Energy Management

This morning I had a little sleep in. I didn’t mean to, I was awake at my usual time but I rolled over and the next thing was my daughter standing in the doorway calling out good morning. I’m also ok with that. I have had a productive week, I was tired and today, being Sunday, we are not racing off anywhere and I can follow my usual routine when I do decide to get up.

‘Wow,’ you think aloud. ‘Where is her angst, her guilt of missing a morning writing?’

Well, I’m not missing out on my writing time and I’m not sure everyone writes every day. I have found I need to. One, it keeps my writing flowing and reduces the chance of blocks. The second reason and but probably the most important is that I have to. I can’t make it through the day if I haven’t had time writing.

The secret to my new guilt free sleep in is I have recently discovered energy management. Well the discussion of it and it has validated those times when I am just too tired, emotionally or physically to do what I need to. That doesn’t just mean writing. There are times I don’t have the energy for reading, or cleaning, or cooking.

In one of my follow the links sessions from one of the blogs I read, I discovered Scott H Young (www.Scotthyoung.com/blog). Quite a clever young man and if you are a student he has lots of ideas and techniques to help you get the most out of your study and reading time.

I am very big on time management and have completed a range of courses to find the tools to help me maximise my time. And I try and squash a lot into my time. I’m a mother, working full time, now studying (and I have started a second long term course for work) and I want to write. So of course some days this all seems a bit hard.

The idea of energy management is being aware that we don’t have a consistent level of energy that operates 24 hours a day. It would be great, but it’s not possible. We need to think about when we have energy peaks and use them. But it also means we need to take the time to recharge our energy. That includes getting enough sleep and taking a little time out now and then when we need to. And not feel guilty about it.

So I am focused when I have energy, then when my levels are low, I can rest or do something else. I find ironing doesn’t take much energy for me and when my creative energy drops, I can take some time, catch up on ironing and on the TV I’ve been missing out on when I do have the energy to study of an evening.

Not only has this idea helped me with my time management and getting through what I need to in a day, it has helped me understand how others work. A friend of mine recently talked about someone he works with that writes music. This guy found it really hard to put all the energy he needed to into his job because he wanted to have the creative energy to write when he got home. At the time I had said that was rubbish. But now, maybe he can’t give that much energy to both aspects of his life.

It is an interesting idea energy management and I am determined to get a better understanding so that I can use it for good, and not for evil (such as excuses). More reading to be done I think.  Have a look at Scott’s website, it is full of interesting ideas.

Happy Scribbling.