Keep Going and Slow Down by Managing Your Energy

0:00 I'm Gretchen sprite sir I'm a faculty 0:01 member at the Ross School of Business 0:03 and a core faculty member of the Center 0:05 for positive organizations and today I'm 0:08 gonna share with you some of my work 0:09 around energy management because we know 0:12 in difficult times like this that we can 0:15 feel very depleted we can feel that 0:18 we're coping or we're surviving rather 0:21 than actually thriving through these 0:24 difficult times so I'm gonna share with 0:26 you some things about what energy 0:27 management is and why you should care 0:29 about it and share with you a tool that 0:32 might be helpful to you as you're trying 0:34 to better manage your energy so that you 0:36 can be thriving rather than surviving or 0:39 coping so what is energy management well 0:42 it's specific practices that you can use 0:45 in your everyday life to increase the 0:48 probability that you have good energy or 0:50 vitality vitality we know is one of the 0:53 two key dimensions of thriving at work 0:56 with the other being learning and 0:58 growing and developing so there's three 1:01 core practices around energy management 1:06 the first these are by the way these are 1:08 things that you probably have some 1:10 familiarity with because they're all 1:12 within your control 1:13 so first sleep we know sleep can be 1:15 disruptive and challenging stressful 1:17 times but we should really try to keep a 1:19 sleep routine trying to go to bed around 1:21 the same time get up around the same 1:23 time and shoot for around seven to eight 1:25 hours of sleep 1:27 second hydration and nutrition both 1:30 really important so keep fresh water 1:34 nearby be sipping it throughout the day 1:36 and while we might be tempted to eat a 1:39 lot of comfort foods during these 1:41 difficult times it's a time to also be 1:44 thinking about maybe we have more time 1:46 we can eat more healthily and cook from 1:48 scratch more healthy meals and then 1:50 third is about movement now that the 1:53 weather is getting nicer here in 1:54 Michigan it's a little easier for us to 1:56 get outside but get out take a walk 1:59 maybe it's with a friend and neighbor 2:00 keeping that physical distance of course 2:03 maybe it's taking your dog for a walk or 2:05 borrowing a dog if you don't have one of 2:07 your own so those are three core 2:10 principles of energy management now 2:12 let's share 2:13 do a quick tool that we've developed at 2:15 the Center for positive organizations 2:17 with Tracy grant to better help you 2:20 manage your energy and basically with 2:22 this tool we ask people to read their 2:24 energy across each hour of the day so 2:27 for example if they get up at 7 a.m. and 2:28 I'm eating breakfast I would write down 2:30 7 a.m. eating breakfast and my energy 2:33 level on a scale from 1 to 10 maybe I'm 2:35 just getting going as a 5 at 8:00 a.m. 2:38 I'm gonna rate my energy again on a 2:40 scale from 1 to 10 maybe I'm doing email 2:42 now and my Energy's gone up a little bit 2:44 at the end of the day then we ask people 2:47 to create what we call an energy profile 2:49 where they're plotting what their energy 2:52 looks like over the course of the day so 2:54 along the bottom you've got your the 2:56 time of day on the y-axis we have what 3:00 your energy level is and you can begin 3:02 to see where some of the peaks and 3:04 valleys are the highs and lows one of 3:07 the kind of things I'm doing most often 3:09 when I've got low energy maybe that's 3:11 what I'm doing something very routine or 3:14 boring whether the peaks what are the 3:16 kind of things I'm doing when my energy 3:18 level is very high maybe I'm learning 3:20 but those are times where I'm 3:21 interacting with other people so it's a 3:24 tool that can help you understand the 3:26 highs and lows of your energy management 3:28 and help you increase those times when 3:31 your Energy's high the kind of things 3:33 that are enabling that to happen and 3:35 find ways to mitigate or reduce those 3:38 activities that create depletion or low 3:41 energy so I hope this tool is helpful to 3:44 you is you're trying to best manage your 3:47 energy during these difficult times so 3:49 that you also can thrive or be more 3:52 likely to thrive rather than cope or 3:54 survive in these difficult situations