Hey Guys- HERE ARE WISE WORDS FROM DR HENRY CLOUD
With the holidays upon us I wanted to take a minute to talk about how you spend your energy…
WHEN DO YOU NEED YOUR BEST ENERGY? FOR WHICH ACTIVITIES?
You want to have the best of you available for the most important things. So, before you even think about managing your energy, look at your activities, work and personal, and ask yourself which are the most important and which are going to take the most energy.
WHEN IS YOUR BEST ENERGY AVAILABLE TO YOU?
Is it when you schedule the most activities? If you are best in the morning, try you best to give that time to the most important matters and activities. Is you are so-so in the midafternoon, give that time to the less important meetings, or to tasks that do not require the most of you. Instead of scheduling things when there is an opening, weigh your openings and assign value to them.
Just like hotels have high season and charge more for this time, you have a high season for your energy, and you should charge more for that time as well. Give it to the most expensive tasks. If i have to meet with someone and the issue is not that important, I always try to put it into a time slot that is not the best of my time. My assistant has heard more than once, “You gave that block of time to that meeting? Get it back! I need that for better uses!” Give your best time to the best uses.
WHAT ARE YOUR ENERGY DRAINS?
Are there certain tasks that take it all out of you? If so, and we all have them, quarantine their effects. Make sure that you do them at a time when whatever follows then is not an activity for which you need to be up. So them at a time when you can afford to be miserable afterward.
WHO ARE YOUR ENERGY DRAINS?
What people take it out of you? If possible you might want to make a rule against interacting with some of them, and give them to someone else. But if that is not possible, make another rule about when you will meet with them. For example, meet with Uncle Joe only if you have nothing important to do afterwards.
WHAT PHYSICAL PRACTICES IMPACT YOUR ENERGY?
I personally have travel/rest problems. When I travel too much I have trouble sleeping, staying up at night due to being in different time zones and not sleeping normal hours. What are those for you? Are you someone who needs a certain amount of sleep? Of a certain diet to have the energy you need? What about a certain amount of exercise? So you know much about energy management physically? I find that many people do not, and they should. Your brain runs on two important fields: oxygen and glucose. Do you get enough movement, which gets oxygen to the brain? Do you get the right food you need, for example to keep your blood sugar counts level? Figure out what rules you need to make for physical life to have the energy you need to make your life work. I have a friend who found that he was watching TV late every night to relax and did not have the energy he needed for early morning meeting. Here’s a good rule in this category: Do not watch any show that runs after 10:00pm. Record it instead and watch it earlier the next night.
If you have time and energy, you can pretty much find everything else you need. But if you do not isolate and quarantine the drains on both of these, you will not have it in you to go get what you need. You will feel one of the two most uttered sentences that prevent people form accomplishing what they need to accomplish. “I don’t have time†and “I don’t have it in me.†In my experience, getting a handle on the misery that is creating both of those experiences and making a rule to prevent them is like finding a gold mine during the holidays.
THESE IDAS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! TRY THEM.
