How to Allocate Energy to Work

It’s been a while since my last post. I can only apologize, but has been for the best of reasons. I have simply been to busy with projects, to the point where this blog has been neglected and I’ve felt bad about it every day. However, you only have so many hours in the day and you only have so much energy to allocate.

It’s very much like the little games you download on your phone, where you eventually run out of energy. You then typically have to wait 30 minutes or so for every bit of energy to reload before you can keep playing. You may never have thought about it, but this is life in a nutshell. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week. No matter how badly you or someone else wants you to work all 24 hours every day, it’s not humanly possible, nor should you, even if you could!

The reason is quite simple. What differs us from apps and games is that our energy does not come exclusively from time and rest. Human beings need more. We need to socialize with other human beings, we need to enjoy life, we need to laugh and love. Sounds quite cliche, doesn’t it? Well it’s cliche for a reason. It’s true. We need to disconnect from nagging clients and customers, bosses yelling, paperwork piling up or just the computer screen we stare at for hours and hours end to end. If we don’t get to disconnect we will hit a wall, or maybe even rock bottom, sooner or later, without exception.

There is no answer to what disconnecting is. It’s different for all of us. As long as it’s something which manages to take your mind off of everything work related, then it’s right for you. To me it means cooking a nice meal with my girlfriend. Playing a game of football with good friends. Or even just laying on the couch on a Friday evening watching some of my favorite shows! Disconnecting does not have to be a grand gesture like an expensive holiday, as long as it’s something that builds you back up and restores that energy you spent earlier in the day.

Don’t let yourself fall trap to the notion that you will have to give up your life for a successful company. You’ll have to make sacrifices and work your ass off, but contrary to popular opinion, you can also disconnect and you need to do it.

Think of it this way: Scandinavian countries are experimenting with 6 hour work days. What have they discovered which so many others haven’t?

Productivity vs hours on the books. I’ll take a highly productive expert working 4 hours a day, than someone working 10 hours a day and achieving half the result. Be productive when you work and disconnect when you don’t.

Do you agree with my views? No? Let me know in the comments!