You already know your time is limited. You block your calendar. You guard your schedule. You say no to meetings that don’t need to happen.
But time isn’t the only thing you’re spending as you move through your day.
Everything you do takes energy.
Every decision you make. Every conversation you have. Every problem you solve. Every interruption you deal with. Even deciding what deserves your time in the first place takes energy.
And unlike your calendar, your energy isn’t divided neatly into hours you can see and schedule.
You can have three wide-open hours in front of you and still have very little energy left to give them.
That’s why protecting your energy isn’t just about taking care of yourself.
It’s a business strategy.
You Only Have So Much of It
Think about those days when you look at your calendar and see a wide-open afternoon. Three whole hours to finally get something done.
Then 2:00 rolls around and you’re staring at your computer wondering where your brain went.
What happened?
Maybe your morning was filled with interruptions. You answered a dozen messages, dealt with a client issue, made twenty little decisions, jumped on a meeting you didn’t really need to attend, and got distracted by something you saw online.
None of those things took up your entire day.
But every one of them used some of your energy.
By the time you got to the work that actually needed your focus, you had already spent a good portion of what you had available.
That’s the tricky part. You can look at your calendar and see exactly where your time went, but it’s much harder to see where your energy went.
Where Is Your Energy Actually Going?
Most energy drains aren’t huge, which is why it is hard to see that you are running out.
Think about how often your energy gets chipped away by things like:
- Checking notifications the second they pop up
- Saying yes because you feel like you should
- Sitting through meetings that could have been an email
- Dealing with a client or colleague who consistently drains you
- Comparing your business to everyone else’s highlight reel
- Making the same small decisions over and over
- Holding onto a task you should have delegated months ago
One of those things probably isn’t going to make much difference.
Stack five or six of them into the same morning, though, and suddenly that wide-open afternoon doesn’t look nearly as productive.
And if you are a solopreneur who works from home, don’t even get me started on the “life tasks” that pick at your energy. Like being in the middle of a Zoom meeting and thinking to yourself, “I have to make sure I move the laundry over when this meeting is done.”
It’s rarely one big thing that takes all your energy. It’s usually a whole bunch of little things you barely even notice when they are happening.
You Need Energy Boundaries
You’ve probably heard plenty about protecting your time and setting boundaries around your calendar.
But if everything you do requires energy, it makes sense to have some boundaries around that too.
That doesn’t mean avoiding every person or task you don’t enjoy. There will always be things in your business you would rather not do.
It means noticing what consistently takes more energy than it should and deciding whether you want to keep giving it that much.
Protecting your energy might mean:
- Turning off notifications while you’re doing work that needs your full attention
- Saying no without writing a three-paragraph explanation
- Taking an actual break instead of eating lunch while answering email
- Batching small administrative tasks instead of letting them interrupt you all day
- Handing off something someone else could easily be doing
- Ending a client relationship or commitment that simply isn’t a good fit anymore
You don’t need to do all of these.
In fact, trying to fix every energy drain at once would probably become another energy drain.
Pick the one that would make the biggest difference and start there.
Protecting Your Energy Isn’t About Doing Less
Protecting your energy doesn’t mean you need to work less hours, clear your calendar, or spend Tuesday afternoon at the spa. Although I’m certainly not arguing against that last one.
It means being more intentional about what gets your energy.
There are things in your business that deserve your best thinking, creativity, experience, and attention, and there are other things that simply need to get done.
Those things don’t deserve an equal share of you.
If you’ve already spent your best energy on things that don’t really matter, there isn’t much left when you get to the work that does.
And that’s when you find yourself staring at something that normally takes an hour and wondering why you just can’t get your brain to cooperate.
Start by Paying Attention
You don’t need another system for this. You probably don’t need another app either.
For the next few days, just notice.
Ask yourself:
- What am I doing when I feel energized and engaged?
- What consistently leaves me feeling drained?
- What keeps interrupting my focus?
- Who or what takes more energy than I expect?
- What am I still giving energy to simply because I’ve always done it that way?
You may find that some of the answers surprise you.
And once you can see where your energy is actually going, you can start making different choices about where you want it to go.
Your Business Will Take Whatever You Give It
There will always be something else you could be doing in your business.
Another email to answer. Another post to create. Another idea to chase. Another problem to solve.
Your business isn’t going to tap you on the shoulder and say, “That’s enough for today. You’ve given me plenty.”
You have to decide that.
So as you look at the week ahead, don’t just ask yourself where your time is going; ask where your energy is going, too.
Because everything you do requires some of it.
And not everything deserves an equal share.
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