Feel more productive – conduct a personal energy audit
You might be wondering what exactly a personal energy audit is.
Perhaps you’re more familiar with a whole home energy audit. Someone shows up with an infrared device and discovers where energy is leaking out of your house. They give you all the information you need to be able to make your home more energy efficient.
A personal energy audit helps you do the same thing – only with your own energy!
Do you ever get to the end of the day, or the end of the week, and think – “I have no idea where the time went I didn’t get anything I wanted to do done!”.
This used to happen to me all the time.
Here’s what I’ve learned. Sometimes outside circumstances caused my agenda for the week to get turned upside down. However, much more often, it was due to one of two reasons (or a combination of both) – either I wasn’t realistic about how much I could get done, and/or I lost time through energy leaks.
If you struggle to get through your to-do list, and can’t understand where all your time is going, conducting a two-part personal energy audit is a great way to start being more productive. You’ll be able to find where your time is going AND create attainable to-do lists so at the end of each week you avoid feeling like you’ve been spinning your wheels without getting anywhere.
What goes into a personal energy audit?
Part one of the personal energy audit involves getting really honest with yourself about how long each task on your to-do list will actually take you to complete. Not how long it will ideally take in a perfect world where everything goes smoothly, but how long it will realistically take you (with your current skill set) to complete.
I like to use the metaphor of cooking a meal from a recipe. The recipe says it takes 15 minutes to get it on the table. However the ingredient list includes things like, 2 bell peppers diced, 1 onion diced, 4 garlic cloves minced. And the veggies need to cook for 12 minutes.
I can promise there’s no way I can clean and chop all of that in three minutes. Maybe if I had professional chef knife skills it would be possible, or if I purchased all of my produce pre-chopped. But in order for ME to have dinner on the table at 6 – I know I need to get started at 5:30, not 5:45.
Part two of the personal energy audit requires you to take a close look at how you currently spend your time. You’ll examine how you spend time during each day and find where time is leaking out. Then you can create a plan to cut down on the leaking energy.
Are you expecting too much of yourself?
This used to happen to me a lot. I would make a list of a dozen things I wanted to get done in a day, but I only made it through five or six of those items. When I sat down and looked at that list each evening, I used to be so frustrated, feeling like I failed somehow.
Then I started thinking about how long each task actually takes.
If you have a daily or weekly to-do list, I’m issuing you a challenge. Sit down with your list, next to each item, write down how long you think it will realistically take you to complete each task. Add that all up. If you’re already over 24 hours, then it’s clear you’re expecting WAY too much of yourself each day. If your total time is under 24 hours, you’re off to a good start – on to the next step.
And if you don’t already keep a daily or weekly to-do list, or you want to have all of your Personal Energy Audit information in one place, fill out the form below to grab your copy of the Personal Energy Audit Worksheet!
There are only 24 hours in a day.
Take 24 hours, subtract eight hours for sleep. That leaves you with 16 hours. Now take out three hours to cover getting showered, eating three meals and using the bathroom throughout the day.
Now you’re down to 13 hours. Was work on your to-do list? If not, subtract the number of hours you work each day. How about your commute time? Make sure to take that off too. How many hours are left? Is that less than your to-do list total?
Even if there’s enough time left to complete your to-do list after all of those subtractions, remember we only took out the pure essentials. There was no time included for self-care, quality time with family and friends, hobbies, or anything else that feeds and nourishes you.
If you find that your to-do list is truly unrealistic (spoiler alert, I can almost guarantee if you’re reading this post it is), the next step is to make it more reasonable. Take a long honest look at your list. Determine what’s actually essential, and what would be nice to get done if you have time. Is there anything you can delegate to someone else (think family member, friend, or a paid service provider)?
How much time do you really have for your to-do list?
Looking at the calculations you made in the previous step, you know how much time you realistically have to complete your to-do list. Make sure your time calculation factors in time to nourish yourself in addition to covering the essentials. Better yet, add those things to your to-do list – going to yoga class, date night with your partner, taking a walk with a friend, calling your mother for a catch-up.
Self-care and connecting with your friends and family is just as important as making sure the laundry is done and the bills are paid. By placing these items onto your to-do list or schedule, you make them a priority, not an option.
Each day (or week) review your list, assign realistic times to each task. Make sure they fit into the time you actually have available daily or weekly. Cross off or delegate nonessential items which don’t fit into the time you have available.
Where are you leaking time?
Do you ever find yourself saying – “I have no idea how it got so late!”. What were you doing right before you made this realization? When we’re deeply absorbed in something we tend to lose track of time. That can be a good thing, but it can also be a frustrating thing.
Keep a running list of the activities which seem to absorb you. Now get really honest, review each activity and determine if it’s something you find nourishing.
