Time management isn’t enough when you’re burned out from career, kids and adulting. Enter the power of energy management to take control of your time and life.

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When you’re burned out, the last thing you want to hear is that you just need to “Manage your time better.”

Thanks, Chad.

I’ve got two young kids with about 1,500 school emails and activities to sort through.

My professional inbox is flooded with absurd requests that feel urgent because our capitalist overload has a stick up his ass this morning.

I’ve got at least a dozen requests for meetings that could’ve just been more emails.

And it’s only fucking Tuesday.

The productivity influencers that never actually worked in an office (while also raising kids on the side) simply do not get it.

Now look, in fairness, time management is a major focus of mine because it is an important skill you must develop. A lot of people genuinely need help prioritizing and focusing.

But I didn’t work my way through burnout because I time-blocked my day.

I beat the burnout by figuring out a better way to manage my energy. Or lack thereof.

I started realizing that I am the most energized in the mornings. It’s the first few hours of my day when I’m at my most creative and productive.

By noon, my focus starts to nosedive.

Instead of trying to force a square peg into a round hole, I embraced it.

Time management is a skill. And energy management is the next level capability you must nurture if you want to finally start living and stop feeling like you’re constantly running behind.

Today, I’m going to show you how to harness this ability.

Let’s get into it.

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Time management vs. Energy management

I tried time blocking my day. Just like Cal Newport and all the productivity gurus suggested.

While I think it’s a good tool to have in your toolbox, the idea felt forced to me.

When you’re truly a creative person, it can be difficult to schedule exactly when you’re supposed to be creative.

But, we do need to have some structure.

That’s where energy management comes into play.

Go with the flow (of your own energy)

Energy management is like taking care of your internal battery to make sure you’re able to run at your best when it’s needed the most.

You’ll be more focused, productive and creative.

The idea is to learn when you are usually most productive and/or creative.

Sometimes these are two different categories.

For me, I’ve learned that I am far more creative to start my day. That’s when my energy to create is at its highest.

By late morning, I lose some of that creative energy and can shift into more project-based tasks like the Midlife Mastery community that I’m currently building.

And by midday, my mental energy has peaked and I shift into my workout to expel some physical energy.

Any work that needs to be completed after exercise is for mostly admin type stuff. Tasks that don’t require a terrible amount of brain power.

By the end of my workday, I’m taxed both mentally and now physically and need a bit of time to unwind. That’s why I started playing video games as part of my work shutdown ritual and a little transition into “dad mode” before I pick up my kids from after school.

It’s all part of my four hour work day that I discussed in this recent newsletter.

By learning my flow of energy, I can maximize my focus, make better decisions and solve problems more effectively.

How to harness the power of energy management

It starts with getting better awareness around your energy levels.

Like I said, I’m most creative in the morning. But you might be different. That’s okay.

One of my best friends is a night owl and does his most creative work after the family goes to bed.

There’s no right or wrong answer, just what works for you.

Figure out when you are most energetic. And then determine if that kind of energy fluctuates and varies throughout the day (and maybe even throughout the week).

Over the course of your workday, write down when you are feeling most energetic, productive, creative and when you’re feeling tired and sluggish.

For example: Maybe you’re more of the type that builds momentum off of process-oriented tasks in the morning and then gets a second wind of creative energy later in the afternoon.

If that’s the case, you should stop scheduling your meetings after lunchtime so you can utilize that creative energy.

Group related tasks together based on your energy levels

For me that means writing and creating content first thing in the morning.

Project-based work in my late mornings.

My workout comes around noon.

Then any meetings or process-oriented (admin style tasks) come late in the afternoon before I wrap things up for the day.

Find your own energy balance.

Recharge

If low energy is your default setting, you’ll need to recharge that internal battery.

Chances are you are out of alignment in one or more areas:

• Sleep
• Exercise
• Healthy eating
• Spending some time in nature
• Connecting with loved ones

Develop some systems that allow you to find pockets of rest so you can recharge throughout your day.

There are actually seven kinds of rest, not just sleep, that we need to keep our batteries running efficiently.

We reviewed those seven styles in a previous newsletter. But here are the seven:

1. Creative (enjoy nature or art)
2. Sensory (put your phone away)
3. Physical (light movement)
4. Social (time with friends)
5. Mental (mindfulness)
6. Emotional (therapy)
7. Spiritual (prayer)

Take a recharge break throughout your day using a combination of the seven types of rest.

I like to embrace micro workouts or exercise snacks on my busiest days so I can stay active.

Be proactive

You need to think ahead to future energy-draining obstacles and plan accordingly.

Every single week, I’ll look at my objectives and map out my schedule so I can accomplish them.

Then I’ll take an additional step to think about how my energy will fluctuate alongside of that work.

Remember, the goal is to prevent a situation that led to your burnout in the first place.

For instance: If I’ve pushed myself for a few days to wrap a big project or hit a crucial deadline, it might mean breaking from my four-hour workday routine and exerting more creative energy than usual.

In the past, I might have just accepted it for what it was and hustled my way through the rest of the week with a drained battery.

Then l’d limp into the weekend completely wasted, without any real time to recover since I’ve got kids at home.

Instead, I’m proactively scheduling a day or two to slow down after a two or three days of pushing harder.

On those lower-energy days, I might wrap up work a bit early and just do some more reading or playing.

Maybe your lower-energy days are designated to catching up on a backlog of admin tasks.

It’s this push and pull of energy management that allows me to stay as fresh as possible.

Take back control of your energy to take back control of your life

Take the next few weeks and play around with this concept of energy management.

Be really focused on where your energy is at peak levels.

Identify the activities that drain you. Lean in on the types of rest and activities that charge you back up.

Find the small pockets of time throughout your day when you can give your eyes a break from a screen.

• Go for a walk
• Take a few deep breaths
• Avoid energy-sucking projects, meetings and tasks during your lowest energy output periods

You’ll start to notice patterns.

That’s when you can really start taking back control of your energy.

Helping you find better balance, managing your time and energy levels, getting in shape with systems and routines, these are the things that I’m building into my Midlife Mastery community.

My goal is to help more people in their 40s (and up) free up more time in their hectic schedule so they can be happier, healthier, more fulfilled and actually start to enjoy this second act phase of life.

If you’d be interested in a community like that, I’d love to know.

Please hit reply and give me one or two areas where you’d like to see some better balance.

I’ll be slowly working on this project over the next few months and want to use as much of your feedback as possible to make it worth your while.

This won’t solve all the world’s problems overnight.

But it should go a long way towards helping you find a little better balance.

I hope you found this useful. If so, I’d appreciate it if you sent this newsletter to one person you think would benefit from my writing today.

And if you’re new here and enjoyed this newsletter, I’d be honored if you subscribed for more at this link.

And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “energy management” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete