1: Two questions to consider: Am I spending too much of my time on low-value, energy-draining activities? Am I so busy that I’m unable to prioritize time with the people who truly matter in my life?
For many of us, the answer to the questions above is: Unfortunately. . . yes.
Last week, we did a deep dive into author Sahil Bloom‘s three pillars of “Time Wealth” as described in his book The 5 Types of Wealth.
- Awareness: Developing an understanding of the fleeting time remaining
- Attention: Narrowing the aperture to focus on the things that truly matter
- Control: Allocating time according to our goals and values
We also began our exploration of specific tools and strategies we can utilize to increase our awareness, including Warren Buffett’s “Two List” strategy.
2: This week, we will examine several other high-leverage systems we can use to better master our time. We begin today by establishing a baseline using “The Energy Calendar”.
“Before we can harness our attention, we need to develop an awareness of how we’re spending our time relative to how we should be spending it,” Sahil writes. “There are two challenging problems here: Establishing a baseline of how we’re spending our time, and identifying what should be prioritized, delegated, or deleted in a jam-packed schedule.”
We begin by tracking our time. Then, at the end of each weekday, we color-code each action.
- Green: Energy-creating. These activities energize us.
- Yellow: Neutral—these activities leave us feeling neutral.
- Red: Energy-draining—these activities drain us.
Sahil recommends that we don’t overthink our color-coding. We simply trust our instincts on how we feel after the activity.
Next, at the end of the week, we zoom out, looking at the entire week, and ask ourselves the following questions:
- What are our common energy-creating (green) activities?
- What are our common neutral (yellow) activities?
- What are our common energy-draining (red) activities?
3: This exercise provides a map of where we should spend our time. We now have insight into which activities create energy. Our goal is to prioritize and amplify these tasks.
We also set about slowly delegating, outsourcing, or deleting neutral and energy-draining activities. Our goal with the “Energy Calendar” is to provide a perspective on how we are currently using our time and energy to spark us to take action to improve.
This will take time: “The goal is not to eliminate all neutral and energy-draining activities (most likely an impossible pursuit),” Sahil explains, “but to slowly improve on our energy-creating-to-energy-draining ratio.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: The above tools create more time for actions, opportunities, and behaviors that generate energy in my life. Sahil suggests we consider “a longer-term, zoomed-out expansion on the Energy Calendar,” where we analyze our calendar from the previous year and ask the following questions:
- What were the Energy Creators in my personal and professional life?
- Who made me feel energized?
- What activities outside of work felt life-giving and joyful?
- What mental pursuits sparked my interest to go deeper?
- What rituals created more peace, calm, and mental clarity?
- What physical pursuits did I enjoy?
- What professional or financial pursuits felt effortless (or even fun)?
Action: Journal my answers to the questions above.