How to Work With Your Energy, Not Against It
How to Work With Your Energy, Not Against It
Why Working with Your Energy Matters
Ever find yourself pushing through a task when you’re completely drained, only to end up frustrated and stuck? We’ve all been there. But here’s a better way: adjusting your tasks based on your current energy levels to keep moving forward—even on low-energy days. In this post, we’re diving into the power of working with your energy, how it helps prevent burnout, and practical ways to apply it to your daily life.
The Benefits of Working with Your Energy
Pushing through tasks when you’re not in the right mindset can lead to burnout, frustration, and even lower productivity. By aligning tasks with your energy level, you can get more done without feeling exhausted. Instead of forcing through difficult tasks, shift to ones that match your energy—whether that’s creative, problem-solving, or social energy.
Types of Energy & How to Match Them to Your Tasks
It’s not just about high or low energy. Different types of energy—like creative, mental, physical, and social energy—each work best for specific tasks. Understanding these variations allows you to optimize productivity and well-being.
Here’s a Breakdown of Different Types of Energy:
Creative Energy: Ideal for brainstorming, writing, or any artistic tasks.
Problem-Solving Energy: Best for technical or complex projects that require focus and clarity.
Physical Energy: Great for tasks involving movement, such as organizing, cleaning, or exercising.
Social Energy: Perfect for meetings, networking, or any task that involves interaction.
Emotional Energy: Needed for conversations that may be emotionally charged or require empathy and patience.
Checking In With Your Energy Levels
To effectively work with your energy, regularly check in with yourself. Ask:
What type of energy do I have right now?
Which task fits this energy best?
Should I adjust my plan for today?
Think of energy as a spectrum rather than a simple high or low. For example, you may have low physical energy but high creative energy—adjusting your tasks accordingly can make a significant impact on both productivity and well-being.
Balancing Structure and Flexibility
Your brain needs a balance of structure and flexibility (especially if you have ADHD). Too much structure can feel stifling, while too much flexibility can leave us overwhelmed. Working with your energy provides structure by aligning tasks with goals, while flexibility allows you to adjust based on your energy levels. This balance supports sustainable productivity without stress.
Energy-Based Self-Care
Don’t forget that self-care should also align with your different types of energy. Are you feeling drained physically, mentally, or socially? Tailoring your self-care to match your current needs ensures a more effective recharge. For example:
Physical Rest: Stretching, gentle yoga, or simply taking a nap.
Mental Rest: Reading, meditating, or spending quiet time without screens.
Social Rest: Taking a break from social interactions to recharge.
Key Takeaway: Honor Your Energy for Sustainable Productivity
Working with your energy isn’t just about productivity—it’s about honoring your needs and moving forward in a way that feels good. Start by identifying your types of energy, noticing where you are on the spectrum, and adjusting your tasks accordingly. With practice, you’ll find this approach not only helps you avoid burnout but also builds momentum toward your goals.
Ready to Start Working with Your Energy?
Try the check-in questions shared here. For more tools and support, explore 1:1 coaching where we create strategies to support energy-aligned planning, productivity, and self-care.
Here’s to getting things done in a way that feels sustainable and rewarding!
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Sarah Lovell (00:00)
Today we are talking about one of my absolute favorite topics. It is a game changer to planning and taking action. Today we're talking about working with your energy. We've all been there trying to power through when we're tired, only to feel frustrated and stuck and really not getting anything done. But what if I told you that adjusting your plan to match your energy can keep you moving forward even on low energy days?
In this episode, we're talking about how noticing and honoring your energy helps you get unstuck and avoid burnout. It's not just about low or high energy. We're talking about all the different types of energy you experience and how to work with them to get things done in a way that feels good.
The other day I found myself sitting at my computer trying to problem solve a technology issue that I was having. You've probably heard me talk about this before. Technology is not my favorite thing. Ironically, I obviously run a business online. I use a lot of technology in my day to day life. But basically I was feeling really stuck, frustrated and overwhelmed. I just like could not figure out
how to problem solve it. And I kept forcing myself to try to figure it out. And I realized I was not in a good head space for this project. checked in with myself that in order to problem solve this technology issue, I needed to have problem solving energy. I needed to be in a head space where I could
read and learn and apply basically like following instructions, like all of this, all of this problem solving energy. And I didn't have it in that moment. I checked in with myself and I definitely had energy. I was motivated to be doing work, but I just could not problem solve in that moment. And so when I checked in with myself, what type of energy do I have right now?
