How to create a productive routine by managing your energy rather than your time

When I first started working from home I was extremely overwhelmed with how to structure my day. Many of us overbook ourselves with meetings and load ourselves with caffeine and adrenaline. It’s hard to focus with a mind full of stress.

There are a lot of resources out there telling us how to manage our time, but that’s not the same thing as managing our energy. You can’t always control when clients will call or emails come in, but you can find ways to conserve your energy for the tasks that are most important to you.

I realized that without my usual commute to and from classes or meetings, I wasn’t consciously checking in with myself and taking mental breaks. I was trying so hard to be productive that it ultimately drained my motivation and energy by early afternoon.

What I needed was a new routine. The problem was not that I didn’t have enough time, but it was rather that I didn’t have brainpower to get through all the work I wanted to do for school and work for my startup.

Here’s a glimpse of how I restructured my day:

1. Planning — The difference between managing my time versus my energy comes down to how I prioritize my workload. I always make a list of “Top 3 Tasks” I need to accomplish by the end of the day and then a few “extra” tasks that I would like to get done. I separate these extras from my Top 3 so that I know there’s no urgency, in case I don’t have enough time or motivation. Self-awareness is also key: Knowing that I’m a morning person, I tackle my biggest task first thing in the morning. Planning this out the night before or right at the beginning of my day helps me energize myself and feel productive from the get-go. Then, I time block my afternoon into 2 sections with a planned break in between.
2. Read — Every day at 2:00 pm, I set a reminder in my phone to “Read.” My go-to spots for content are Medium or Harvard Business Review. Since I love learning new things, reading one or two articles mid-day gives me some inspiration and also re-sparks my creativity for the rest of the day.
3. More Movement — When I started being more mindful of how many breaks I was taking and how I was managing my productivity, I noticed how much physical movement impacted my energy. By taking a walk or stretching a couple of times a day, I can refresh myself before sitting back down and focusing on my next task.
4. Working intuitively — I found that when I’m sitting for too long, I lose the ability to concentrate and I end up wasting time being frustrated with why I can’t come up with a solution. This is EXACTLY when I know that I need a break.

With so many responsibilities, it’s important to take care of your mental and physical health. One of my favorite mantras is “Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to discipline. When that’s firmly under your belt, that’s real power.”

There’s a point where you’d do anything to be more productive and increase your daily output. From reading articles to following countless productivity experts, there are a lot of crazy ideas that will give you great results in the long run. I’m guilty of doing a lot of these things myself. However, all these techniques and routines are just gimmicks when it comes down to it. By creating a personalized routine and schedule that prioritizes your mind and body, you will realize the difference in managing your energy rather than your time.