Energy Drain

Do you feel exhausted at the end of the day?  Middle of the day?  Beginning of the day?  Read the blog post before this one if you feel like a ping pong ball.  Getting that game under control is a great step to shoring up some drains.

Here are some additional drains that can be turned into boosts.

To do list:  Super way to stay organized!  Remember to just have one (one life, one list).  When you complete something on your list and you cross it off – your list can become overwhelming – you will only notice what is left to be done, not what you accomplished.

Boost tip:  Get your favorite colored highlighter and highlight the items that you complete.  Each time you look at the list, you will be delighted by all you’ve accomplished and you won’t lose anything left to be done.

Physical clutter:  Physical piles and junk will drain your energy really fast.  Look around at your work area.  Even if there are neat piles, they represent the heavy load of all that needs to be done.  Remove all the clutter.  If you don’t have time to clean it up right away, put it in drawers and closets.  Get it out of sight.

Boost tip:  Only have the materials relating to what you’re working on at that time.  When you move on to the next project, put away the materials related to the past project.

Sub-tip:  For tips on how to get your physical paper under control click here for an earlier blog.  Click here for tips on how to keep organized going forward.

Do less:  Having a million things to get done every day is unrealistic and leaves you with a feeling of failure.  If you’re not going to have time to get something done, why are you beating yourself up about not getting it done?

Boost tip:  Plan to accomplish no more than one to three tasks a day.  Plan to work on these during no more than 50% of your day to allow for interruptions.  When you have meetings most of your day, plan to get nothing done.  If you accomplished all that you’ve set out to do, you can start working on tomorrow’s tasks.

Icky stuff:  We all have stuff we need to do, that we put off because we don’t enjoy doing those things.  It sits in our mind and zaps our energy more and more each day.

Boost tip:  Get these items off your plate right away.  Make anything you’re putting off, your first priority and complete them.  I tackle these items first thing in the morning and power through them.  To get started, plan to work on the icky project for 15 to 30 minutes only – when the time is up, you may find you’re in a flow and choose to keep going – or you’ve made some progress and will pick it up tomorrow morning.

Do you have an energy boost ideas?  What works for you?  Share your comments below so we can all have more energy!

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