I had creative energy. And so I gave myself permission to switch tasks. So instead of trying to problem solve the technology related to my email newsletter, I decided to spend some time writing my email newsletter, which is a creative outlet for me. So I was still moving the needle on my goal, but it wasn't
It wasn't the initial task that I had set out on, but I instantly felt better.
Now I know for some people hearing this, can be like, well, that's avoidance or well, then when are you going to problem solve the technology, right? Like if you're somebody who's experienced something like this where you feel frustrated and then you say, okay, I'm just going to switch tasks. This is something that I did very intentionally. And this is something that I help clients with all the time. I did abandon ship on the technology.
problem solving, but I created a plan for myself to solve the problem when I had problem solving energy. And so this is something that I've been doing a lot of reflecting on a lot of work around for a long time. And I know that I tend to have my best problem solving energy first thing in the morning, the start of the day. And so I made a plan for myself. I wrote a note.
where I left off on trying to problem solve the email technology. I call it like, I call it a breadcrumb or a bookmark. I basically wrote myself a little summary of what I had done, what I had tried, what I needed to know for the next day so that I could jump back in where I left off. I wasn't starting fresh. And I was able to do that the following day. I got on the email, I read my little note to myself.
and I was in the right headspace, I had the right energy to problem solve, and I was able to do it quicker and with less frustration. And like that was just part of the process that needed to happen. So I am a huge fan of noticing your energy and working with your energy. And that is exactly what we're going to talk about today. Like I said, this is something that I help clients with.
all the time, but literally anyone can benefit from working with your energy. I think my clients especially benefit from it because they fall into a couple of different categories. And so let me share the types of categories of people who really benefit from noticing and working with your energy, adjusting your plan based on your energy. So...
First, I work with a lot of creative thinkers. So people who are artistic, out of the box thinkers, they have lots of creative energy. And if you're a creative person, you know that when that creative energy pops up, you need to harness it. And so being able to adjust your plan to allow yourself to
work creatively when that creative spark hits is so important. I also work with lot of problem solvers, engineers, coders, tech people, and they are individuals who have different types of learning and problem solving energy. And so similar to my lack of it, when I was trying to problem solve my tech, for them being able to...
check in, am I in a spot where I want to do some very detail oriented work, like coding, or am I in a space where I want to do some learning and maybe read a paper or watch a YouTube video related to the project I'm working on. I also work with a lot of folks who get into hyper focus. And so when that hyper focus kicks in, allowing themselves to work with that energy,
and focus on that task while also having a strategy to shift out of it when they need to. I also work with lot of individuals who have chronic health challenges, brain fog, or chronic fatigue. And so these people need to be able to adapt their plan based on their energy levels and really not knowing will today be a low energy day or will
Will my energy dip off? If I start my day having some energy, how can I adjust my plan? So as you've already, as you've already maybe gathered from these examples, we're not just talking about high and low energy. You have lots of different types of energy, right?
We have physical energy where it's like, okay, I need to get up from my desk or I need to go do something physical and really optimize having physical energy. We have emotional energy, right? Do I have the capacity for an emotional conversation or for thinking about some heavier topics? We have mental cognitive energy, right? Problem solving, learning.
We have creative energy. You've heard me talk about that. It's not just art, right? That problem solving, like creative problem solving can sometimes fall into creative energy or allowing yourself to go with the flow, I think is a creative energy. Social energy. For anybody who has ever said, ooh, I don't have the social battery for that right now, you are aware of your social energy. On the flip of that,
if you're someone like me, a little bit extroverted and you're like, I'm craving social engagement right now. Especially if you work from home, maybe that's something that you've noticed. I've definitely noticed that I crave and I have more social energy. And so how can I optimize that? How can I go and create a plan that works for that?
