Why Energy Management Is Important: A Lesson From Theodore Roosevelt

What is a key factor for personal productivity? For many people, the answer is time management. Time management has even become synonymous with personal productivity. The assumption is that the better you manage your time, the more productive you will be. But there is a missing element here. With good time management, you can allocate the time you need to do your tasks. But what about the way you use that time? Well, that’s a different matter! Let’s say two people spend one hour on the same task. One of them can make a lot of progress while the other one barely makes any progress. What makes the difference? One possible answer is the level of interruption. The person who gets interrupted a lot will have less time to focus and therefore makes less progress. But let’s say both of them can work without interruptions. What else can make the difference? Here comes the factor that I believe is just as important as time management, if not more so: energy management. Given the same environment and amount of time, your energy level determines your productivity. The higher your energy level, the more you can accomplish and vice versa. In The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, there is a good example of this from the days when Roosevelt was a student at Harvard: The amount of time he spent at his desk was comparatively small – rarely more than a quarter of the day – but his concentration was so intense, and his reading so rapid, that he could afford more tim...
Source: Life Optimizer - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Productivity Source Type: blogs