Using energy zones to reach peak performance
Many people, when they share their personal productivity system, describe the dynamic of a shotgun. Each week, they point and aim for as many targets as possible all at once.
Pick up the kids from school.
Prepare for that meeting.
Have that conversation.
Drop the clothes off at the cleaners.
Bring the car in for an oil change.
Call that client.
Fix that problem.
Catch up on emails.
Get this done.
Get that done.
Like a hamster on a wheel, they run really fast but never really get anywhere. They are always hustling, zipping from one task to the next, doing "the daily grind," and tired. But if you were to ask them, "What's the most important objective you accomplished this week?" It's not always easy for them to answer. It's not that they're not working hard.
They're simply working all over the map without any sense of priority or order in their work.
If they were to illustrate their approach to productivity, their shotgun approach may look something like this:
This approach, though it may feel productive, really isn’t. It is busy, of course, but it’s not that productive.
People who work and lead in this way have to-do lists and weekly action lists. They know what they need to do but live under the pressure of a million tasks, all with equal levels of priority. To take their productivity to the next level, however, they must change their “busy” approach to one that separates their most important tasks from all others.
If you find yourself drowning in a “sea of opportunity,” you must begin to clarify your focus. This is why we often teach our clients to separate their most important tasks from their weekly action list. These tasks represent their most important responsibilities with the greatest impact on their week.
Think in terms of "big stones" rather than small pebbles.
Don't wait until the end of the week to work on your high-priority targets. Get these tasks done first before anything else. Alec Mackenzie, the author of the classic book on time management, The Time Trap, says,
"The key to successful time management is doing the most important task first and giving it your full concentration, excluding everything else. This is planning at its core: Set priorities for the day or week, and then do the first one first. And that means first. Not after checking your email, scrolling through your newsfeed, or clearing away small tasks. It's such a simple idea, and yet so very hard to do."*
Approaching each week consistently in this way will force you to develop the practice of getting the most important things done first.
Rather than shooting your tasks with a shotgun, it's like viewing your week through the scope of a high-powered rifle. What would it feel like, and how would your life change, if instead of aiming for a million targets all at once, your weekly work flow looked like this?
The alternative is to allow your time to be controlled by low-level tasks, distractions, or the priorities of others. Famed management expert Peter Drucker describes this as "drifting into trivia."
"Instead of majoring in your main priorities, you begin majoring in minors. Your best energy is frittered away on minor tasks, and by the time you get to your top jobs, you are too tired to perform well."
If you are familiar with the SMG Productivity Planner, you will notice that it is designed to allow space for you to separate and highlight the three most important tasks from your weekly action list. Each weekly view section is designed in this way to help you cultivate a greater level of strategic focus each week.
As you notice, the icon for these high-priority tasks is a target. These icons help you conceptualize the art of aiming for the center of the target each work week.
Not only should you get the more important tasks done earlier in the week, but you should strive to complete them earlier in the day.
You must view your mental energy, focus, and ability to get quality work done as a tank. In the morning, at the start of the day, your tank is full.
Throughout the day, the many things that cry for your attention pull from the reserve in your tank. This is why attempting to stay up late to catch up on a big project or cramming last minute to meet a deadline the day before it is due is so unproductive. When you work this way, you are attempting to accomplish important tasks when your energy level and ability to focus are at their lowest. Furthermore, we make our worst decisions and lowest-character choices when tired, worn out, and exhausted.
Imagine that we placed your energy levels on the following chart representing the course of a typical workday.
If you begin the day at a “ten,” notice how your mental energy steadily drops from hour to hour.
At the end of the day or at the peak of our weekend, we often experience weaker cognition, slower learning, and lower mental processing power. This is why it is normally wise to use the evening and weekend hours to relax, recover mentally, refuel emotionally, and connect relationally with the significant people in our lives. If we are constantly bringing work home and allowing it to monopolize our weekend, it will inhibit true productivity and cause our relationships to suffer.
We don’t need to work more hours later in the day. We need to leverage our early hours, when our energy levels are the highest, to do our best work.
This conversation reveals the importance of being aware of your “energy zones.” These zones are the hours each day when you have the greatest level of energy and focus. To reach peak productivity, you must be aware of your energy zones and do your most important work during these periods.
As media specialist Thomas Oppong writes,
“Working at your peak periods can make you super productive. Even if you work a few hours during that period, you will make real progress every day. And you won’t struggle to keep pushing. To get real work done, you don’t need more hours; you need a few efficient hours without distractions. You need more opportunities to leverage your mental state. And a better productivity system to feed your focus.”*
When you get your most important work done earlier in the week and earlier in the day, you will experience incredible freedom and joy with the rest of your time.
For Personal Reflection
In this article's two examples of shooting targets, which best describes my normal approach to personal productivity?
What are the time periods each work day when my focus and energy levels are the greatest?
How can I shift my most important work to my highest energy zone?
Footnotes
*Alec Mackenzie, The Time Trap (New York: AMACON, 1990), 75.
*Oppong, Thomas. 2021. “The Obvious Benefits of Getting Things Done Before 12pm.” www.medium.com (blog). April 27, 2021. https://medium.com/mind-cafe/the-obvious-benefit-of-getting-things-done-before-12pm-d29ca33d563d