If this is a totally new topic for you right now, if you're like having this aha moment of, my gosh, I've never thought about what type of energy I have, I want you to spend a little time, whether it's hitting pause right now on the podcast or just like putting a pin in this to think about later today or later this week, do some reflecting on what type of energy energies do you have and what do those look like for you?
This is not an exhaustive list by any means. When I brainstorm this with clients, they come up with really interesting types of energy that they experience. So the first piece of working with your energy is being able to name and label, this is the type of energy I have right now. In addition to types of energy, I think it's also really important that we're not just identifying
high or low energy, thinking about the level of energy we have as a spectrum.
A way to think about your level of energy is thinking about it like a temperature, right? Like a thermometer, gauging where are you on this spectrum? It's not black and white. It's not just I have low energy or I have high energy. There's lots of levels in between that. So whether you picture a thermometer and like a number, or if you're a visual person and picturing like a color on a spectrum,
Again, this is just another way to check in with yourself of where am I energy wise? So maybe you have high creative energy, but low physical energy. So if that task might be like for me, that example of I'm gonna sit down and do some writing, I'm gonna do some brainstorming, that's a low physical energy task, but for me a high creative energy task, right? Like some mixing and matching types of energies.
noticing where you are on the spectrum for all of them. This is my absolute favorite conversation to have with clients. I think I probably say that about lots of topics, but I really, really enjoy helping clients notice this, learn about themselves, and then apply it. I'll give an example. I worked with a client who was a self-employed artist. And so she was
totally in charge of her own schedule, which gave her obviously a lot of freedom, but it also created a lot of stress for her because she was overwhelmed with the option of what do I do? How do I plan my day? How do I structure my day? And she also had an added challenge of experiencing brain fog and low energy at times related to
some chronic health challenges. And she was feeling really stuck with her work. There were lots of shoulds that she was telling herself, that her brain was telling her, you should be getting more done, you should be moving this project along, you should be updating people on how things are going. And so that created even more pressure for her, especially on days where she made a plan.
of I'm going to start this project or I want to be at a certain point with this project. And then when she had a low energy day, feeling like she couldn't do anything at all. And so this created a lot of stress, a lot of overwhelm and basically kept her paralyzed. And the way that we worked together was we looked at
what different types of energy she experiences. So just like how I listed earlier, the different types of energy, we explored that together and we then categorized her tasks into those types of energy. So for example, obviously she's an artist. So she was somebody, she is somebody who has a lot of creative energy. And we made a list of,
high energy creative tasks and low energy creative tasks. So that way on a day where she's like, I'm in a creative space, I want to be doing something creative, but my energy is a little bit lower, she could pick from her low energy task list menu. And this was something that we literally wrote out together so that she could reference it and make a decision without having to kind of rack her brain for what are all of my options.
Right? So if you've listened to the last episode on prep and planning, this is definitely part of that. We did this pre-planning work so that when she was going to sit down to do action, she didn't have to make a plan. She had her past self to thank for doing some of that thinking and planning. So that was one example of categories that we created was high energy creative, low energy creative. And obviously it's a spectrum like I just talked about.
But dividing that up for herself was really helpful. She also had administrative tasks, which she categorized as like administrative energy or problem solving energy. She also had a list of tasks that she could do for extremely low energy days. So obviously she did give herself permission. There were days where she said today's a self care day or I need to totally
give myself a break from work. Like that was part of our conversation. But she also wanted to have options for herself when she did have small windows of energy, but still a low energy, low cognitive task. And so we had a list of a couple of things that basically were repetitive and like almost like a little bit mundane. Like she knew exactly what she needed to do. And it was very clear expectation.
of it was like boxing up some of her art or preparing her art to ship. Like it was very repetitive and like a low spoons activity, if you're familiar with spoons theory. is definitely energy management is definitely thinking about how many spoons you have, right? And where they're going. So she used this strategy of looking at first identifying what type of energy do I have?
