I am going to explain the more nuanced concept of managing your energy, and how it fits into your personal time centric schedule.
Now, when managing your time and energy, the two concepts are tightly intertwined. To illustrate how, I am going to use a random week from the year:
##Using Python to randomize my month selection
import random
random.randrange(52)
47
Using 2019 as my year, here is my week…
From Date To Date
Sunday Nov. 17th, 2019 Saturday Nov. 24th, 2019
So what did this week look like…? For the best view of this viz, view in a desktop browser. Zoom in and zoom out on your phone or tablet.
From the visualization I provided, you can see that while I have “free” time, I also have “busy” time. It’s important to not overburden oneself with too much work. What I have found helpful, is to think through the events I have planned for the day. The events could be activities, errands, and anything that is a pre-scheduled block of time. These blocks of time require different amounts of energy, and, as such, these blocks of time could either deplete or increase your energy levels.
A quick question to ask yourself when looking at an event with free time following it on your schedule is: Does this deplete my energy or increase my energy levels? Based on your answer to this question, you could 1. block out the “free” time so you don’t schedule anything over it, if there is an obvious need for energy levels to be recharged, and 2. if the event preceding the free time increased or did nothing to your energy levels, leave it as “free” so you can add to your schedule if something comes up.
I hope you found this helpful!
I followed the thread of inspiration for this post. It goes like this: a friend’s blog post<– @Haypsych <– Manage Your Energy Not Your Time by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy.
DateA Set 