Business & Life: Energy vs.Time Management

I start of this week’s article with a reflection on the Abkhasian proverb, “Without rest, man cannot work, without work the rest does not give any benefit.”  This proverb is similar to the popular proverb, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and all play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.”  These proverbs speak to the need for balance, the need to put work in perspective and the need to recharge and to be reenergized.  They also recognize the importance of work. This leads me to the topic of this week, “Energy vs. Time Management”.

One of the frequent laments of people, especially managers is that they do not have enough time and we comment on how quickly time flies.  Once I was saying this and a friend said, “Valda, the number of hours in the day has not changed.  It remains 24 hours.  It is what you do or want to do that has changed, and so you should reconsider what you do with your time.”  I have often reflected on this, and I have found that I try to put in too many things in too little time, and this is one of the causes of my tardiness.  Example, I will wake up at 5am and before I get ready for work, I will pray, go walking with the dogs, make breakfast, sometimes cook lunch and this should be all, but oh no, I will decide that this is now the time to begin cleaning or washing or responding to emails, and of course, before I know it, I am late.  So now, when I find myself doing some unnecessary things in the morning, I will say, “Valda, not now!  Do this in the evenings!”  I also set out a very ambitious ‘Things To Do’ and it takes me working all through the wee hours to complete it and then sleep gets sacrificed. A few days of being sleep-deprived then leaves me feeling under the weather and my productivity level drops, giving truth to the adage, “Without rest, man cannot work.”

I came across an article “Manage your Energy, Not Your Time,” by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy (HBR, Oct 2007) while researching “time management,” and I could identify with much of that article.  The authors argued that most of us respond to the rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably takes a toll on us physically, mentally and emotionally.  This then leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates and soaring medical costs among employees.  They contend the core issue with working longer hours, is that time is finite, and we should instead focus not solely on time management but also and very importantly energy management.   They define energy as the capacity to work and state that energy comes from four main wellsprings: body, emotions, mind and spirit.  In each of the wellsprings, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals – behaviours that are intentionally practiced and scheduled with the goal of making them new habits.

This focus on energy management, they posit requires a paradigm shift in how employers view employees.  Organisations need to shift their emphasis on getting more out of people to investing more in them so that they are motivated and bring more of themselves to work every day.  Individuals too have a responsibility to recognize the costs of energy depleting behaviours then take action to change then, regardless of the circumstances they are facing.

The ideas postulated by Schwartz and McCarthy are quite thought provoking.  What does it mean to us?  For each of us, the lesson may be different, however there are some things that may be common.  They are in essence saying to us, rather than saying we don’t have enough time, we did to focus on what we do with time and the impact of what we do on our wellbeing.  Are our behaviours energy depleting or energy giving?    We should then take action to reduce energy-depleting activities and increase energy-giving activities.  Let us take a look at some typical hours in the working week:

5am – 7 am – Preparation for Work
7am – 7:50 – Travelling to Work
8am – 4pm – Work

The question becomes what do we do in those hours.  In our early hours of preparing for work, do we pray, exercise, take a quiet time for self and reaffirm our love for our family?  Or do we shout to wake and get the children ready for school or work, do we fuss over what to cook or engage in a quarrel with our children or spouse/partner?  In the former, we are renewing the four sources of energy: physical, emotions, mind and spirit, and so we are reenergised and get to work or school with a positive spirit and attitude, prepared to take on the challenges of the day.  In the latter scenario, we are depleting our energy sources and we get to work frazzled, bothered and unhappy, and find it difficult to deal with others and the challenges of the day.

In our travelling to work, how do we engage our self?  Are we listening to uplifting music or program and engaged in positive conversation or are we listening to loud, aggressive music or conversation. This, too, impacts on our energy sources, either renewing or depleting.   A friend once told me that I had zero tolerance for negative conversation.  She is right for I find nothing fulfilling about engaging in negative conversation.  I believe if there is a problem, while one has to speak about, one must that dwell on it.  One should be focused on solving that problem and turning that negative, wherever possible to a positive.

We spend, as I often say, the better part of our day at work.  In those eight and sometimes, nine, ten, twelve or even fourteen hours, what do we do?  How do we spend that time?  If the work environment is hostile, working conditions are poor, communication weak, interpersonal relationships ineffective, is it any wonder employees do not give of their best?  If the work environment is energy depleting then employees are disengaged, unmotivated, give only the bare minimum and report more sick days.  The Dominica Social Security and Chamber of Commerce are concerned about the high levels of sick days reported by workers in Dominica.  It would be interesting to do a study to identify the companies with the highest levels of sick days and determine whether the environment was energy depleting or energy giving.

If however, the work environment is healthy and energy restoring and giving, employees are engaged, productive and happy.  This is reflected in not just the quantity of work performed but very importantly the quality of the work and relationships with co-workers, managers and customers.  This makes for successful business.  This is one of the reasons why Schwartz and McCarthy advocate the paradigm shift from “getting” more out of people to “investing” more in people.

Next week we continue our focus on Energy Management and take an Energy Audit to determine the level of our energy and examine strategies for replenishing and renewing our energy.   In the meantime, lets us reexamine how we spend our time and assess whether it is energy depleting or energy giving.  Let us commit to engaging more in energy-giving activities.

Until we meet again, May God Continue to Keep Us in the Palm of His Hands.