system and personal values. Often, it
guides you in the world that you are operating in. It is the inner
voice that tells you what is right to do and what is not. This energy
can be positive or negative. Positive spiritual energy gives you the
purpose for what you are doing. Negative spiritual energy will be the
road blocks for the goals that you set for yourself. Spiritual energy
also shapes your self-concept and self-esteem. For example, if you
encounter a daunting task, you can self-talk to convince yourself that
you can take the challenge to do it. That is using your positive
spiritual energy. On the other hand, you may fall into the trap of
negative self-talk to discourage yourself from moving forward.
Believe is a very powerful tool. It creates dream, spurs you to take
action and making it into reality. The moment you develop your
spiritual energy, you will find the die-hard attitude in dealing with
your daily challenges.
Once you have mastered your four sources of energy, you will find the
inner force exploding in accordance to the direction that you want to
move to. Realising your dream is no longer a day-dream. You will feel
the energy moving through every viens of your body, pushing you to
achieve what you truly want to. Like the Jedi Master would say to his
disciples, "May the force be with you"
Article written by Albert
Dale
Peh, Training Consultant at GPS Consultancy
