Why You Have No Energy, And What To Do About It

“I don’t think I’m burned out, but I feel like I have no gas in the tank by Wednesday.”

My client wasn’t depressed. She wasn’t disengaged. She just felt done.

Her calendar was full. Back to back meetings, a mountain of tasks... things that looked productive. But none of it gave her energy.

Looking at her calendar, one thing became crystal clear to me:

• She WASN'T burning out from too much work.
• She WAS burned out from the wrong kind of work, at the wrong time of day, with zero margin to recover.

She was doing her best. She just wasn't paying attention to her energy, and she's not alone. The average maxed out executive throws themselves at work, energy be damned, and wonders why they feel exhausted day after day.

Good news: you can start making small changes this week to impact your energy, and find the fuel for the results you want. 

Energy is Fuel for the Results You Want

Here’s the issue: most calendars are built to maximize efficiency and output, not energy. You try to jam more and more items into the finite time you have, without regard for how it will impact your energy.

But energy is the fuel for the results you want. No fuel, no results. 

The results you want are often generated by your higher order thinking, like planning, decision-making, and the ability to focus for an extended period of time. All this is controlled by your brain's pre-frontal cortext, and it has a voracious appetite for energy. When your energy drops, so does your higher order thinking: 

• The quality of your decisions drop.
• It takes longer to solve problems.
• You're much more likely to respond to temptation, like checking your email or social media instead of focusing. 

This is why you make great decisions at before your first meeting of the day, and questionable decisions after your 5th meeting of the day.

Additionally, when your energy drops it can actually mimic feelings of burnout: 

• You feel apathetic and disengaged
• It's harder for you to process information, particularly complex thoughts
• Your motivation drops
• You get incredibly annoyed or irritated

You might think you’re “burned out,” when you’re actually just energy depleted and overdue for a break.

The net effect is your results go in the tank. You have got to extend your calendar planning to incorporate how it impacts your energy. 

Every Task Impacts Your Energy

Every task you choose to do has an impact on your energy:

• Some tasks amplify your energy.
• Some tasks decrease your energy.
• Some tasks are neutral. 

This is multiplied, positive and negative, by your natural rhythms throughout the day.  Your circadian rhythm determines your alertness throughout the day (e.g. You're an early bird up at 6am with bells on, or you're a night owl crushing your best work at 11:30pm). Tasks that amplify your energy, combine with your natural circadian rhythm, can create exceptional return for your time spent on the task. 

In addition to your circadian rhythm, there is a lesser known ultradian rhythm that happens every 90 to 120 minutes, where your energy will peak and dip naturally. You likely have experienced this after your third back to back meeting where your brain is absolutely screaming for a break. This is real, and it's time to pay attention to it. 

Knowing every task impacts your energy, and you have natural rhythms to your day that multiply that energy, what should you do about it? Glad you asked. 

How to Architect Your Calendar for Maximum Energy

Now that you know every task you focus on impacts your energy, here's a simple process to architect your calendar for maximum energy.

1. Track Your Energy

If you want to get your money right, track your finances. If you want to get your personal health right, track your calories, and if you want to maximize your energy, track your energy. 

Keep a simple log for one week. Note the time of day, what you’re doing, and how energized you felt after the task: positive, neutral or negative.

2. Look for Patterns

You now become a forensic investigator of your energy log. You're on the hunt for insights on what impacts your energy. Consider obvious factors like type of work, the topic, who's involved with you on the task, and time of day. You can also consider non-obvious factors, like your environment (e.g office vs. work from home vs. coffee shop), physical state (e.g. did you get a workout in that day? Did you get good sleep the night before?), and clarity on the task (e.g. are you "wandering" trying to figure it out, or do you have clarity on what you're trying to achieve?). 

3. Amplify What Energizes You

Within insights in hand on what energizes you, and your natural rhythms for high and low energy, strategically architect tasks into your calendar. Is it helpful to start your day with energizing tasks to get momentum on the day? Schedule those on your calendar now. Is it helpful to finish the day with energizing tasks when your energy naturally lulls late afternoon? Again, schedule it on your calendar. You are your Time Boss, literally the boss of your future self. Make decisions now that are going to set up your future self for success. 

4. Minimize the Neutral

You can’t eliminate every neutral task, but just like energizing tasks you can strategically schedule them. Experiment with ideal times for these tasks, such as directly after an energizing task, or knock these out to start your day so you can move on to your energizing tasks. 

5. Avoid What Drains You

Unfortunately some tasks will always cost you energy, and leave you feeling drained. Again, you may not be able to completely eliminate these tasks (they do call it "work" for a reason), but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Ask yourself:

1. Can I delegate it? If so, use this guide to help you delegate well.
2. Can I do it once, then automate it? If it has to be done, consider if an AI or other automation tool can do it for you. This is often possible particularly with admin or reporting work. 
3. Can I delete it? Evaluate if it's a true priority, or if you can simply stop doing it. Work that drains us often delivers poor results as well. It may be worth simply not doing it at all. 

If you're unable to get out of the task, experiment with ways to minimize the impact of tasks that drain you. Try starting your day with these tasks to get them out of the way aka eat the frog. Mark Twain once said that if you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day. Or consider ending your day with the draining task once you've got all your other priority tasks complete. 

6. Schedule Recovery Time (Yes, on the Calendar)

In your log, you'll likely see natural energy dips after multiple back-to-back meetings or mentally challenging tasks. Schedule recovery time (yes, on your calendar) where you naturally see your energy drop to help you maintain energy levels all day. Choose true recovery activities that refuel your brain (aka not doom scrolling). Great options include:

1. A walk outside with no tech (for a great resource here, check out the Hike31 challenge by Jessica DeAngelo)
2. A 20 minute power nap
3. Deep breathing and guided meditation

You may need to experiment with it to find the thing that actually restores your energy, then lock that into your calendar each week when you know you'll need it.  

Now I hear you screaming "But I already don't have enough time!". Here's the hard truth: you'll always have more to-do that time to do it. If you don't radically accept that reality, then start scheduling in things you personally need to be at your best (like recovery time), it's never going to happen. Trust me and schedule it, and your future self will thank me later. 

7. Rinse and Repeat Weekly

If you're a Time Boss, you already run a Weekly Planning Meeting (if you're not sure how to do so, start with our 90 minute Masterclass here). Use the "Reflect on Your Week" step to identify one small change on your calendar to maximize your energy. This simple process, repeated week after week, will naturally help you architect a weekly calendar your brain will love. Your future self is literally begging you to do this work. 

Energy is a Part of a Successful Weekly Framework 

Maximizing your energy is just one part of a successful weekly framework that helps you get whatever results you want, and do so without overwhelm. 

If you don't have a Weekly Framework, or you do but you're not getting the results you want without overwhelm from it, I'd encourage you to check out the Time Boss Masterclass. In just 90 minutes, you can be up and running with the same framework that is helping maxed out executives get 4 to 10 hours back in their work, upgrading their productivity 30%+, and reducing their stress/increasing their peace.