From Time Management to Energy Management

People like to talk a lot about ROI: if I invest this much money in a project, how much will I get back? Sometimes they think of ROI in terms of time invested. If I put this much time into an activity, what will I get back, and what is worth my time?

What I haven’t heard as often is the concept of ROE, or Return on Energy. I started using this with my business owner clients several years ago as it became obvious that different activities that take the same amount of time can take very different amounts of energy, and have very different outcomes.

If you are doing something you enjoy, you can often spend hours on it, even get lost in it, and afterwards feel relaxed, rejuvenated, and even more energetic than you felt going into it. On the other hand, if you are doing something you dread, you can be completely drained after 10-20 minutes. You also might procrastinate or worry about these activities even when you aren’t doing them, which drains you even more.

One of the most powerful tools we will be using in May – our “Time and Energy Management” month, is the return on energy tool, which allows you to assign an ROE score to all your activities, and then sort them based on which activities you should capitalize on, which you should systemize, and which you should delegate or delete if at all possible.

If you’d like to try this on your own – a simple way is to make a list of everything you have to do to achieve a certain end – whether that is grow your business, have a spotless house, achieve a weight loss goal, or anything else. For each of those activities, start by asking yourself, “if I do this activity well, how far will it take me towards achieving my goal?” Then, ask, “how much does this activity energize or drain me?”

What you’ll notice is that some activities, like making cold calls, may get you to your goal, but may drain you so much they aren’t worth it. While other activities, like e-mail follow up, may not get you as far, but since you could do it all day, you may actually get more out of it.

Same with weight loss. It may be that sticking to a particular diet will get you to your weight loss goal in a few weeks. But it takes every ounce of willpower for you to stick to the diet and you rarely make it past the first few days. On the other hand, eating several small meals each day, and allowing yourself one indulgence each day, might not get you to your goal weight for a few months – but it’s something you can stick to – and several days will go by without you even noticing that you were on a diet. In this case – the second option will likely give you a better “return” on the energy you invest.

Sometimes this concept isn’t easy to get at first, but feel free to contact me with any questions, or be sure to attend one of our May Aspyrre Community events to learn more!

Daily Actions

Today I pulled out my list of daily actions. A daily actions check list is one of those super simple but very powerful tools - kind of like a to-do list. It's not the tool itself that is so amazing - it's how you use it. Some people are overwhelmed by their To Do lists, and those same people might get overwhelmed with a Daily Actions list, but here are some secrets to making the most of the tool:

1. Think of a set of small actions that, if done on a daily basis for a period of several months (or forever) will almost surely lead to success in achieving your goal. For example, you might have a set of 6 "rules" for eating, that if followed on a daily basis, will almost surely get you to your ideal weight.

2. The Daily Actions list builds on the power of habit building. Once a habit is established, it's harder to NOT do it than do it. So if you build habits that naturally move you towards your BIG goals, you end up achieving more with less effort.

3. It will always take a lot of energy to do something before it becomes a habit, so while you are building a new habit, you will have a better chance of success with steps that drain your energy as little as possible. That means your daily actions should not take very long to do, and they should be pretty easy. Think in terms of "baby steps".

4. Building on the baby steps concept, habits are built through frequency and consistency, so whenever you can break something down into smaller, more frequent steps, you will have better success. One example is with exercise. Instead of doing 1 hour three times per week, you may get farther doing (3) 10 minute routines each day.

5. It's better to have fewer daily actions that too many. Keep in mind you can always add more later, once the habit is built. So if you pick 10 or fewer actions to do on a daily basis, and then you do them consistently for 1-2 months, pretty soon they will be so automatic that you will not have to think about them anymore. Then, if you like the daily actions tool, you can replace those actions with new actions and new habits.

My daily actions list has about 15 items on it. I have been using this list since November, and many of the actions are easy habits by now, but others I have struggled with. The ones I struggle with tend to take more time (like walking the dog for two miles - 40 minutes), or tend to occur in the afternoon or evening when I've crossed over into a reactive state, and am out of energy and not thinking as clearly.

But the daily actions list has become somewhat of a habit for me, and it has served me well. The good thing about good habits is that you tend to always "fall" back into them. And so, after a four day hiatus, I have pulled up my list of 15 items, and little by little am checking them off.

What daily habits could you create that would help you achieve your BIG goal?