When you realize how much time has passed, do you feel rested, recharged, happy, or relaxed? Or do you feel tired, drained, overwhelmed, or frustrated? If it’s nourishing you, great, just make sure you factor the time for those activities into your schedule above. If the activity isn’t nourishing, then it’s time to start looking at ways to remove it from your life.
The smart phone black hole
I used to sit down with my phone to just quickly check my email. Two hours later, I would realize I was still sitting and staring at my phone. No wonder I never had time to finish the book I was reading or get the house tidied up. Spending hours on my phone wasn’t a nourishing activity, I accomplished nothing and was always frustrated to have wasted all that time.
I’m not the only one who loses track of time on their phone. Both iPhone and Android have a tool which helps you conduct an audit of time spent on your phone. On Android phones it’s Digital Wellbeing, on iPhones this function is called Screentime. If you find yourself being sucked into a smart phone black hole, these apps are powerful allies in getting your time back.
Using these apps, you can not only see how much time you spend in each application on a daily or weekly basis, you can also set time limits. I have an Android, and can speak to how Digital Wellbeing works, although my understanding is Screentime has similar functionality.
How to turn Digital Wellbeing into your ally
I realized I was spending several hours each day in just two or three different programs (games and Pinterest). The games brought nothing to my life, I used them to procrastinate.
If I didn’t want to rake leaves or make a difficult phone call, I would just sit down and play a game on my phone for “a little bit”. But in the end those chores truly needed to be done and I would end up losing out on self-care and recreation time instead.
Once I realized what I was not able to do because of all the time I was spending on my phone, I was determined to take that time back.
First, I uninstalled all games from my phone. They brought me no lasting joy, and even in the moment tended to ramp up my stress and anxiety. (I’m not going to recommend you go cold turkey like I did – instead, check out this post and learn how to use little steps to create lasting success.)
The next step was to use the Digital Wellbeing settings to put a time limit on the various apps I found I was spending more time using than I wanted to.
Now when I’m in Pinterest for more than an hour or my newsfeed for more than 15 minutes, those applications shut down and I can’t reopen them until the next day. (You can override this lockout by adjusting your time-out window if for example, you’re in the middle of cooking dinner and need Pinterest to finish the recipe.)
Using the worksheets
Grab your copy of the Personal Energy Audit Worksheets using the form above. Start by filling in your core values and your myths.
Next using the Time Leaks section, write down all the places where time is disappearing without you being aware of it. Most likely this will include the information you gather from the Digital Wellbeing or Screentime app as well as your observations made above. Be brutally honest and consider adding not only the activity but also how much time is being eaten up by each of these leaks.
Next, list all of your daily tasks on the second page with the corresponding realistic time for you to complete them. These are activities you engage in everyday (or at least every weekday) – things like sleeping, showering, working, etc.
You may want to create different versions of page two of the Personal Energy Audit for weekend vs. weekdays.
Then add your daily to-do list – these are activities that are one off – things like meeting a friend for dinner or attending a conference or meeting which isn’t part of your regular work flow.
Bring the total hours from the to-do list and the daily tasks list to the add it all up box and figure out how much time you’ve allocated for the day.
Use your unique values and myths to help as you continue to edit and refine both lists using the guidelines above until you get under 24 hours.
If you’re having trouble with this, read my post on boundaries here which helps you get started saying no to anything that no longer serves you.
What to do with all that information
The next piece might feel like the hardest. It involves limiting the time you spend on your time leaks which are not nourishing.
If you’re struggling here, it can help to remember that by removing these activities from your daily life, you’re reclaiming time. And that reclaimed time can go to a few to-do’s, but it should also go to activities which bring you joy.
If you’re engaging in procrastination activities, it’s usually because you’re avoiding something, if you only fill the reclaimed time with the activities you’re avoiding, there won’t be much incentive to continue to reclaim that time.
What about days when you’re low energy or feeling blue?
We all have these days. When it takes everything we have to get out of bed, get a shower and even look at our to-do lists. I get it. It happens to me. On these days, it’s even more critical that you nourish yourself. Engaging in self-care nourishes and replenishes you, while self-work activities can help you get a better understanding of those things which are draining you.
When I have these days I might do a restorative yoga practice or listen to a yoga nidra. I’ll curl up with a good book that makes me laugh or makes me think. When I am feeling blue, I might journal or meditate to allow my body and mind to process the emotions.
It’s important to make sure I’m putting something nourishing into my body so I might do a little cooking or pull together a delicious plate of leftovers. These are days when I will gather up my current knitting project and put on a guilty pleasure tv show, a movie, or a podcast and knit away for a few hours. (Watching television is usually a time leak for me, but when I’m knitting while watching I feel productive looking at the inches of fabric I’ve created out of just a thin string of yarn.)
Need more ideas? Read more in my post on self-work and self-care here. Also, check out my Pinterest page here which has links to lots of resources on self-work and self-care activities.
Wishing you hours of joyful activities in your newly reclaimed time!
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