Chapter Content
Okay, so let's talk about, you know, figuring out where you're at right now, like, your baseline, with something I call the Energy Calendar. And, really, this is all about two main things: awareness and, like, paying attention. Because before you can really start focusing your attention properly, you've got to, you know, get a handle on where your time's actually going compared to, you know, where it *should* be going.
And that's, honestly, like, a tricky problem, right? You've got to, first of all, figure out how you're *actually* spending your time, and then you've got to work out what's important, what you can get rid of, or what you can pass on to someone else when you're already, like, super busy.
So, the Energy Calendar is designed to help with that. It's pretty straightforward, actually. For one week, just one week, at the end of each day, Monday to Friday, take a look at your calendar and color-code everything you did. And I mean *everything*.
Use these colors: Green for activities that, like, actually gave you energy, that left you feeling good. Yellow for things that were just...neutral. You didn't really gain or lose anything. And red, obviously, for things that totally drained you. Activities that just left you feeling exhausted.
Now, don't, like, overthink the color-coding, you know? Just go with your gut feeling about how you felt *after* the activity. What was your vibe?
Then, at the end of the week, take a step back, have a look at the whole calendar, and ask yourself a few key questions. First, what are the common green things? What activities give you the most energy? What are the common yellow things? And, finally, what are the common red things? What are the activities that are just consistently draining you?
Once you've got those answers, you can, like, start making a plan. For the green activities, the ones that give you energy, you want to prioritize those, and amplify them. Think about how you can spend more time doing them.
For the yellow activities, the neutral ones, you want to maintain them, or maybe delegate them. See if you can slowly pass some of them off to someone else, freeing up time for those energy-giving green activities.
And, finally, for the red activities, the energy-draining ones, you really want to try and delegate them, delete them entirely, or, at the very least, adjust them. Can you find ways to pass them on, get rid of them completely, or can you make small changes to make them less draining? Like, could you switch from, I don't know, a draining video call to a, you know, a neutral walking call?
The Energy Calendar is really all about giving you a snapshot of where your time and energy are currently going so you can start asking yourself the right questions to make things better. The goal isn't to get rid of all the neutral and energy-draining stuff, that's probably impossible. It's about slowly improving the ratio of energy-giving activities to energy-draining ones. The green-to-red ratio, if you will. That’s really the main thing, you know?