How much energy do I have? And then what do I want to work on based on this information and looking at the menus of options that she had created herself for herself. And this allowed her to adjust her plan. And she felt less burnt out because she wasn't trying to force herself to do something that didn't align with her energy. She was able to get more done this way because she was working with the energy she had.
She felt more confident. It was like a boost that she could still move the needle on her goals while honoring her energy and honoring her mood and where she was. And then she felt less shame and guilt and was less hard on herself because she was just getting things done in a way that felt good. So it definitely helped her get out of that all or nothing thinking. And I think that
can pop up a lot for people, right? Like I'm too tired to do the full project. And our brains get into that, like, well, I have to be able to do the whole thing. But when we challenge that way of thinking, and we check in with our energy, being able to say, okay, maybe I can't do the whole project, but is there a piece of the project that I can do that aligns with my energy? And if not, that's okay.
Right? Again, I think an important piece of working with your energy is noticing when you need to give yourself permission to take a full break. Because self-care helps us with all that energy management. You never need to earn rest. You never need to earn self-care. And so again, part of that is being able to check in to honor your needs, to tame the shoulds.
that pop up in our brain.
Working with your energy helps save you time. It helps you work more efficiently and it actually saves you energy because you're working in parallel with your brain.
Another reason I love helping clients learn about working with your energy is that it gives you a mix of structure and flexibility. And our brains crave both things.
If we have too much structure, we push up against it. And that's where that all or nothing thinking can come in. Like, I don't want to do that, or now's not the right time, or, you know, that like, if we're giving ourselves a hard structure, those shoulds, that we push up against it. But if we have too much flexibility, it can be overwhelming. There's too many options,
there's too much time, I can do it later, right? So we need a good mix of structure and flexibility. So working with your energy, the structure piece is that you can still work on a project and the flexibility is that you can adjust how you're doing it. So I'll give a smaller example that maybe fits our day-to-day lives. So if you have on
your to-do list or on your plan that you want to work on cleaning the kitchen. One way to check in on your energy. So first, again, naming what type of energy do I have and then what type of tasks fit that energy. So let's say I want to go spend some time cleaning the kitchen and I identify I'm in like a creative mood. I'm feeling creative I think on this podcast today. Creativity is a topic definitely for today.
So let's say, all right, I have some creative energy. I have some physical energy for cleaning. So if I'm feeling like creative, maybe I don't want to wipe down the counters. Maybe I decide to reorganize the pantry so that it's easier to find things, right? I get to do some like creative problem solving there, some tetracing of the pantry. Or let's say I have some like,
problem solving, learning, I don't know, administrative-y type energy. So for me, that might be replacing the water filter in the fridge, which is like not straightforward. Like that to me is just like, it's not technology, but like my brain puts that in the same category. So problem solving energy would be like, okay, I'm going to replace the filters. If I have really high physical energy, maybe I'm...
you know, wiping the counters, vacuuming, you know, doing lots of physical movement in the kitchen. So again, checking in on the type of energy you have allows you to adjust how you approach a project, which makes it easier to start, more enjoyable along the way, and then you feel good about how you're getting stuff done.
I want to make sure, I know I mentioned self-care earlier in the episode. I want to make sure that you are also thinking about your energy when you're planning self-care. So what type of self-care do you need based on where your energy is at? What type of rest do you need? Do you need physical, mental, social rest or?
what type of activities align with the energy that you have.
So I hope this episode got you thinking about your own energy, that you are more aware of the different types of energy you might have, thinking about it in terms of a temperature gauge of it's not just high and low energy, it's a spectrum of energy.
If this is something that you're wanting to practice in your daily life, having some checking questions or visual reminders can be helpful. So again, the most simple question would be what type of energy do I have right now? What type of task aligns with that energy? Do I need to shift my plan to match my energy? If so, how can I do that? So if those questions are helpful for you,
Write them down, put them on a sticky note, create a visual reminder for yourself.
Is there someone in your life who you think would benefit from learning how to work with their energy? If so, please consider sharing this episode with them. I think we all deserve to get things done in a way that feels good. And I think more people should be talking about energy and adjusting their plan based on their energy.
Take extra good care this week as you notice your energy and adjust your plan accordingly.
